Cornelis Anthonisz: The winged pig in the world (1541 - 1545)

Allegory of the corrupt world: winged pig standing on imperial apple.
Second pig eating from trough.

"Those who insist upon living in glass houses must restrain their public actions."

Few crimes seem more misaligned than corruption. Those to whom trust has been extended betray something more than that trust when they engage in Corrupting behavior. They corrode themselves first. Stealing from the public purse seems much worse than any other sort of burglary. Violating simple comportment rules can quickly become complicated. A twisting occurs, first of ethics and later, of respectability. Those who profit from their service are rightly seen as beneath contempt. No excuse ever erases the stain. No apology ever undos the well-deserved disdain. Those who believe themselves to be above the law demonstrate only how far below it they've fallen. Bottom feeders deserve the dregs.

Our current administration conducts a master class in corruption. Everything it touches seems corroded for the experience. They seem to hold even the simplest rule in deepest disdain. When someone notices, they deny the obvious before doing it again, more deliberately, while thumbing their noses in unison. They seem to believe they were somehow born above the law. They proclaim in upside-down fashion. Their up sure seems like down to me. Their straight and narrow seems riddled with switchbacks to my way of seeing. I can't understand how they can stand to be with themselves. They revel in indictable offenses. I pray that one day, those indictments will be filed, and they'll be punished to the full extent of the laws they violated.

Trust seems plenty delicate enough, and public trust seems downright dainty. Leaders hold much more than simple obligations to avoid Corrupting. They hold the sacred responsibility to keep operations clean. Only corrupted systems devolve into zero-sum games, where one person's win forces a loss on everyone else. Uncorrupted systems seem generous. They can produce enough for almost everyone to benefit. Underclasses serve as signs of an embedded corruption. Egalitarian outcomes demonstrate the presence of fairness. Winner-take-all systems are not innate to capitalism, but evidence of underlying corruption.

I can't understand the attraction. Corrupting seems at root short-sighted, as if there won't eventually be a tomorrow or an accounting. The idea that one might get away with dirty dealing presumes more than seems even distantly reasonable. Even Bolsonaro was held accountable a few short years after he jeered at those who remained respectable. Our incumbent, should he survive, will likely face a similar downfall, as he has proven to be the most Corrupting politician. Everything he touches turns into crypto, an inherently corrupted and Corrupting form of wealth. He sure behaves as if he's above the law. He seems incapable of being careful. His cavalier behavior will ultimately be his downfall. If the world trends toward justice, he's screwed. If it's turning into Pottersville, we'll be the ones who pay the price for his behavior. (We will probably pay either way.)

The Whatabouters will always insist that their corrupting behavior is perfectly legal, that those who played within more traditional lines were suckers. That's always been their story. They bring no sense of history into the game, believing that they've reinvented public service to serve themselves. Even the robber barons lived to rue their earlier behavior. I suspect, without much recent evidence, that even Repuglicans might be capable of learning better, though their corrupting activities seem to have become endemic for them. They've spiced it with an odd, reinforcing sort of religion that they even refer to as Christian, though no practicing parishioner would recognize it. Corrupting what passed as a moral authority seems cynical and will likely prove to have been their downfall. Those who insist upon living in glass houses must restrain their public actions.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #FollowingChapters, #PureSchmaltz