David Simon Lecture

Last Tuesday I attended the lecture given by David Simon that was a part of the humanities symposium: Urban Spaces, Urban Voices. He spoke about his television show, The Wire. Simon describes The Wire as a show about “the end of the American empire.” He chronicles his time spent following around the Baltimore homicide unit, and transforms real life stories into a fictional television series. He stressed the fact that his show was predominately fictional, but this detracts from the value of what we take from watching the show. Simon claims it is a show about the idea that as humans we become worth less and less with every moment that passes. He feels that modern society has chosen capitalism over human value. Many of the points he continued to make throughout his talk were in keeping with this cynical ideal.
He opened his talk by offering the idea that one day we will end up in gated communities where people say, “Isn’t it a shame we can’t drive downtown anymore?” Simon feels that America is headed towards a downward spiral where people are neglecting the so-called “other America,” where crime and poverty prevails. He is skeptical of what is to come and thinks there is no help for the future. According to Simon, people don’t care what it takes; they just want power and money. This is a very depressing attitude to hold onto in today’s day and age. Simon described this as the “triumph of greed.” He feels that everyone always looks up and thinks they might become the next millionaire. Everyone turns their head and avoids the obvious fact that many areas of the country are falling apart. Even the media entertains us with “another America” where the people are prettier, wealthier, and more interesting. It doesn’t focus on the decrepit, underprivileged population. That is why Simon’s television series is so important; it focuses on the “other America,” and introduces the impoverished, crime stricken city to the ignorant population. The show discusses real life situations, where the drug trade is the only industry hiring, and people accept this since they know they matter less. Simon addresses the idea that the individuals who succumb to the drug trade in this “other America” acknowledge the fact that they are worth less in society, and willingly give themselves up to this dangerous business. So Simon asked the audience, “Who wants to be a part of this world?”
This question was unsettling; because of course none of the sheltered students in the audience could ever imagine these horrible situations being a part of their life. Sometimes we have to ask, “Is this “other America” real? Do these things really happen to people?” Though as horrifying as the answer might be, we have to accept it; people really live under these conditions. Their lives are the nightmares we can’t even dream about. Every year Simon argues that the world becomes a “more brutish, cynical, divided place,” where the two Americas become further apart. But just because we don’t live in the “other America” doesn’t mean it’s not real. We have a duty as human beings to try and preserve our own value in the world.
Simon’s self-pity for the America we live in is paralleled in the self-pity expressed by Tony Hoagland in his poem, America. Hoagland poetically writes, we are “buried alive, captured and suffocated in the folds of the thick satin quilt of America.” He claims that we live such sheltered lives that we are blind to the horrors that happen outside of our immediate vision. He touches upon the idea that Simon brought up, saying that people are more focused on money than helping their fellow Americans. Hoagland writes, “thank god- those Ben Franklins were clogging up my heart.” It is almost as though America has become so “clogged” with the vision of money that we cannot see past it into the issues that real matter. In keeping with this idea, Hoagland also writes, “Each day you watch rivers of bright merchandise run past you and you are floating in your pleasure upon this river even while others are drowning underneath you.” Similar to Simon’s ideas, this deals with the reality that as long as we are happy and have money we have no incentive to improve the living conditions of others. During the lecture, Simon even commented, “The only way to save us from global warming is if someone finds the profit in it.” Even though a cure for the ozone layer would benefit all, people would only be willing to solve the issue if there was money involved. This is the sad truth of the society we live in. Hoagland’s poem is able to capture the harshness of today’s society as well as Simon’s lecture.
I think part of the reason why Simon had such a cynical attitude towards the future was to try and annoy the audience. By aggravating his viewers, he probably hoped that they might be compelled to start helping the “other America” he spoke about. I know that Simon’s talk touched me; I don’t want the world to become increasingly worse and worse. He has helped me realize that we must do what we can now to increase our value as human beings before it is too late. But the only problem he proposed is that there is no incentive for the people in power to risk their authority. His only suggestion for improvement is that we must “fight on every level for human dignity,” and never give up that fight.