"Audacity of despair," David Simon repeated, leaning casually on the lectern at the front of the Hamilton College Chapel. "It's a silly title," he told the audience, and that's precisely why he chose it. The term was taken from a review of his hit HBO show The Wire, which documents the hardships of assorted characters in inner-city Baltimore. This particular critic said that Simon's brainchild was not selling anything but a "negative assessment" – and Simon agreed, to a certain point. That was the function of the show, he explained: to unflinchingly reveal the dirt and decay of an "America that was left behind."
Simon, a former journalist, mentioned one of the crippling aspects of journalism was in its "measuredness," its requirement for impartial and exacting objectivity. As a result, Simon had quickly grown tired of its cold and methodical take on the world, and so he strayed from that career path and created his television show. He and his writers were "willing to despair."
Much like some of the characters on The Wire, America itself has an addiction problem: we're "addicted to pure capitalism as a social framework." Except this time there's no support group to help us through our illness. Alcoholics Anonymous has a 12-step program to recovery, Simon mentioned, and the very first step is to recognize that one has a problem and that his/her life is out of control. America hasn't yet made it to this first step. We're reaching the end of empire, a time when supposedly sturdy networks have begun to unravel and pyramid schemes have become an increasingly viable mode of business and social interaction. There's an America that "no longer works," Simon continued, and he desired to expose this facet of society.
"We made a mistake in 1980." Simon related a moment in Reagan's presidency that he found particularly chilling: Reagan once cynically commented, "We fought a war on poverty, and poverty won." "And what's more," Simon continued, "people applauded this sentiment; they did it not because they were so taken aback, but because they realized it to be true. Currently, half of the adult males in Baltimore – Simon's hometown – are unemployed. Only 15-18 percent of high-school students in inner-city schools actually graduate. This country as a whole has the highest incarceration rate ever in the world, five times greater than it was just 30 years ago, and only 8 percent of these imprisonments are for violent crimes. "The drug war has destroyed policing," Simon mentioned emphatically. When police have to chase after drug-related arrests they ignore other – potentially more important – cases. If one policeman, Simon explained, has 30 arrests in one month, all drug-related, then he's going to look more successful than the other policeman who solved one homicide case. Arrests for major felonies have decreased 50 percent; drug arrests have increased 300%. The clearance rate for homicide has gone from 70 percent to 38 percent, and similarly the clearance rate for armed robberies has gone from 40 percent to 17 percent."
The drug trade solved an existential crisis, Simon continued, and those without purpose suddenly find themselves with jobs. But it's not without its price. The drug trafficking (and all its consequences) in impoverished areas of major cities has been largely ignored by the American public; Simon hoped to bring this issue to light through The Wire. The show isn't always fair, but it always finds its roots in realism. It's a show where "the problems go unaddressed, and everyone gets promoted." It's a show about people being devalued, and whether someone is a longshoremen, policeman, or drug dealer, capitalism is exalted and people are worth less. "I'm not going to say it's not fiction," Simon explained at the end of the lecture, "but I'm not going to say it's not fact. I can only hope that the show causes a little bit of anger, a little bit of despair."
-- by Alex Pure '12
Simon, a former journalist, mentioned one of the crippling aspects of journalism was in its "measuredness," its requirement for impartial and exacting objectivity. As a result, Simon had quickly grown tired of its cold and methodical take on the world, and so he strayed from that career path and created his television show. He and his writers were "willing to despair."
Much like some of the characters on The Wire, America itself has an addiction problem: we're "addicted to pure capitalism as a social framework." Except this time there's no support group to help us through our illness. Alcoholics Anonymous has a 12-step program to recovery, Simon mentioned, and the very first step is to recognize that one has a problem and that his/her life is out of control. America hasn't yet made it to this first step. We're reaching the end of empire, a time when supposedly sturdy networks have begun to unravel and pyramid schemes have become an increasingly viable mode of business and social interaction. There's an America that "no longer works," Simon continued, and he desired to expose this facet of society.
"We made a mistake in 1980." Simon related a moment in Reagan's presidency that he found particularly chilling: Reagan once cynically commented, "We fought a war on poverty, and poverty won." "And what's more," Simon continued, "people applauded this sentiment; they did it not because they were so taken aback, but because they realized it to be true. Currently, half of the adult males in Baltimore – Simon's hometown – are unemployed. Only 15-18 percent of high-school students in inner-city schools actually graduate. This country as a whole has the highest incarceration rate ever in the world, five times greater than it was just 30 years ago, and only 8 percent of these imprisonments are for violent crimes. "The drug war has destroyed policing," Simon mentioned emphatically. When police have to chase after drug-related arrests they ignore other – potentially more important – cases. If one policeman, Simon explained, has 30 arrests in one month, all drug-related, then he's going to look more successful than the other policeman who solved one homicide case. Arrests for major felonies have decreased 50 percent; drug arrests have increased 300%. The clearance rate for homicide has gone from 70 percent to 38 percent, and similarly the clearance rate for armed robberies has gone from 40 percent to 17 percent."
The drug trade solved an existential crisis, Simon continued, and those without purpose suddenly find themselves with jobs. But it's not without its price. The drug trafficking (and all its consequences) in impoverished areas of major cities has been largely ignored by the American public; Simon hoped to bring this issue to light through The Wire. The show isn't always fair, but it always finds its roots in realism. It's a show where "the problems go unaddressed, and everyone gets promoted." It's a show about people being devalued, and whether someone is a longshoremen, policeman, or drug dealer, capitalism is exalted and people are worth less. "I'm not going to say it's not fiction," Simon explained at the end of the lecture, "but I'm not going to say it's not fact. I can only hope that the show causes a little bit of anger, a little bit of despair."
-- by Alex Pure '12
