Discovering Moral Imagination Along the Wire. (2014)
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SOLÉR, MICHELLE LOWE, Ph.D. All the Pieces Matter: Discovering Moral Imagination Along The Wire. (2014). Directed by Dr. Svi Shapiro. 304 pp. This dissertation is an investigation into the tool of moral imagination in the service of social justice. Supported by the philosophies of David Purpel, Maxine Greene, and John Dewey, this analysis is engaged through six themes examined through the text of David Simon’s series, The Wire. These themes supply a foundation for how we might more thoroughly engage with moral imagination on a daily basis because there is a crisis in our culture around how we value the lives of all people. Themes presented in this discussion are: (1) The idea that everybody matters; (2) A changing notion of truth; (3) Thoughtlessness and banality; (4) Wide-awakeness and not taking things for granted; (5) Asking critical questions; and lastly, (6) People claiming responsibility. Applying these themes to specific textual examples excerpted from a dramatized television serial creates a space to discuss prophetic in- betweenness to interrogate and examine situations of systemic dysfunction and economic injustice outside of a fictional space. ALL THE PIECES MATTER: DISCOVERING MORAL IMAGINATION ALONG THE WIRE by Michelle Lowe Solér A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 2014 Approved by ____________________________ Committee Chair 2014 Michelle Lowe Solér APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation written by Michelle Lowe Solér has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of the Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Committee Chair______________________________ Committee Members ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ___________________________ Date of Acceptance by Committee _________________________ Date of Final Oral Examination ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 1 II. PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ...................................................................................36 III. EVERYBODY MATTERS ......................................................................................................73 IV. CLAIMING RESPONSIBILTY .......................................................................................... 161 V. PROPHETIC IN-BETWEENNESS .................................................................................. 249 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................... 277 APPENDIX A. THEMES AND EXAMPLES IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE ......................... 292 APPENDIX B. METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................... 295 iii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION It’s a thin line ‘tween heaven and here. —Bubbles, (Simon, 2011). Watch this program if you are interested in the experiences of people in the inner city and systemic urban inequality, (William Julius Wilson, Congressional briefing on Culture and Poverty, 2010). What matters is that people of different social backgrounds, different walks of life, encounter one another, bump up against one another in the ordinary course of life because this is what teaches us to negotiate and to abide our differences. And this is how we come to care for the common good. (Michael Sandel, 2013). Densely populated cities teeming with inhabitants are a manifestation of this country’s democracy experiment—where people walk along, stumble across, and interact with each other in a seemingly choreographed parade of imagination, connection and innovation. But consider the people left out of the picture painted above—packed away in dire living conditions, without meaningful work or educational opportunity. Within our democracy there is an ever in- creasing distance between those living at the poverty level and those living far 1 above it, and exists entire groups of people whose experience does not mirror our own. I’ve chosen to write this dissertation on the subject of moral imagination using The Wire as supporting context viewed through the philosophical lenses of David Purpel, Maxine Greene, and John Dewey in hopes of opening up broader conversations that address poverty and oppression. My academic interests focus on uses for the tool of moral imagination to explore how issues of inequality, systemic dysfunction, and support of human dignity are connected to everyone. A study of the tool of moral imagination in the spaces of early twenty-first century inner-city landscapes provides an opportunity to discuss the darker side of democracy, of people living off the grid and below the poverty line, who have been left out of the American dream, gallantly described below. That dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement….It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position, (Adams, 1932, p.404). In place of the American Dream, the poor in America are instead caught in a real-life nightmare of experience within a culture that sometimes does not want to recognize, much less take the necessary steps to improve that existence. Smiley and West concur, “Most Americans choose instead to 2 segregate themselves from poverty. The stereotypes and stigmas serve as curtains that separate ‘us’ from ‘them’,” (2013, p.60). Statistical averages describing conditions of poverty and inequality do little to convey the essence of the experience of people living in oppressive conditions. I choose to work in and around the text of The Wire to explore my topic because its narrative tells stories of human beings existing in, around, and in-between these facts and figures. As a work of fiction, the story gives depth to static demographic numerical representations by creating descriptions of characters that cannot be glossed over with statistics. Moreover, the philosophers I’ve chosen to accompany me on this explorative journey agree that each person deserves to live a life without oppression and that each person’s experience matters to the whole of society. Experimenting with the tool of moral imagination in the service of social justice through a fictional work to highlight the stories in between is one way we might begin to negotiate the space between the haves and the have-nots. I do not believe that I now know what it means to exist in conditions of dire inner-city poverty after delving repeatedly into this series; however I do believe examining this series through the tool of moral imagination and including examples from the text to share with others provides a breadth to my discussion that might otherwise be missed—we as human beings are inextricably connected, and it is our common responsibility to look out for and work to alleviate human suffering. Focusing the tool of moral imagination on social 3 justice issues helps to keep an eye toward unnecessary suffering by recognizing that everybody matters; that a notion of truth changes from individual to individual; that thoughtless and banal activities have to be more thoroughly interrogated; that looking with fresh eyes at things taken-for-granted is a necessity; that having the courage to ask critical questions is crucial; and finally that claiming responsibility for others lived experience is transformational. These themes are looked at closely throughout the course of this writing, using examples pulled from The Wire to provide points of connection and paths of discussion. There is life or death urgency behind statistics of inequality and impoverishment featured daily in news headlines, but somehow a decision is made by some individuals to separate the “us from them,” (Smiley and West, 2013, p.60). I have chosen to explore the tool of moral imagination through the text of The Wire because the series opens up spaces for discussion that affect the lived experiences of people living beneath and around the poverty line, and depicts individuals whose concerns and choices aptly illustrate what it means to claim responsibility for the lives of others. By becoming acquainted with characters in the series through the philosophical lenses of Purpel, Greene and Dewey, viewers may more easily bridge the distance between “us and them” by connecting these stories to their own and opening up discussion spaces to address the “what if”. 4 The Wire as Text In his original overview for the pilot episode of the televised novel The Wire, series creator Simon writes, “The whole [series] must make a cogent argument about the national condition, using the streets and stories of one city as a microcosm.” (2000, p.1). The ‘national condition’ of the poor and underemployed, and of those in socioeconomic distress is dire. A recent report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service states, “U.S. income distribution appears to be among the most unequal of all major industrialized countries and the United States appears to be among the nations experiencing the greatest increases