The Wire and Philosophy: This America, Man (Popular Culture and Philosophy Book 73)

By many accounts, HBO's The Wire was and remains the greatest and most important television drama of all time. Conceived by writers David Simon and ex-Baltimore homicide detective Ed Burns, this five-season, sixty-episode tour de force has raised the bar for compelling, intelligent television production. With each season addressing a different arena of life in the city of Baltimore, and each season's narratives tapping into those from previous seasons, The Wire was able to reveal the overlapping, criss-crossing, and colliding realities that shape—if not control—the people, institutions, and culture of the modern American city. The Wire and Philosophy celebrates this show's realism as well as its intellectual and philosophical clarity. Selected philosophers who are fans of The Wire tap into these conflicts and interconnections to expose the underlying philosophical issues and assumptions and pursue questions, such as, Can cops really tell whether they are smarter than their perps? Or do they fall victim to intellectual vanity? Do individuals really have free will to resist the temptations—of gangs, of drugs, or corruption—that surround them? Is David Simon a modern-day Marx who sees capitalism leading ultimately to its own collapse, or is Baltimore's story uniquely its own? Table of Contents Respect for a Skill Set | Prof Joe First Case: The Game LINE 1: This Ain't Aruba, Bitch | Joanna Crosby LINE 2: All in the Game | Ty Fagan LINE 3: Locke'd in the Game? | William Allen Second Case: The Tactics LINE 4: Wee-Bey's Way | David Bzdak LINE 5: When a Lie Ain't Just a Lie | Seam McAleer LINE 6: Came to Do Good, Stayed to Do Well | Jason Grinnell LINE 7: Giving a FUck when It's Not your Turn | Jim Thompson LINE 8: What if Nobody Walks the Straight and Narrow Track? | Don Fallis Third Case: Omar Comin' Line 9: Is Omar the Nietzschean Overman? | Scott Clifton LINE 10: The Best of Boys and Lads LINE 11: Omar the Virtuous Thug | Jonathan Therise Fourth Case: The Boundaries LINE 12: No Women Up in the Game | Mona Rocha and James Rocha LINE 13: Capital Noir | Tommy J. Curry LINE 14: Hard Times after Hard Time | Zachary Hoskins and Nora Wikoff Fifth Case: The Loss LINE 15: The Wire as American Tragedy | Avram Gurland-Blaker LINE 16: The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Baltimore | John Thomas Brittingham LINE 17: The Wire, or, What to Do in Non-Eventual Times | Slavoj Zizek Sixth Case: Sentencing LINE 18: Class Projects and the Project Class | Seth Vannatta LINE 19: You Gonna Get Got | Kody W. Cooper LINE 20: Is Our Thing Really a Part of the Big Thing? | Nathan Eckstrand LINE 21: Stop Snitching, Screw the System | Myisha Cherry Our Connect Hoppers, Fiends, and Natural POH-lice Index By many accounts, HBO’s The Wire was and remains the greatest and most important television drama of all time. Conceived by writers David Simon and ex-Baltimore homicide detective Ed Burns, this five-season, sixty-episode tour de force has raised the bar for compelling, intelligent television production. With each season addressing a different arena of life in the city of Baltimore, and each season’s narratives tapping into those from previous seasons, The Wire was able to reveal the overlapping, criss-crossing, and colliding realities that shape—if not control—the people, institutions, and culture of the modern American city.

The Wire and Philosophy celebrates this show’s realism as well as its intellectual and philosophical clarity. Selected philosophers who are fans of The Wire tap into these conflicts and interconnections to expose the underlying philosophical issues and assumptions and pursue questions, such as, Can cops really tell whether they are smarter than their perps? Or do they fall victim to intellectual vanity? Do individuals really have free will to resist the temptations—of gangs, of drugs, or corruption—that surround them? Is David Simon a modern-day Marx who sees capitalism leading ultimately to its own collapse, or is Baltimore’s story uniquely its own?