PT Barnum Was Right, #1,113
Posted by TFG on June 24th, 2008
I read a few months ago, almost literally ad nauseum, how all these smart young mofos loved The Wire because of how real it seemed to reflect the natural world to them.
Precisely 0.001% have learned one single solitary lesson from it. The main lesson being that the politician you think you’re getting, you ain’t getting nothing like him.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Many years ago, I read that the problem with the police is that they watched TV shows about police and began to think that was how they were supposed to act. Rumor has it that wise guys like The Godfather a lot and the genre in general, so will the dope dealers model themselves after Marlo, Avan, and Prop Joe? Like you said though, I’m not sure if they’ll appreciate that two if them died young and the other is in prison for a long time. Marlo’s on top, but he’s only been a player for a few years. Give him time to find the graveyard or the prison.
The natural world. Snort. It’s a frickin’ TV show. Just shows how much they know about the real world.
As far as your observation about politicians, I’ll just note that every politician you saw on The Wire was a Democrat. I enjoyed The Wire a lot for a lot of reasons, but the only lesson I took awau from it is that David Simon thinks almost every person is corrupt and those that aren’t will be corrupted by the institutions they become a part of.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Clearly, I wrote that when I was drunk. And since I’m only 3/4 drunk now, I’ll try to explain a little more, not that it matters any.
I just remember, because I read them a little while ago and they haven’t slipped into that short-term memory-loss hole I keep widening through drink, that The Wire was such a great stinking once-in-a-lifetime gotta-watch-it show because it showed REAL life how REAL life REALLY is. Fine, I’ll take that, even if it’s dunderheadedly stupid. I don’t care. Those schmucks probably got no experience outside their white-bread world.
Yet, I can’t help but think that if they really watched and really learned, that they’d come to the conclusion that you, the schmuck, are pretty much on your own, and not to expect dick from the dicks, and most especially the politicans, but also to include the police and the clergy.
Am I crazy here? Did anybody on that show ever, ever help anybody but themselves? I’m busting brain cells trying to figure out who, and the closest I could come up with is that tiny little deacon, who was working another con on the other side anyway.
Regardless, I can’t think of a more Hobbsian world (or is that Humesian?). Maybe all the hosannas were intended to inform us that we need to be better people, but I don’t really get that as an intended lesson for the show given what I’ve read of that creator guy whose name I can’t remember now, David something.
See how fleeting it is?
AN-T-WAY — all that bullshit is to say that it seems those same smart young mofos are head-over-heels in love with the absolute worst example of ass-sucking The Wire politician you could imagine in Obama.
And as I said, it don’t matter. It really is all emotional. I’m emotionally tied to conservation and tradition because it’s worked so damn well for me, and there are more phuckheads emotionally tied to overturning every trash can they can find because they don’t know any better.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
The only “heroes” that I can think of offhand in The Wire were the junkies/ex-junkies Bubbles and Waylon. Take that for what its worth.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Bubbles was very close to being a Good Man. He, at least, tried, and generally pretty hard. That young sergeant turned into a pretty good man, too, but it took a while and he was still a mean guy when it was necessary.
Waylon was, in my books, an angel from heaven. Seriously. I know it’s nowhere near that guy’s narrative, but I swear, if he wasn’t the epitome of the best of our souls, then who? I’ll tell you this — Waylon always had an answer that was the right one, and that was “Who but you is gonna do this?”
All this talk of ours is for naught, though, if you don’t believe there are enormously serious mechanisms behind every single story told. It’s why I hated all The Wire commentary. Few gave it’s arcing due.
Me, though, I can find the Devil wrestling with Jesus in a 2:40 ditty-bop on a dime-store jukebox. I consider it practically a curse, or the result of not enough down-time.
June 26th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Sometime we’re gonna have to discuss this in more detail over beer and brisket. I’ll bring the beer.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Bunny Colvin
Frank Sobotka
Bunk
All flawed, but all of them did what they could to either reform/improve their particular area of influence (Bunny, Sobotka) or act with principle (Bunk, at least at the end). I also agree with the assessment of Waylon and Bunny.
FWIW, I didn’t like The Wire because it showed me the “real world,” maaaan. I enjoyed it because unlike almost every other show on television it showed how the best of intentions are often smothered by bureaucracy and apathy, and that the real victories are won on the individual level. I didn’t like all the characters, not by a long shot, but they were all written in such a way to keep me interested.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:11 am
You know what would be awesome, would be a mini-WireCon with Pete and Charles and maybe a couple more. I’ll smoke a brisket. I love talking about this. November, my deck, San Antonio.
June 27th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I’m in. Merlot or pinot noir?
Just kidding.
June 27th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Both — Chuck is worldy enough to appreciate it, and I’m alkie enough to drink it.