William Hogarth: The Enraged Musician (November 1741)

"Don't tread on Decency!"

Contrary to popular misconception, the Decent do not naturally lean heavily toward passivity. In some significant ways, Decency can encourage a fury, if only because it tends to sharpen sensibilities. Those incapable of properly parsing experiences, who live a more numbed existence, might find it more challenging to act out when encountering the subtly outrageous. Many infractions fail to piece together their native insensitivity. This can lead to a disturbing passivity. Those, however, more primed to sense disturbing differences might be much more easily encouraged to respond with rage, and even to complain that certain events leave them feeling EnRaged. This fury doesn’t always show, for Decency sometimes, even often, paradoxically, encourages a stifling of certain rages, lest a reaction appear equally outrageous. The resulting ‘anger turned inward’ can spawn periods of dark depression as inner frustration fails to find adequate release in outward expression.

The Decent sometimes foments dissent. They do this when they find conditions reaching a threshold of unbearable outrageousness. Then, the anger turned inward, seeks outward expression and might be released with considerable passion. The rightly righteous, they say, carry fury like no other. Those merely mildly pissed off cannot compete at this level. Likewise, the merely frustrated. Those with simmering grudges compare very poorly, too, and tend to appear wimpy when up against any truly disgusted Decency. It becomes the Decent’s special burden to nurture ways to blunt their understandable vehemence, for it does nobody any good to be storming around seeking vengeance. Mostly, it seems, the Decent are called upon to forestall their inner rages and find ways to peacefully mediate the trouble, for fully expressed, I suspect, most opponents might not survive initial contact with an utterly outraged Decent.

Indecency has a well-earned reputation for fomenting outrageous behavior, though Decency’s no slouch on this scale under some easily recognizable conditions. Continuing frustration stemming from an inability to successfully mediate or right some wrong can bring such rage to full expression. Oppression holds this power to frustrate even the most Decent into fierce action. Sadly, such reactions don’t necessarily advance anyone’s preferred agenda. Once reason leaves a conversation, even if it only abandons one side, negotiations slide into much more difficult-to-resolve tangles. Even when the opposition steadfastly refuses to engage in reason, if the Decent partisan joins them, irresolution seems the more likely winner. It’s common, then, that the Decent engage through at least somewhat gritting their teeth, suppressing some of their rage in the interests of attempting to engage. This situation might even give the indecent an advantage in negotiations, since they seem freer to express their outrage. There are some things the Decent won’t do, or they consider themselves a failure should they so engage.

Peaceful protests might seem like wasted effort unless understood as a Decent way to express this often-suppressed outrage. I won’t pretend that I don’t sometimes harbor indecent fantasies where the forces of righteousness go all Empire Strikes Back on Darth Vader. I could hardly have been a child of this culture had I not absorbed a deeply embedded sense of the innate righteousness of frontier justice. My inner John Wayne tussles with my inner Maharishi to see who will enter the playing field each morning. My Decency seems Janus-faced, not merely enlightened but also almost equally EnRaged most days. Many days, there’s no competition between my passive Decency and my more outwardly EnRaged one. I try to remember then that I’m experiencing feelings, and that Decency’s primary contribution has always been to mediate between such feelings and my actions. Please do not mistake my apparent inaction at any moment as approval of any indecency I see. I’m watching, and very likely simmering, EnRaged in ways you can’t suspect. Don’t tread on Decency!

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Decency, #PureSchmaltz