What's the Matter with Walter? The Privatization of Everything in Breaking Bad The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Lee, David. 2016. What's the Matter with Walter? The Privatization of Everything in Breaking Bad. Master's thesis, Harvard Extension School. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33797394 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA What’s the Matter with Walter? The Privatization of Everything in Breaking Bad David R. Lee A Thesis in the Field of History for the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies Harvard University November 2016 © 2016 David R. Lee Abstract Television is the quintessential medium of popular culture. As such, its content can provide an important window into the cultural dynamics in a given period for a given society. Vince Gilligan’s award-winning Breaking Bad is one of those shows that powerfully engaged with its moment. Gilligan created a compelling protagonist in the deeply flawed yet charismatic genius Walter White. He had Walter build an illegal drug business at which he had savant-like skills, and situated Walt in a family characterized by dysfunction. In showing how and why Walter traded a quiet but economically marginal existence as a high school chemistry teacher for a violent but wealthy life as a drug lord, Breaking Bad offered a compelling critique of one of the most insidious economic policy initiatives of late-20th/early-21st century America: neoliberalism. Neoliberalism refers primarily to the 20th century resurgence of 19th century ideas associated with laissez- faire economic liberalism. These ideas include extensive economic liberalization policies such as privatization, fiscal austerity, deregulation, free trade, reductions in non-defense government spending, and dismantling of the welfare state in order to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy. The insidiousness of the policy initiative lies in the manner in which neoliberalism has influenced behavior in almost every facet of life. This thesis locates and analyzes three spaces in society where Breaking Bad offers its critique of neoliberalism: gender roles, law enforcement, and business. The thesis examines how the show reveals neoliberalism to be ineffectual and destructive in the domains in which it claims to be most efficient. ! Dedication for ryan ! "#! Acknowledgements I would like to thank my research advisor Dr. Donald Ostrowski. His support at various phases throughout this process has been much appreciated. A very special thanks to my Thesis Director, Dr. Steven Biel, to whom I am deeply grateful. Steve agreed to take on my unique project and to say his stewardship has been invaluable is a gross understatement. He has shown me what kindness, wisdom, patience and intellect look like. I’m happy to call him mentor and friend. I’d also like to thank my family: my wife Anne and son Nick. Their individual successes in life have been truly inspiring. I hope I’ve done you both proud. ! #! Table of Contents Dedication…………………………………………………….………………................iv Acknowledgements………………………………………….……………………….......v I. Introduction...……………………..…….……………………….………….…...…..1 II. “Cancer Man”…….……………………..….……………………....…..….........…...9 III. “I See You”………………………………...….……………...……..……..…...…..32 IV. “Blood Money”…………….……….………………………...……..………...……58 V. Epilogue…………………..…………………...……………………..……………..81 Bibliography……………………...……………………………………………………...89 ! #"! Chapter I Introduction A pair of khaki pants floats in suspended animation against a painfully bright blue sky before landing on a desolate desert road, only to be run over by a speeding recreation vehicle. The RV’s driver appears to be a middle-aged man wearing a gas mask and dressed only in white briefs. In the passenger seat a younger man, either passed out or dead, also wears a gas mask. As the Winnebago hurtles down the dirt road two bodies slide lifelessly across the floor of the RV—which, along with the two bodies, is covered with liquid and broken glass—until it crashes into a ditch. The driver, a somewhat disturbing figure in his underwear, stumbles out of the Winnebago, which is apparently thick with noxious fumes. He hastily puts on a dress shirt, then goes back in the RV to retrieve a video camera and a gun. He records a brief, emotional farewell message to his family, then stands defiantly as he prepares himself for oncoming sirens with a gun in his hand. The pilot episode of Breaking Bad begins with this surreal sequence. We soon discover through a series of flashbacks how three weeks earlier the man, Walter White, came to be in this comically dangerous situation.1 ! Walter, played by Bryan Cranston, is a fifty-year-old, mild-mannered, highly intelligent, economically marginalized New Mexico high school chemistry teacher, who begins producing and selling crystal methamphetamine, or meth. He enlists the help of former student Jesse Pinkman, played by Aaron Paul, to help him sell his high-end !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Breaking Bad, “Pilot,” Written and directed by Vince Gilligan, Sony Pictures Television, Inc., January 20, 2008. $ ! product to large illegal drug distributors in Albuquerque. We soon find out that Walter is suffering from lung cancer and has been given only a few months to live. He takes stock of his life and realizes he has very little to show for his many years as a teacher. He also discovers that his City of Albuquerque medical insurance does not provide adequate coverage to properly treat his illness. Caught unaware by his cancer diagnosis, Walter decides that the best way to make lots of money quickly is to take his experience as a chemist and apply it to making high-grade meth. While this may seem like an odd choice for a man who is a seemingly well-respected member of his community, it is actually a rational decision given his skill set and grim diagnosis. Walter White personifies the central organizing principle of American economic and political life in late-20th/early-21st century America: neoliberalism. This project contends that nearly forty years of neoliberal economic and political policy-making has resulted in a society rife with Walter Whites. Whether it be at the corporate, governmental, or individual level, neoliberalism, and its attendant proclivity toward privatization, has permeated American society. Breaking Bad, through the vision of its creator Vince Gilligan, confronts the expression of nearly forty years of neoliberal policy-making at several crucial points: the evolution of gender roles, crime prevention, and contemporary business and the workplace. Gilligan engages neoliberalism as a capitalist catastrophe that penetrates nearly every aspect of modern life. The show’s arc examines failed economic initiatives, governmental policies, and individual enterprise culminating in a monopolization of prosperity for an exceedingly small part of society, and in misery for the rest. % ! As recently as 2009 American President Barack Obama regarded the 2008 financial crisis as neoliberalism run amok.2 The object of the President’s criticism—the neoliberal ideal of a “self-regulating market” as the main engine powering the “wealth of nations”—has been a core tenet of classical liberal economists since the late 18th century.3 The historical background of neoliberalism grew from liberal opposition “to the mercantilism of monarchs who exercised almost total control over the economy in their efforts to amass large quantities of gold for largely bellicose purposes.”4 Adam Smith is credited with creating the Scottish Enlightenment concept of homo economicus— economic man: the idea that people are isolated, rational individuals whose actions reflect mostly their financial self-interests.5 According to this view, economic and political matters occupy separate spheres of influence, “with economics claiming a superior status because it operates best without government interference under a harmonious system of natural laws.”6 The main tenet of the neoliberal world view is that “the state is to refrain from interfering with the economic activities of self-interested citizens and instead use its power to guarantee open economic exchange.”7 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2 Manfred B. Steger and Ravi K. Roy, Neoliberalism: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), location 388, Kindle Edition. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid., loc. 390, Kindle Edition. 5 "Homo economicus, n,". OED Online, New York: Oxford University Press, accessed November28,2015,http://www.oed.com.ezpprod1.hul.harvard.edu/view/Entry/33678755?redirect edFrom=homo+economicus. 6 Steger and Roy, Neoliberalism, loc. 390, Kindle Edition. 7 Ibid. & ! After World War II the U.S. witnessed nearly forty years of activist government intervention in social and economic matters, defying the tenets of liberal economic dogma. Two massive government initiatives—the New Deal of the 1930s and the Great Society of the 1960s—expanded the welfare state and greatly contributed to the growth of middle-class America. These programs expanded the welfare state to the dismay of parts of the business community as each program mandated quality of life initiatives such as safe workplaces