This American Life

I have listened to This American Life for years.  I enjoy the way Ira Glass, and all of the people who work on the show, capture, well, this American life.  I find that the format they have created is, quite probably, the very best story telling on the radio, or maybe even anywhere.  Since becoming an ex-pat, it has become my very favorite way of staying in touch with the country that made me who I am.  If you do not listen, I highly recommend it.

In January, This American Life broadcast a story about working conditions in factories making Apple products in China.  The story was, largely, an excerpt from a monologue performed by Mike Daisey.  Sarah and I were driving to New Plymouth when we listened to the show.  It was captivating.  It was one of the most memorable TAL shows I have heard.  Without a doubt, The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs was perfect for the show.

Some aspects of the monologue seemed impossible, yet when viewed through the lens of a performer, travelling to China on a whim, and seeing, what must have been an alien world to him, not unreasonable.  This week, Sarah sent me a link to a New York Times blog post regarding the episode.  In many ways, I did not want the story to be untrue.  I do not want working conditions in China to be appalling, but the story was so captivating, well told, and emotionally enchanting, it had to be true.

I read the TAL retraction statement.  Then I read Mike Daisey's statement.  I re-read both, and they did not seem to jive.  Something had to be missing.  I started thinking, maybe this is a mistake.  It seems like Daisey did not talk to the n-hexane folk, but does that matter?  Does that make it untrue?  Does that make it worth retracting?  I waited for the podcast to download, and now, I have listened to it.

It seems clear that Mike Daisey was not truthful with TAL staff when they did the fact checking, and that is, undoubtedly wrong.  Further, Rob Schmitz discounts much of what Daisey said happened to him.  The translator, whose credibility is only slightly better than Daisey's, is paramount in discrediting the story, and again, I wonder how well Daisey and the translator actually communicated.  How much was honest misunderstanding?  No one will ever truly know, saving Mike Daisey, buy misunderstanding aside, it is without a doubt, that Daisey was not completely honest with TAL.

Listening to Daisey re-interviewed by Ira Glass, I heard students and professors talking about cheating.  I have been accused of cheating when I did not.  I have gotten away with cheating.  I have also witnessed people being accused of cheating, suspected students of cheating, and accused students of cheating.  People always regret being in the situation, but almost never regret doing the cheating, and this is exactly how Daisey seemed to feel.

I do not know if I would have been honest about cheating when I was guilty.  Looking back at the times I was "academically dishonest" I think that was the goal of the people who made the rules.  In undergrad, we were given more work than a person could do.  One of two things happen when you give people an impossible task, they quit, or cheat.  Everyone who has succeeded has cheated, including Mike Daisey.

Mike Daisey saw an impossible task.  He saw the need to make people care about people they never met.  I recall a story, that was based on "Button, Button," by Richard Matheson.  Rather, what I recall seems based on the Twilight Zone episode of the same name (for all I know it could have been an edited version of one of the two, as it was in a literature class that I was exposed to it).  In "Button, Button" the protagonist can push a button, and receive a large sum of money.  The catch is that when you push the button, someone you do not know dies.  In the story, this is a major moral dilemma, but in reality, if offered this device the only question would be how many times you can push the button (yes, there are some twists in the story that makes this a bad option).  Mike Daisey found a way for people to care, momentarily, about the person who died more than the reward when they pushed the button.  Because, to be honest, every single comfort of life is afforded us by the discomfort of another person, and we never give those people a second thought.

This American Life thought they were airing a journalistic account of working conditions in China.  Unfortunately for everyone involved, they were mistaken.  They were airing a story about pushing the button.  They were airing a story about the essence of being American, about having more than everyone else, and pushing the button everyday, without consequence.  Mike Daisey, regardless of truthfulness, did an incredible job with his story.  TAL captured, unknowingly, the essence of living this American life, better than they ever have.  I do not regret  or begrudge either entity for what they did, when they did it.  In fact, I quite appreciate the whole occurrence as a happy outcome.  The only regret I have is in the situation.  Daisey's monologue would have been an excellent act one for a story about getting the American Dream by taking the dreams of others.