Style of Abraham Jansz Diepenbeeck:
King Midas at the Contest Between Apollo and Pan
(circa 1616–1675)

"That's the cultural capability of our present incumbent: Pettiness."

I was raised on tales of great men accomplishing great things. The possibility of a President actively promoting Pettiness never came up in polite conversation, so it's been particularly jarring as our incumbent has set about accomplishing nothing after rising to the role of so-called Most Powerful Person In The World. Such authority apparently lies in something other than the title, for our incumbent has already amply demonstrated that power lacks authority when placed in unworthy hands. It's not clever to opt out of employing lawful means to attempt to accomplish change. It's downright stupid to flaunt the Constitution because that document, above all others, amounts to sacrosanct text in this culture. Further, the oath of office insists upon an active defense against enemies of said Constitution, both foreign and domestic. It does considerably more than stretch credulity when the incumbent embodies every element of that enemy against which he took that oath, dedicating himself to defending against it instead. This paradox just seems to amplify his pre-existing cognitive disabilities.

Nothing of greatness has even been suggested since this administration, Hell-bent on not successfully administering anything, began failing to effectively rule. They've managed to create chaos and further tie up the courts deciding trivial questions, essentially ones not worth asking, and the kind that produce only one response. Their string of losses amounts to the only thing they've successfully produced. Well, that and worldwide economic chaos. I'm proud, though, of how our sudden opponents have responded to the Pettiness. They have not accepted a subservient role, mostly, a few truly petty dictators excepted. Those who should show pride have publicly demonstrated it. They stand in no subtle opposition, but explicitly against the various shenanigans. Their reality has curiously not warped along with their former trusted ally’s. They've stood steadfastly with reality and firmly against our incumbent's delusional ravings. It seems he's only successfully twisted reality for himself. Everyone else, except the curious Congress, hasn't bought into even the least of it. His poll numbers started plummeting from his first official act, and he seems incapable of producing countermeasures. He exclusively digs his losing hole ever deeper.

This experience seems largely one of judgment, with the poorest kind standing in for what we might have more reasonably expected. The obvious grows cloudiest under bad judgment's shroud. He seems to possess the skill capable of transforming every potential win into a guaranteed losing situation. His feet spend more time in his mouth than on the street. It's like he never stops playing at golf, probably the least meaningful and most tenaciously superficial "sport" ever devised. Further, it's widely acknowledged that he cheats at his pastime when he would be the only player whose score counted. The dedication to things that truly couldn't matter best characterizes this clown. He touts his wealth as if wealth matters. He lugs a gold-plated toilet around on his airplane, an almost unimaginable act of contempt for himself and the planet. He can't walk softly or manage to carry a stick proportional to his body weight. He stumbles around with a putter rather than marching forth carrying that much-touted big stick. He's sick.

He's sick in a particular way. He's fundamentally dishonest with himself. I can tell this because he's dishonest with the American people. Not that most of us can't see right through that. He has, as Greek mythologists recount, the ears of an ass, the unfortunate result of him deploying his signature poor judgement. Asked to judge a music-making contest between Pan and Apollo, Midas chose Pan as the better musician, a proclamation that so enraged Apollo, who was at the time acknowledged as the God of Music, for cripes sake, that he cursed Midas with the ears of an ass. Midas was forever thereafter embarrassed by his ears and pleaded with his barber to cut his hair to successfully cover them. This deception successfully distracted Midas, doubtless rendering him a less effective king. His rule was governed by distraction and lousy haircuts, just like ours.

It might be that because our incumbent came up through the most superficial medium, he learned only to play on that tilted field. Nobody ever accused reality TV of portraying greatness. It focuses almost entirely upon staging lifeboat drills, the most meaningless and superficial contests ever devised. It requires no courage to order some human off any island. It does not require leadership to conspire against anyone perceived as the weakest sister or the biggest loser. It requires only that one prove capable of situationally turning off their humanity so that something superficially cruel might shine through. Such behavior produces nothing worth very much. It doesn't even translate into entertainment for most of us. We turn off the television in disgust to wonder whatever became of the medium that used to move us in black and white, when it still required its viewer to bring their aspirations and imaginations with them. When it became a mere projection, it lost its cultural significance and became a stand-in for entertainment. A pastime intended to burn off excess existence, just as if none of anything really mattered. That's the cultural capability of our present incumbent: Pettiness.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #CHope , #PureSchmaltz