Is there more to being an American?

"The Wire". Season one, 13 chapters of one story, came out in DVD in October.

You will love "The Wire". In the audio commentary for show #1, the creator of the show describes the first season as being about class warfare waged against the lower classes and the challenges of living and working within the requirements and contradictions of a modern hierarchical organization, be it a police department or a drug gang.

The principal creators worked as a police detective and a news paper reporter - both in Baltimore and both for 10 years or longer. Previously they had created the six episode "The Corner".

If you think about it: First we wage war against our domestic lower classes: The Drug War.

Then we wage against foreign lower classes: The War on Terror.

Watching some of the action in The Wire, produced after 9/11 but before the Iraq war, will remind you a great deal of some of our most unsavory actions in iraq.

Season two comes out on DVD in late January. It is about class war against the labor unions.

This is a great show with great acting. They have produced over 35 hours of outstanding television and not won a single award. I suspect because they raise hard questions and criticize the status quo.

The question they imply, but do not directly ask is: If there is more to being an American than being a consumer [I shop therefore I am], what is it and who is talking about it? Just what does it mean to be an American n 2004?

Posted by Jock Gill at November 29, 2004 10:42 AM | TrackBack