David Simon, the man behind The Wire, had an interesting piece in the Guardian earlier this week, where he helps the British look at the way the idea of “the American experience” is essentially a non-sensical term, as there are now (at least) two distinct Americas. As usual, Baltimore is his lens, and he has the ability to sharpen the focus to painful detail.
What I found almost more interesting that the piece itself was my reaction to it: to wit, I liked the piece more when he was speaking in general terms, and almost lost interest when his meditations touched on The Wire. That’s interesting to me because I loved that show, and normally am quite interested in hearing creators talk about their work and the ideas and drives behind it. In this case though, I want more of David Simon journalist and commentator, and less of David Simon doing a commentary track.
Some of the bits I liked best from the piece:
The why is it. The why is what makes journalism an adult game. The why is what makes policy coherent and useful. The why is what transforms bureaucrats and foot soldiers and political leaders into viable instruments of rational and affirmative change. The why is everything and without it, the very suggestion of human progress becomes a cosmic joke.
And in the American city, at the millennium, the why has ceased to exist.
That is the context of The Wire and that is the only context in which Baltimore – and by reasonable extension, urban America – can be fairly regarded. There are two Americas – separate, unequal, and no longer even acknowledging each other except on the barest cultural terms. In the one nation, new millionaires are minted every day. In the other, human beings no longer necessary to our economy, to our society, are being devalued and destroyed. Both things are true,
