First of all, a confession and a warning. The confession is that for the last few weeks I’ve been obsessed with the HBO series “The Wire.” I think the creator, David Simon, is a prophet for our times. The warning is that I’m going to share some videos and they contain pretty harsh language. So, if you think it will bother you, be duly warned to not watch. OK, now on with it…
I’d like to introduce the “game” with a clip from the first season of “The Wire.” And I’ll give you a little background so you understand the conversation if you haven’t watched the show. In this clip D’Angelo is teaching two of his “corner boys” how to play chess. D’Angelo supervises the drug trade at a high-rise and his uncle, Avon, runs the show on the west side of Baltimore. Avon’s right-hand man in the business is Stringer. So, here’s the clip:
The boys catch on quickly that D’Angelo is teaching them about more than the game of chess – they know they are in ‘the game” and who the players are. But, as the creators of “The Wire” let us know, this is more than just about the drug trade. So, how would this same lesson look if we were teaching it to white upper class yuppies getting their master’s degree in business…politics…etc?
Its clear from the outset who the pawns are. And in my mind, the “queen” is none other than our bunker-loving Cheney (wouldn’t he just love that inference??). The “castle” or “stash” is whatever commodity the king is trying to exploit – military/industrial complex, oil, whatever. Notice how the castle moves reguarly and needs to be guarded. The question is, who is the “king.” I don’t think its GW. My bet would be that its those that manage the “castle.” We see that folks like Rupert Murdoch are just as willing to support Hillary as they are to support Bush. The “game” is not about winning the White House. Its about using your “queen” to protect your “castle” and ultimately your position as king. Just to underscore this point, the whole theme of this lesson and the title of this episode is “The king stay the king.”
Now we’ll jump forward to season three. Stringer has gathered all the various groups running the drug trade in Baltimore and developed a “cooperative.” Instead of killing each other off, they are working together and, doing so, have a monopoly in the city that they use to inflate their earnings. But, even so, he is killed by someone with an old vendetta. In this clip, folks are gathered for his funeral and Avon, who has struggled with the “new game” begins to wonder if maybe Stringer was right. But Slim Charles lets him know how the game works:
Lesson: The king stay the king. And once you in it, you in it. If its a lie, then we fight on that lie. Be we gotta fight.
That’s the game. In my mind, we only have one choice – do we want to play or not? It doesn’t sound like much of a choice since, as D’Angelo says, “the pawns get capped quick.” “Unless,” as Bodie says at the end of the first clip, “they some smart-ass pawns.” That’s what seems to keep us all in the game – willing to risk getting capped quick – in hopes of becoming queen and getting to do the king’s business (ie, Hillary willing to put it all on the line so she can be queen and do the king’s business).
Today, I’m thinking about all the subtle and not-so-subtle ways I participate in this game? What would it look like if we just stopped playing? Do we make up a new game and try to invite others to join? Or is there some alternative to playing games?
