Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重
A Cuckoo Against the Moon
(c. 1843/46)

"…what's to become of our once prominent Prosperity after we've managed to Anti- every alternative out of the realm of existential possibility?"

It seems to have become fashionable to oppose virtually any proposition. I blame the radical conservative MAGA movement for basing their politics entirely on opposition and thereby encouraging what might have always been a passion seething beneath the surface of the appearance of respectability. They opposed progress because it seemed to upset their overly delicate sensibilities. They encouraged long-discarded theories and practices in lieu of embracing modernity, which they at least pretended to believe represented evil incarnate. From there, it was a short portage to a place where any decency could be easily and convincingly opposed as either woke, whatever that was, or stupid, which never really qualified as an argument. They were opposed, whatever it was, and supportive of little other than the usual vacuous dribble: free enterprise, America (first, last, and always), and tariffs. They opposed more than the usual suspects, but some fresh villains, too: freedom of speech, which apparently emboldens enemies, free trade, which reportedly renders us all paupers, and justice, which always seemed to them to hold the wrong criminals responsible.

As absurd as their anti-everything platform might have seemed, their tactics rubbed off on even the most dedicated of their opposition. They started opposing, too. Of course, they just had to oppose those policies that promoted being opposed to everything. This added another spectrum of opposition to the commons. As the economy slumped into its inevitable recession, the oppositions became even more emphatic. With ever fewer resources to access, the stakes became increasingly serious. Eighteen months after our hapless incumbent took office, he and his anti-everything policies had produced the worst economy in memory, heading even further south, and ever faster. The potential for heading off a fullblown depression seemed to evaporate as the incumbent started an unnecessary war he couldn’t finish, thereby forfeiting whatever economic advantage he might have inherited from his vastly more talented forebears. The anti-everything sentiments exploded under the pressure of society imploding.

An old adage from the systems thinking community suggests that when in extremis, act to increase possibilities and potential. Proliferate alternatives. Spread the bet across multiple options rather than blowing the remaining wad on a single, so-called lucky number. Don’t just try again, but try try again, or even try try try again if at all possible. The anti-sentiments that seemed so necessary when setting up the perfectly predictable catastrophe could only serve to further the distress when repeated in extremis. Anti- eventually loses its utility. Then, it might be more useful to find something to encourage and support again. Rather than failing to Make America Great Again, we might embrace the notion that we might be capable of Making America America Again, or, better, of Making America Better Than It Ever Was Before. MABTIEWB: hardly a speakable acronym, but perhaps much better advice than any nothingness encouraging returning into any past that never existed.

Anti- energy disperses. It cannot properly focus. It uses the wrong end of intention to point the way. How about considering some viable alternative instead of another feckless Anything But That? What might that opposition become if it was crafted from positive energy? How might that shift create fresh potential? The Anti- perspective seems destined to at best produce dead ends. If the goal is the cessation of something, what might take up all that lost momentum? Nothingness or something, anything else? We seem to have inherited the notion that we might somehow successfully cease and desist. Not yet in the history of this universe so far has any physical, social, or psychological system succeeded in ceasing and desisting anything, for we lack the superpower to create the inevitably resulting nothingnesses. Our hands only become God’s when paired with some positive purpose. The Anti- stance might have always represented the devil’s own perspective.

But we moderns no longer believe in devils, other than those that oppose whatever we’re passionately opposing at any particular moment. We seem to flee from free inquiry in favor of passionate assertions. We oppose what we couldn’t possibly know. We despise what we fear we might fail to properly oppose. We suspect the worst instead of anything better, imagining that safety lies in opposition when that produces at best flimsy defenses. I oppose the Anti-es, who I suspect must think me crazy when we probably both lack adequate information and/or perspective. Suspicion rules once trust forfeits its wonder. I feel heartsick at the blunders we’ve embraced. I hunker down in the wildfire smoke and wonder what’s to become of our once prominent Prosperity after we’ve managed to Anti- every alternative out of the realm of existential possibility?

©2026 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Prosperity, #PureSchmaltz