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. The protestors deliver less protesting and more contempt. They deliberately chose to disrespect their opponents’ disrespect by not showing it the fierceness it so richly deserved and likely expected. They brought the constitutional crisis down to the kindergarten level, leaving the intruders looking like the silly bullies they actually were. Had the people greeted them with some form of force, it might have reinforced their intention to appear as though they were some humbling force. Instead, the crowds mostly stayed away in force. Those who did show up to exercise their right to complain wore costumes difficult to take very seriously, like the guy in a chicken onesie with a cape, as if he were attending a five-year-old’s birthday party, which, in some ways, he was.

Our incumbent rules with all the wisdom of a typical five-year-old. I mean no insult to the many fine five-year-olds who would never dream of behaving so abysmally, but a cranky five-year-old reverts to about the average mood lability of any two-year-old, transcending their age group’s hard-earned maturity for want of a nap or a snack. Uncontrolled emotion rules both our incumbent and that cranky five-year-old. Some adults should know better than to follow our incumbent’s directions when they so clearly violate our Constitution—five-year-olds rarely if ever even attempt to go that far. Responding to people following clearly illegal orders seems to require something beyond simple resistance. It demands a response that acknowledges the juvenile nature of the context in which such situations occur. Send in the clowns to engage with the unconscious clowns. Perhaps a circus will awaken those invaders from their terrible trances.

If not, the protestors find a reason to dance. They’re not so much blocking traffic as executing a spontaneous block party. Yes, the neighbors will complain of the noise in the street, but that noise that so annoys them is the sound of freedom in action. The freedom to encourage our enemies to feel like fools represents the very best tradition of what it means to be a citizen here. Even resident aliens come to understand that Americans prefer to be seen as weird. We sincerely believe ourselves to be exceptional comedians, and in several important aspects, we are, though we often can’t quite see what others find so funny about our perspectives. We have always been notorious clowns, from that ridiculous imaginary Revolutionary Army that improbably managed to win freedom from the British Crown to the out-soldiered Union Army retreating from Manassas, we have cast rather silly shadows as our legacy. We’re more the land of silliness than the home of the brave, but few acts require more courage than to stand up to a band of thugs while wearing an iridescent inflatable frog suit. Such opposition’s difficult to miss.

Our history seems to be almost completely comprised of people taking serious situations altogether too seriously. These almost always turned out tragically. It might be personified wisdom and damned courageous to refuse to take some serious matters nearly seriously enough, to render unto Bozo what rightfully belongs to Bozo, to not rise to that historically almost inexorable bait. To flatly say, “No!” to the incited violence and refuse to play into the supposed-to-play tragedy. To take careful aim at the center of the opponent’s self-importance, and let loose with a well-aimed volley of irreverence, as if their seriousness was silliness, as if their threatened violence didn’t ruffle a single one of our ripstop nylon inflatable feathers on our cockatoo costume. Show them we’d rather be the kind of Americans who’d rather make fun than war. What better way to preserve our actual Constitutional order?

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Decency, #PureSchmaltz