DoingSomethingDifferent
Stuart Davis: Study for “Something on the 8 Ball” (1953)
"…I'll get to rediscover, for the umpteenth time, this self-same tactic for creating lasting change…"
When my inquiry into Decency began to dissatisfy me, I instinctively knew just what to do. That this was precisely what I always do when following my instincts reliably failed to inform me that this strategy had never once worked for long. Oh, it worked well enough in the moment. I shoved myself through to whatever stood in for the other side of that particular difficulty, like always, though it failed to address any underlying issues. Heck, it failed to acknowledge that any underlying issues might even be present. It took it on face value that the difficulty was probably no more than face deep and reacted as if it was just a flesh wound, a superficial complaint.
How did I respond?
Reassuring
Clément Pruche: Fameux Jury de Peinture. Salon de 1841
[Famous Jury of Painting. Salon of 1841] (1840, reissued 1841)
"…as if recovering innocence might prove Reassuring."
I am not a bottomless font of positive energy. I am not an infinite anything, but a painfully finite being, present without obvious purpose, faking it as best I can. I identify as a man, though I do not align with many of the expectations that come with that designation. I am not very mechanical, for instance, and never cared much for motor vehicles. I am presently engaged in analysing Decency in concept and practice, though my interest in the subject has recently been flagging. As with any search, I wonder how I might tell if I’m succeeding before I’ve finished. In the middle of anything, progress might not seem all that evident. Even at the end, the seeker might be left wondering. Searching seems no different from any occupation, except for the presumption of it ending, of reaching some conclusion.
Considering Decency has increased my sensitivity to both its presence and its absence.
Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 10/23/2025
T. Smith: An Old Man Leafing Through a Print Album,
Next to His Young Wife (1786-12)
I doubt that there could be a better allegory of what's happening in this country than the illegal, unpermitted destruction of the whole East Wing of our White House to construct a wholly unnecessary trailer trashy gilded ballroom for billionaires to gather in and gloat. While, by the end of this month, 4/5th of the people receiving food assistance in this county will lose it due to Repuglican indifference. Every damned thing this administration uninterested in administering anything attempts goes sideways and screams indecency. I experienced an emotional low point in the absurdity this writing week, wanting to turn off the endless insults to my patience and intelligence. I've seen stupid before, but never on this scale. I'd heard of indecency before, too, but these clowns recalibrate that scale. too. I feel a little reassured that the pathology predicts that our incumbent's Self-Saboteur Syndrome can't rest until it utterly destroys its host. He's aching for the retribution his mommy and daddy couldn't give him, and for the public humiliation that not even three of the more skilled wives could provide.
Despair
Eduardus Jacobus: Despair (after 1698)
"I'm frantically seeking an exit."
I am learning that indecency was never the opposite of Decency. That ignoble association belongs to Despair. Decency represents the difference between hope and Despair, rendering Decency a rough equivalency to hope. Decency provides a context within which hope might thrive. When Decency disappears, Despair rushes in to fill the void, rendering it even emptier than it had ever seemed before. The miscalculation the MAGA crowd made might have been neglecting to factor in what happens after all accustomed hopefulness disappears. It’s not a win if the reward amounts to a vacuous void. It’s not a win if you leave your opponent with nothing left to lose. Then’s when the opponent becomes most dangerous.
Lawlessness induces desperation.
Cheerleading
Jack Gould: Untitled [band and cheerleaders] (1958)
"…I have no particular influence with The Gods…"
I feel as though I have been Cheerleading for Decency’s team since I began this writing series thirty-one mornings ago. The playoffs finished this week, and the World Series begins two nights hence. I have stood steadfastly on the sidelines, rooting for the home teams to win. I have called no plays or engaged in any games I’ve witnessed. I’ve perhaps just made a fool of myself, gesticulating on the sidelines in front of the stands. I’ve not pitched, hit, or scored a single run, nor could I. I have not broken my leg on a questionable 4th-period Hail Mary play. I’m part of the second string contingent on the varsity bus, there for atmosphere rather than substance. I haven’t once forgotten the unwritten rules of engagement here. I’m present to draw attention away from myself and toward the play on the field.
Like any cheerleader, I’m not here to embody anybody’s idea of masterful play.
Origins
Félix Vallotton: La manifestation (1893)
"I might have been fooling myself then."
I might just as well argue about the Origins of chickens and eggs as consider Decency’s Origins. Some say it’s an innate human characteristic, while others say it emerged from religious influence. Some swear it’s at root philosophy while others insist it’s physiology. Nailing down a definition seems dangerous, even though it seems like such a mild sense on the surface. I can get passionate about it, especially about its absence. I seek it and mourn it, and at times, I suppose, I even fear it. I do wonder, though, how one comes to possess it, or does it choose who it possesses? Is it possible to school someone who seems deficient? Do penitentiaries offer Decency courses for those convicted of indecencies? What does the presence or absence of Decency even mean?
Surely the Origins of Decency must be evolutionary.
A DecentNight
Jan Saenredam: Night, or Woman Sleeping by the Fire (1595)
"I will have experienced more than A DecentNight's sleep, I guess, but A DecentNight nonetheless."
After I’d confided that I slept four or five hours each night, my internist asked if I might be interested in enrolling in one of the sleep studies conducted by our local Sleep Center. I wondered why I should agree to that, and he responded that it might allow me to experience A DecentNight’s sleep. I asked what made my solid four or five hours indecent, and he replied that people generally require more than a solid four or five hours to maintain a decent life. He spoke briefly on the insidious effects of sleep apnea. I responded that I exhibited none of the symptoms associated with sleep dysfunction, and even if I did, I would never consent to wearing a vacuum cleaner on my face in bed. I consider my sleep needs evidence of a biodiversity and not some syndrome requiring therapy. My internist has not mentioned the subject since.
The Muse, though, reports that I snorkel and snore, evidence that I might be exhibiting the presence of some dysfunctional sleep disturbance.
Lose
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes: Por Temor no Pierdas Honor
[Do not lose honour through fear] (1816–19)
"…with ample domain to rule with Decency if I chose."
The Decent possess a superpower the indecent can’t imagine: enough. Indecency might most often emerge due to the presence of some mysterious and overwhelming sense of insufficiency. Everyday temptations can become compulsions under this sense of absence’s malign influence. It might be an illusion either way, the delusions of plenty and scarcity being opposite sides of some self-same coin. Yet the sensation each conviction compels couldn’t be more different. Scarcity, even when (and, perhaps especially when) delusional, easily becomes definitional. Those without enough seem capable of justifying any action with an explanation that it was either necessary or essential rather than merely consequential. Those with plenty, or that innate sense that they possess it, might likewise characterize their actions as necessary or essential, though their effect seems the polar opposite of those ruled by the insidious scarcity mindset.
I’m not suggesting that starving people, for instance, aren’t also capable of Decency, just that those who feel as though they’re suffocating from a sense of want might more easily justify the minor odd indecency, or even justify that lifestyle.
Win
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin:
The Attributes of the Arts and the Rewards Which Are Accorded Them (1766)
Gallery Notes: This picture may appear to reproduce the casual clutter of an 18th-century tabletop. Not so. Chardin carefully selected objects to convey specific meanings. A palette with brushes, placed atop a paint box, symbolizes the art of painting. Building plans, spread beneath drafting and surveying tools, represent architecture. An ornate bronze pitcher alludes to goldsmithing, and the red portfolio symbolizes drawing. The plaster model of J. B. Pigalle's Mercury, an actual work by a friend of Chardin's, stands for sculpture.
The cross on a ribbon is the Order of Saint Michael, the highest honor an artist could then receive. Pigalle was the first sculptor to win it. So this painting sends multiple messages: it presents emblems of the arts and of artists' glory and honors a specific artist, Pigalle.
A still life (or painting of objects), which is composed from scratch by its creator, can be used to convey complex meanings.
"Decency doesn't rise to the bait that indecency always hides its hook within."
Decency has never been continuously rewarding. It attracts its critics and delivers disappointments. Anyone could complain about “times like these,” for every age has harbored indecent actors who have risen to influential positions, and Decency never seems to hold an overwhelming hand. It goes about its work humbly, primarily for its own sake, if only because it’s its own reward and other approaches seem unthinkable. If popular support doesn’t define Decency’s success, what does? I argue that a different metric determines a Win when considering Decency. In any standard competition, the simple accumulation of acclaim determines a Win. Decency, though, doesn’t quite qualify as a competitive sport. It remains a choice and sometimes seems most effective when administered too sparingly ever to accumulate enough points to win any standard competition.
Those who play Decency competitively diminish it and themselves.
Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 10/16/2025
Max Klinger: The Chronicler (recto) April 5, 1888 
Max Klinger: The Chronicler (verso) April 6, 1888
Gallery Notes: Drawings by the Symbolist artist Max Klinger are very rare. This intimate drawing was completed over April 5-6, 1888, while the artist was staying in Rome on the Via Claudia near the Colisseum. This sensitive figure drawing helped to prepare Klinger’s most important painting of those years, The Crucifixion, 1888/1891. In an almost autobiographical reflection, it depicts the scribe who unemotionally documents the world’s greatest tragedy that rages around him.
This writing week, I focused on themes of Truth, Justice, and The American Way as mediums for describing Decency. I insisted that Truth need not be an absolute to prove helpful in this tenaciously relativistic world. I visited the near-distant future to see our present as precedent in PosseCognito, which was by far my most popular posting in a very long time. I praised dissent in DissEnting, celebrating smart-assedness as perhaps the proudest American tradition. I introduced Questioning into the conversation for it has always been a source of Decency in every discussion. I then introduced a part of me that I don't often own up to possessing: LittleOldMe. I ended this writing week insisting that we're not so much seeking a more perfect union as an ever-more Decent one. Thank you for following along!
MoreDecent
Carel Isaak de Moor: Nar [Fool] (1705 - 1751)
A fool or madman,
looking sideways and holding his elbow with one hand.
"We, The People, seek an ever-MoreDecent Union here."
I, and everyone else in my generation, was raised under a remarkably primitive and repressive regime. We learned to maintain a modicum of Decency despite the pockets of absolute obscenity surrounding us. We discovered potentially useful coping methods that helped us maintain some semblance of sanity when everything around us seemed crazy. It was easy to spot crazy in those days because our fathers and their fathers before them came from even more repressive times, times when whole generations barely survived state-sponsored deprivation. My grandfather was raised in a world where his leaving school after third grade was considered in no way exceptional. He had work to do and a way to find through the world. My father, too, left school to survive. His family needed him to labor more than they needed him to graduate high school.
When I was five, several blocks along West Main Street, the primary thoroughfare through town, was set aside for prostitution.
LittleOldMe
Pieter de Jode (II): Landscape with the Three Graces (1628 - 1670)
The three Graces of Greek mythology were Aglaea, Euphrosyne, and Thalia. Aglaea symbolized splendor and radiance, Euphrosyne represented mirth and joy, and Thalia embodied good cheer and bloom.
"Even LittleOldMe might well be worth it."
It’s one thing for me to treat others Decently and quite another for me to treat myself that way. Even the sparest rules of comportment demand that I treat others Decently, but no such strictures exist defining how I should treat myself—quite the opposite. I expect to sacrifice myself for some imagined betterment of others, as if I weren’t quite worth the effort to respect. And we hold in esteem those who do sacrifice themselves, even when nothing particularly useful or helpful comes of it. And we’re proud of these efforts ourselves. My ego swells when I tell others how I very narrowly avoided serious injury when engaging in some otherwise completely pedestrian activity, or even how I injured myself. It occurs to me that almost nobody really runs marathons to torture themselves. Yet, it seems as though every veteran of them shares harrowing stories of their personal punishments when running their races.
My mother would discount her own presence by referring to herself as “Little Old Me.”
Questioning
Ignaz M. Gaugengigl: A Difficult Question (19th century)
" …We abandon our cross-examinations when we grow weary of discovering…"
Authoritarians despise questions. They try to vilify questioners. They try and usually fail to insult questioners’ intelligence, as if asking were somehow threatening. They understand that there can never be any such thing as not answering a question, for even silence screams its response. Questioning can constitute a potentially healthy back-and-forth, a functional resonance. It’s almost impossible to maintain arrogance in its presence, for it tends to level every playing field. I suppose it’s little wonder why our authoritarians find it so upsetting. It renders it almost impossible to remain seated on any high horse through any barrage of Questioning.
Democracy seems at root a questionable practice, for it leaves many answers unresolved.
DissEnting
Théodore Géricault: The Mutiny on the Raft of the Medusa
[Historical Background](1818)
"What better way to preserve our actual Constitutional order?"
Portland greets the illegal and insulting invasion of poorly-trained Federal “immigration enforcement” agents with irreverence because that response best represents the American perspective. What better response to an absurdist intrusion than an even more absurdist one? Self-respect demanded some sincere sarcasm. Hell, Decency demanded it. As indecent as I’m sure these acts of silliness seemed to the intruders, any serious response might have been too easily interpreted as a serious one, one to be taken way too seriously, probably with fierce opposition, potentially leading to injuries or deaths. Better to offer them a target difficult to take so seriously, one that might even be ungenerously interpreted as silly. It’s difficult to muster much belligerence from even the most immature Federals when confronting them with people wearing inflatable dinosaur costumes and riding bicycles naked in the rain.
It was not quite civil disobedience but rather dissent, with particular emphasis on the “Diss” part of the description.
PosseCognito
Armando Posse: Procession (1955)
Artist Biography: Armando Posse was a self-taught Cuban artist born in Havana on December 4, 1917, who specialized in engraving, screen printing, and drawing. He co-founded the Taller Experimental de Gráfica in Havana in 1962 and joined the Asociación de Grabadores de Cuba in 1964, where he won an engraving prize. He was known for his graphic production work.
"We, the people, regained the upper hand."
By the mid-2020s, Federal overreach had become intolerable to states and citizens. Routine violations of Constitutional Rights by executive branch-directed agents threatened Decency and civility in targeted municipalities. Among the many particulars:
°The Writ of Habeas Corpus was routinely suspended,
°Masked and armed Federal pseudo police routinely descended upon vulnerable communities
°randomly deploying tear gas in peaceful crowds
°detaining and even arresting and disappearing citizens on mere suspicions or less
°Refusing to identify themselves or their association
°Terrorizing the populace.
To respond, municipalities, counties, and states began passing what became known as PosseCognito Laws.
Truth
William Sharp: Diogenes in Searth of an Honest Man
(18th-19th century)
"Those who in live in opposition to truth end up with what they deserve."
Truth need not be absolute to prove useful. It might be essential that we not get altogether too tangled up in absolutes if we expect to live in this relative universe. Still, the difference between truthiness and falseness seems clear enough under most circumstances. The old Superman aphorism “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” imprinted itself on many in my generation. We came to believe it was downright un-American to deal in untruths and injustice, equating those with our foes’ tactics. In practice, living lies provides faulty foundations, whatever the means employed or the ends pursued. Lies work like phony geometry, for they unreliably characterize level, parallel, and angle. They demand much more maintenance than even the most complicated truths, and ultimately require some form of authoritarian enforcement in order to stand. They cannot ever stand on their own.
Eventually, the castles constructed out of lies must crumble.
Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 10/09/2025
Max Klinger: Simplicius' Writing Lesson (1881)
This writing week watched summer leave, replaced by genuinely chilly mornings and lovely sunny afternoons. Our never-ending porch refurbishment project made definite progress. The carpenters delivered the first of the final components, and our painter, Kurt, and I dutifully prepped them for installation. Most afternoons found me listening to baseball playoff games while engaging in one of the more primal human activities: painting prime coats and sanding the results smooth. I began the week writing about this process in Renewal, which inevitably includes considerable destruction. I noticed myself simultaneously inhabiting two states: Particle and Wave. I ranted a bit about my permanent outsider status in Insider. I began an extended exposition of the War On Decency we seem to be experiencing. I introduced an increasingly familiar stranger in Invisible Enemies Within. I ended this writing week wondering why the presumed most powerful person in the world seems to revel as the continual victim in Hoaxes. Thank you for following along.
Hoaxes
Honoré-Victorin Daumier: The Election Hoax
[La carotte de l'élection] (1844)
A caricature depicting a politician addressing a peasant family. The politician offers a carrot to the family, symbolizing the false promises made to voters.
"How did Decency get so lucky? It was probably the result of Hoaxes."
Decency might occasionally be subjected to some Hoaxes, though most were probably intended as April Fool jokes. I wonder what it means when someone seems continuously bedeviled by Hoaxes, where hardly any situation doesn’t come with a hint or a suggestion of nefarious Hoaxing. In my own short lifetime, I recall encountering fewer than a spare handful of Hoaxes, and none of those seemed in any way malicious. Our incumbent seems immersed lip-deep in a swirling cesspool of them, with some new one appearing almost every news cycle. I wonder what sort of curse might be behind such an infestation, for I swear I’ve never even heard mention of anyone, not even the most tragic Shakespearean character, more beset with such toils and troubles. To listen to the press secretary, her boss must be the most unjustly accused since Moses, and Pharaohs were notoriously intolerant.
It’s one thing to fall victim to Hoaxes, but quite another to publicly proclaim oneself a victim of them.
ImaginaryEnemiesWithin
Adriaen Collaert: The Enemy Sowing Tares Among the Wheat,
from Landscapes with Old and New Testament and Hunting Scenes
(1584)
"..they register every sown confusion as a victory."
When assaulting Decency, it’s probably best to first employ the time-tested EnemyWithin. This one carries the benefit of indicting the victim for harboring the criminal. It easily spreads the sort of madness not easily shaken, for, properly deployed, it gets Decency questioning, Decency’s Achilles’ Heel. Decent people easily accept suggestions that they might have inadvertently offended somebody, for they rarely suffer under the effects of the sin of self-importance. They consider themselves unremarkable, hardly worth fussing over, and open to persuasion if not the slightest suggestion. If they’ve violated some ordinance or custom, they’ll want to rebalance justice’s scales as quickly as possible. This agreeable countenance can sometimes render Decency into its own worst enemy. But I digress.
The EnemyWithin, of course, does not actually exist.
TheWarOnDecency
Robert Ericksen: War-torn (1945)
"Sadly, they largely prove incapable of feeling ashamed."
TheWarOnDecency began with a lessening of standards. Entertainment adopted a coarseness, as if its audience had been struck stupid. Plot and story slowly went to Hell in favor of Soap Operas and, ultimately, something labeled “Reality.” This reality, though, was reality’s archenemy, its theatrical opposite. Intended to titillate, it abandoned formal constructs of entertainment. Audience members were invited to engage in what was labeled as guilty pleasures: coarse language without any clear purpose, cruel lifeboat drill exercises, and endless derision. Some Other or another served as the endless butt of meaningless jokes. Some smartass was elevated to the role of hero, though his character and values remained unshakably shady. Awfulness seemed to be the sole purpose, as if its mere presence signified great success. Spectacle replaced subtlety. Cruelty amplified the underlying purpose. Those who regularly watched truly felt as though they were getting away with something and eventually forgot that they were ever supposed to feel guilty about anything.
What began as drama proved so popular that it migrated into sports, news, and even cartoons.
Insider
Sir Edward Burne-Jones: Perseus and Andromeda,
study for The Doom Fulfilled (1875)
"…probably plead for help from some Insider."
I was always clear that I was not an Insider. I can’t claim to have been deliberately excluded from anything, though it sometimes sure seems as if I must have been. I struggle to get inside. I don’t seem to understand how things work, how they’re classified, or how to gain access. I tried four times yesterday to crack the great mystery of how to order something on Amazon Prime®, only to be thwarted each time. It seemed as if Amazon had forgotten my Pastword, though it arrogantly insisted that I’d forgotten mine. I fool their security, though, by never remembering mine. I have software that remembers PastWords for me, so I can never forget them. Anyway, Amazon proved to be unusable again, as usual. You’d think that if they wanted customers, they would design access to allow even us outsiders inside. They do not.
My toilet seat broke yesterday.
Particle&Wave
Fukushima Ichirō: Wave in Chiba (Shōwa period,1926-1989)
"Perhaps our Decency utterly depends upon such useful fictions."
Decency, like matter, simultaneously exists in two states: Particle and Wave. As a particle, it appears as recognizable acts, physical incarnations of what might otherwise be nothing more than some psychological state. As a wave, it exists as more of a felt or abstractly felt sense, a ‘vibe’, if you will. Some Decency seems incredibly easy to see, obvious, while other Decency seems utterly invisible, yet still decidedly present. It’s incredibly easy for us humans to get so focused upon one of these two incarnations of Decency that we fail to see or sense the other. This phenomenon might explain the recent reports of Decency seemingly disappearing. If I overlook all but the most obvious and tangible Decency, I should excuse myself for failing to notice all the tacit Decency remaining.
Or, perhaps both forms are now threatened.
Renewal
Gustave Moreau: The Infant Moses
[Moïse Exposé sur le Nil] (c. 1876-c. 1878)
Gallery Text:
Paris hosted the 1878 Exposition universelle, or world’s fair, to celebrate France’s recovery after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. For the event, Gustave Moreau submitted a cycle of biblically themed paintings to reflect on the nation’s renewal. The series, which included this work as well as Jacob and the Angel (1874–78; also in Harvard’s collection) and David (1878), marked three stages of human life. Here Moreau celebrates the anticipation and promise associated with childhood: Moses, recognized by the rays emanating from his forehead, floats in his basket on the Nile, surrounded by the ruins of ancient Egypt. In a written commentary Moreau suggested the prophet’s enlightenment, noting the contrast between “this people of mummies, sphinxes, and gods with staring eyes and unmoving gaze” and “this fine human fruit full of sap and life.”
——
"That's just how Renewal works. Always has. Probably always will."
I think of Renewal as a positive, uplifting experience, forgetting in the moment that considerable destruction often accompanies it. I always find the demolition parts of the operation particularly upsetting because I inevitably overlook the underlying price of the improvement. Our current front porch Renewal began with a series of disappointments, each of which seemed to preface eventual disaster. Our first concrete contractor proved unreliable. He poured a sample sidewalk to demonstrate his abilities, and that sidewalk failed.
Furthermore, he disappeared with some of our advance, saying he needed to buy materials.
Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 10/02/2025
Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix: Camel (c. 1827-1828)
Different Than Taxable Income
This second week into this still-new Decency Series, I sensed myself settling into a fresh context. Few experiences better reward my choice to write than this sensation of settling into another perspective. It might seem as though I'm transcribing here what I already understand, but my persistent readers already understand that I rarely know what I'm going to write before it appears before me. I set an intention, then wait for the universe, The Gods, or chance to show me how they intend to manifest it. I am inescapably involved, but only as a medium. Maybe tolerating this experience exemplifies what it means to author. My movements in this world inevitably tend to become part of my stories, not through clever scheming, but through something infinitely more confounding. I am employed in precisely this way, not by a benevolent employer who pays me cash for my trouble, but by synchronicity, who reliably forgets to pay me with anything other than insights and experience. Curiously, I feel a more dedicated and reliable employee now then I was back when a paycheck reliably appeared at the end of every other work week. I feel infinitely more productive now than I ever did then, though I earn something quite different than taxable income.
Themocracy
Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita): it can be said of them (1969)
Inscriptions and Marks
Signed: l.c.: Corita
(not assigned): Printed text reads: it can be said of him, as of few men in like position, that he did not fear the weather and did not trim his sails, but instead, challenged the wind itself to improve its direction and to cause it to blow more softly and more kindly over the world and its people. the New Yorker
inscription: l.l., in graphite: 68-69-81
—
"We deserve to live in a land of the Decent and the home of the Thems!"
One under-appreciated aspect of the current War on Decency involves continually Themming Decency. Our incumbent characterizes Democracy, until very recently seen as a common element governing American life, as Themocracy, something ‘those other deplorable people practice.’ Anything not actively undermining Decency must be characterized as evil, even, especially, Decency itself. The Repuglicans refer to The Democratic Party as Themocrats, and insist that none of ‘us’ should be caught dead collaborating with ‘those people.’ I have even begun self-identifying as a Them, since that label clearly distances me from the apparent source of the problem. If ‘us’ stands for what he espouses, I gladly see myself as a Them. Us, once so inclusive, has become exclusive in a way that some wealthy golf retreats might seek to distance their members from all others. In this way, they’ve already successfully seceded from our union. So much the worse for ‘em, and good riddance!
Yet our union remains strong if wrongly characterized by those dedicated to undermining Decency.
Crickets
Unknown Artist-East Asia, Japan:
Decorative Sculpture in the Form of a Grasshopper or Cricket
(Late Edo period, 1615-1868, 19th century)
"The crickets said more than words in response."
Decency makes no discernible sound. Descretion regulates its responses. It will not easily rise to provocation. It holds its cards closest to its vest. If you want to know what Decency thinks, ask, then wait for an interminable-seeming time, for Decency will never be in the business of disclosure, and it demands deliberation time. It will not move with the wind and does not require much ego gratification. It understands that very little is ever about it and takes very little terribly personally. It already has plenty and does not desire to accumulate much more. It avoids appearing unseemly at pretty much any cost. It does not do surly.
A large room filled with generals and admirals, brought together to rile them up, remains silent through speeches that were intended to burn barns.
Deceit
Jean-Pierre-Xavier Bidauld:
Trompe l'Oeil with Prints and a Butterfly (1766)
"Not even that frenzied moment will last forever."
Perhaps the truest test Decency ever encounters occurs whenever it tangles with Deceit. Deceit deliberately misrepresents. If Decency strives to be on the up and up, Deceit insists upon the down and down. Deceit distorts its position, which effectively negates the possibility of successful negotiation. Deceit doesn’t care so much about winning any particular engagement as long as its opponent loses. It knows no shame. It blames. It shamelessly defames, deliberately leaving Decency in a lurch. Each violation serves as another invitation for Decency to let down its defenses and compromise itself. Deceit wins when it successfully recruits Decency into its ranks. Each invitation might serve as a successful seduction if Decency were in any way similar to Deceit. It isn’t.
Still, it’s difficult for even the most disciplined Decency to quietly sit by while Deceit sways public opinion again.
Persistence
Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins: Miss Alice Kurtz (1903)
"Will we persist with our damning decency even then?"
From A Threatened Portland, Oregon, On The Morning It Appeared Our Incumbent Relented Before His Assault Could Begin, Realizing He Couldn’t Possibly Win.
The ICE agents look like children engaged in pretend war games. Armed with ridiculous-looking paintball weapons loaded with pepperball ammo and wearing silly face coverings, they appear anything but threatening. They scream without provocation, thereby disclosing just how terrified they must feel inside. Their opponents bring Persistence to the game rather than pretend weapons. They take their licks as administered by the undisciplined troops. They curse but rarely really resist. They go flaccid when assaulted, rendering their attacker powerless to influence. They persist instead. It slowly becomes evident that the scare tactics aren’t working; the protesters seem unaffected by the vague threats and meaningless curses, which fail to carry much evidence of underlying malice. This is performance, mugging for unseen cameras. Nobody is willing to suspend their disbelief, not a freshly installed officer or a vastly more experienced protester. Everyone knows who wins these kinds of confrontations.
The ICE agents might just as well be punching pillows for all the difference they’re making on the peaceful and royally pissed-off citizens.
DecencyDemanding
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley: The Scarlet Pastorale (1894)
"…those of us daily struggling to live decent lives in these extraordinary times."
What does Decency demand of me now? This seems to be the question reverberating in my head most mornings. I find no definitive answer. If I were a martyr, I might more easily find such a response, for I would know without a doubt that Decency desperately desired me to become a victim to whatever provocation I might encounter. But Decency does not seem to want me to be placating situations. It wants me to be true to myself, too, to stand up for something. It sometimes seems that my Decency and I are witnessing especially horrible provocations, ones specifically engineered to elicit something approaching my very worst responses. They seem to desire my anger. They frustrate me with double-binding insistences. They do not appear above outright lying just to bring out my worst responses, and, believe me, I have been frantically sorting through alternatives. The Decency question resonates even more strongly the longer I consider my options.
The eight-year-old in office has mastered nothing more interesting than fabricating.
Situationalism
Patricq Kroon: Musch and Bouwmeester (1900 - 1924)
The actors Jan Musch and (Louis?) Builder in conversation with each other. Design for a cartoon in the newspaper.
"Perhaps I should be indicting myself."
Maybe Decency should only be exercised situationally. Perhaps it’s a Sunday sort of behavior. Certainly, considerable ambiguity surrounds its appropriate use. One might not want to waste any on enemies, for instance. Perhaps only certain people are qualified to receive it, and maybe not everybody’s fully certified to properly dispense it. Maybe it requires some skill to properly deploy. Should rank amateurs even be allowed to engage in it? What if they were to accidentally extend some Decency to someone unqualified to receive it, someone, for instance, who couldn’t properly appreciate it? Couldn’t the resulting misunderstanding leave the world worse off for the experience? Might indiscriminate Decency cause real and lasting damage, not only to the practitioner but also to the unwitting receiver? What if we inadvertently spoil some hapless receiver into expecting to always receive Decency in a naturally hard and increasingly indifferent world?
I might needlessly worry about such questions.
Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 09/25/2025
Jack Gould: Untitled [woman writing numbers on blackboard] (c. 1950)
We Must Embody It Now
Imaginary Enemies might be the most virulent kind. There’s no physical way to defeat them. They can only ever be conquered by other means, often through cognitive means. This means that those most likely to conjure up Imaginary Enemies usually prove to be the ones least able to vanquish them. They escalate defensive measures far beyond reasonable levels instead, often inflicting greater damage upon themselves than any enemy, imaginary or actual, could ever manage. Failure to deflect the imaginary only rarely uncovers the illusion, for only clear victory could convince the thoroughly deluded, and Imaginary Enemies wickedly withhold such clarity. It seems as though a clever conspiracy prevents unambiguous evidence from emerging. The afflicted slowly suffocate in their own ambiguity, chasing shadows of their own activity, unable to distinguish between actual and imagined.
A grave injustice might prove to be the only means by which Imaginary Enemies are ever vanquished.
SearchingForDecency
Antonio Tempesta: Canens Searching for Picus (1606)
"It seems likely to be taken down by defensive friendly fire."
Hoping to gain a better understanding of Decency, I initiated a Google search for “Decency In The News.” I received in return references and explanations that didn’t even attempt to define Decency, or even to provide current examples of it in action. I found instead lengthy descriptions of what Decency isn’t, how it so often seems missing from online conversations, and how Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has done little to encourage Decency in online forums, though it has successfully shielded platform owners from lawsuits for such offenses as third-party slander and copyright infringement. “Reports about ‘decency’ in the news consistently focus on its erosion in politics and society, though the Communications Decency Act also remains a topic. Current conversations often frame a decline in decency as a symptom of deeper societal issues like incivility and political polarization.”
One deeper societal issue, aside from the obvious incivility and political polarization, might be the apparent unspeakability of Decency.
ReWired
Lee Russel: Trailer of itinerant electrician near Pharr, Texas (1939)
Farm Security Administration Photographs
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. "Trailer of itinerant electrician near Pharr, Texas" New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed September 24, 2025. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/8e15f900-c4fb-0136-ce6e-438981b45b1b
"…it might take such work to set the circuits straight again."
I realize that I have been ReWired. Whether I believe the bullshit or not, and perhaps especially because I don’t believe it, either conclusion could serve as evidence that a successful rewiring has occurred. I wish, and even pray, in my curiously agnostic way, that this situation were otherwise, that my defenses had not been compromised, but I have lately realized that there was no avoiding this experience. Yes, I refused to watch Fox from its inception, except for a few otherwise inaccessible baseball games they alone televised, because I firmly believed that exposure to that poisonous content might rewire my judgment. I had not suspected that just deciding to tiptoe around it was also evidence of its backhanded success. Its premise might have scared me off, but it also motivated me to build a fence around my property to maintain an isolated Dignity, when Dignity rightfully knows no such boundaries.
The insidious nature of shriveling morals affects even the morally steadfast.
D-Scrolling
Sebald Beham: Little Buffoon with Scroll (1542)
"Curious how there's so much more effort expended trying not to do something than there ever is to simply repeating it."
We refer to this activity as Doom Scrolling, the practice of aimlessly perusing online media. The scrolling part of the term seems more self-explanatory than the doom portion. The doom comes from the general content found on social media. It tends to be overwhelmingly focused on the catastrophic. On slow news days, plenty of past catastrophes appear to hold the space. Scientists—real scientists, not the phony ones currently enjoying a resurgence on social media—suggest that each exposure to a report of some catastrophe incites something in our brain to dispense an addictive substance that encourages us to continue engaging in the hope of stumbling upon another similar report. Doom apparently better excites the amygdala suspected of dispensing this addictive substance than do more uplifting kinds of content. Fuzzy kitten and fluffy baby duckie pics work to some extent, but apparently not nearly as well as catastrophe.
It's nothing personal.
Decency
Follower of Jan Massys: Two Peasants Looking at a Mirror (c. 1550)
"I will be investigating this notion between now and just before Christmas."
We insist that we are decent people, charitable to a fault. We rail against indecency as if it were the obscenity it always was. Yet we engage in the occasional absolutely indecent activity. We're currently, under the direction of our administration, which, thankfully, cannot administer anything, deporting people without due process. They're initiating, in our good name, a raft of initiatives Decency prohibits. Yet they're still proclaiming from every pulpit just how deep down Decent they are, and we remain.
Maybe Decency is something other than what we've always assumed it was.
Good For A Goose
Decency (35)
Exiled (90)
Fambly (93)
FollowingChapters (93)
Grace (92)
Humor (2)
iAlogue (1)
Letters to the Editor (1)
NextWorld (91)
Personal (18)
Steam Festival (4)
Vaporized (6)
Work (16)
September 2025
August 2025
July 2025
June 2025
May 2025
April 2025
March 2025
February 2025
January 2025
December 2024
November 2024
October 2024
September 2024
August 2024
July 2024
June 2024
May 2024
April 2024
March 2024
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
