Silk Road forums
Discussion => Philosophy, Economics and Justice => Topic started by: bbd82584 on September 19, 2013, 01:05 am
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I recently picked up The Wire and Philosophy at the bookstore and have been reading through it here and there. As a one-time Baltimorean and as a person who has played "The Game" on the corners of West Bawlmer, The Wire has been one of my all-time favorite works of fiction since it aired in the early/mid 00s. Anyone who has heard creator David Simon give an interview knows that the man put much care into the telling of The Wire, or has Simon has called it (and pardon my paraphrasing) "A story of an American city during the death throws of the American Empire".
What The Wire set out to do, and has, in the opinion of many fans and critics, accomplished in spades was to "rip off" the classic Greek tragedies and frame it for and aim it at an audience with far more intelligence and patience than your average television audience. Where the Gods in those old Greek tragedies were the ones who would play with the lives of human beings for reasons far beyond and removed from the humans themselves, in The Wire's Baltimore, it is the American Institution which steam rolls over both those who play "the game" and those who don't. Simon wanted to show that in post-industrial America, God is dead, institutions took his/her/its place, and from now on, human lives are worth less and less every day.
This is a startling realization, but as The Wire unfolds, you really can't help but agree. Characters like Russel "Stringer" Bell, Jimmy McNulty and Chief "Bunny" Colvin are examples of characters who dare to buck the system, to choose not to "play the game" by the rules and they pay dearly for it. "Chain of Command" and doing things according to "the rules" are huge themes in The Wire. Several times throughout a season you will see examples of someone getting hurt or fucked over simply because it's the way things "work". Law Enforcement, Government, the public school system, illegal drug market and the press are all examples of institutions which have grown so large and are so blindly worshiped in some cases seems to be a huge part of what makes the world so fucked up. Of those institutions, the illegal drug market is obviously the black sheep and I think The Wire goes a long way to show that everything that's wrong with it really is the result of placing systems above human life.
In the current economic climate, an entire population has been left behind. So as a governing force, what do you do with them? You involve them in this bullshit "game" where you pretend that locking enough people up will someday, in some way make the world a better place.
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Word. And thank you for bringing the subject up.
It's funny you mention it, I just began watching it just a few days back... for a third time . Discovered it a few years back but still every time I watch it I get some new things out of it and never annoys me . So every once in a while I need a fix of the most intelligent and deep show I've had the chance to see.
The thing you say about the Greek drama is very true.
Makes me think about the Omar scene when it talks about that deep shit.
Any things you would like to share to someone who has never been in Baltimore, (EU so pretty far from there) the show shows the way the city really is? Have things changed?
In my country the specifics are different (laws, type of drug sold, political system etc..) even though it paints pretty well the control system, the drug war myth, the different institutions and how the politics/or other high ranked in the legal system crooks in the end t allow the street crooks and the misery. Who are the victims and how fucked is the situation we in, globally, when I see it's as fucked here how fucked it is in the US and in probably a lot more of countries nowadays. fucking Kali Yuga lol
Did you read The Corner? seems to be the thing to read if you like The Wire.
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Word. And thank you for bringing the subject up.
It's funny you mention it, I just began watching it just a few days back... for a third time . Discovered it a few years back but still every time I watch it I get some new things out of it and never annoys me . So every once in a while I need a fix of the most intelligent and deep show I've had the chance to see.
The thing you say about the Greek drama is very true.
Makes me think about the Omar scene when it talks about that deep shit.
Any things you would like to share to someone who has never been in Baltimore, (EU so pretty far from there) the show shows the way the city really is? Have things changed?
In my country the specifics are different (laws, type of drug sold, political system etc..) even though it paints pretty well the control system, the drug war myth, the different institutions and how the politics/or other high ranked in the legal system crooks in the end t allow the street crooks and the misery. Who are the victims and how fucked is the situation we in, globally, when I see it's as fucked here how fucked it is in the US and in probably a lot more of countries nowadays. fucking Kali Yuga lol
Did you read The Corner? seems to be the thing to read if you like The Wire.
Lol. Bizarre you mention "The Corner", I just bought it yesterday from the bookstore! Weird. I've seen the HBO mini-series several times and have it on DVD. It great. If you know some of the history, "Johnny", Bubbles from The Wire's younger white "apprentice" was based on a real guy named "Johnny Boy" who was a white kid whom Gary from "The Corner" took under his wing.
Anyway, about your questions about Baltimore:
I was actually in a pretty crummy place emotionally/mentally/physically before I had moved there; completely strung out on heroin. (I've been on maintenance for the past couple of years and use IV opiates much much less frequently these days) So when I moved to a town south of Baltimore to stay with one of my brothers, I had to learn quickly how things ran in the city as far as buying dope. On "The Wire" and "The Corner", they get it pretty damn close to how it actually is in Baltimore. East and West are pretty distinct but each have "good" and "bad" neighborhoods. You can often be in a "white", gentrified neighborhood and turn the corner and find yourself in Baghdad.
As far as how the actual vending on the street is, they also got it pretty close to how I was familiar with a corner "shop" running irl. You'd pull up in your car after being flagged down or shouted to by a tout, hopper, or "hitter" (a term The Wire never used, but IS used in Baltimore; a title given to the person(s) on the crew responsible for bringing your dope from the ground-stash to your car and takes your cash in exchange). You'll be cruising around with your windows down and they'll shout the name of the shop/product:
"Sin City!" "Got that 'John Blaze', yo!" "Black tops and 'First 48' hittin' in tha hole, yo!" "2001'! Last call, last call!!" "Got Girl and Boy, yo! What you need??" and the ubiquitous "Yo, pull over yo!! Park right! Park RIGHT! How many, yo?....alright 3? I'll be right back. Get your phone out and take my number from yo. My name's P. We're "Good n Plenty" and open from 630am-5pm"
A side note: Being white in West Baltimore generally meant that you are only welcome in the neighborhoods where you cop dope during the day. The corner operations close up when the sun goes down and the freaks come out. I never drove into BMore after dark unless I was meeting someone who I had arranged to meet beforehand on the phone. It would be considerably more dangerous to drive around West Baltimore after dark trying to buy dope than during the day.
Dope is sold in a product called "scramble" in Bmore. They start with what is called "raw" heroin, but is really just the purER heroin that they start with. That is mixed with some kind of active cutting agent that intensifies the rush-it's thought to be quinine. Sometimes benzos, fentanyl, oxycodone and/or morphine are added. This product comes in clear capsules you buy at healthshops to make your on pills. $10 a piece, they always need heat to prep for IV, and you can fit about 2-3 in a 1cc syringe (which are usually not sold at drug stores in Maryland state but are available at exchange programs and on the street). A fellow junkie running-partner I sometimes ran in the city with told me that the dope is sold in the pills so that if "the boys" (LE) ever "jump out" on you after you've copped, the pills are easily and quickly swallowed and destroyed. My friend told me of a time that he was jumped out on on the west side and the police broke his window and punched him in the stomach in an attempt to induce vomiting gather evidence. "Bashing heads, the Western district way".
I never had the misfortune of having a problem with Baltimore's (in)famous "knockers", "narcos" and "rollers"-all local/regional terms for LE. There are some brutal, evil motherfuckers on that force, though. It's always best to try and keep your distance.
So, yeah, to answer your questions, no-Bmore hasn't really changed. As David Simon makes clear in The Wire, there's no answers in the institutions that exist today. Worth of profit "pulls rank" on value of life every time from now on. You can show on national TV that Baltimore is a city where 1 in 10 Baltimoreans are regular heroin users and there's nothing anyone is going to do about it. Why? Because being physically dependent on a drug that the "game" dictates is "illegal" is exactly what the game requires of these people that are for all purposes are obsolete in the legitimate market/economy.