David Simon: Brutal Reality Check

I thought that the David Simon talk was great. He explained that his show, The Wire, is a conceit meaning that human beings are losing their value of worth as every moment goes on. He continues on to describe himself as a pessimist. Despite the negative start he gives the talk, it is more about what lesson you have learned from him.

To those who think David Simon is rude and offensive, I would say, look a little bit closer, read between the lines. His harshness and criticism of American society is to say that everyone needs to care about each other a little bit more. We all are the cause of why our society is the way it is. We feed into the superficiality and the materialism. We need to take a step back and really see what is going on “out there.”

To say that poor people choose to be poor, or drug dealers choose to be drug dealers is false. How easy it is to pass the blame on to the helpless so that we feel better about our lack of help. Once you have reached the bottom, so to speak, it is much harder to pull yourself out of it. Those poor kids who get caught up in gangs, drugs, and violence did not wake up one morning and say, “You know what, today I will start dealing drugs because it is cool.” No. Life on the streets becomes a game of survival. How will I make it through this day alive? It comes down to savageness. Do whatever you need to in order to get by.

I think this is what David Simon was trying to get at. Sometimes the only way to reach people is by being so blunt. He stood up there and basically told us that we all suck. That is what we needed to hear, in order to change. Sometimes change requires that level of negativism for people to truly see how bad life can be out there.