Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重
Asakusa Rice Fields and Torinomachi Festival
(Asakusa tanbo Torinomachi mode),
from the series “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)”
(1857)

"…battling each other's spare realities with the jawbones of asses."

Prosperity resolves none of the primary existential human dilemmas, though it does seem to deliver a few Easements. No, not permissions to trespass across another’s property, but the largely psychological sense that one can afford to take one's ease. Freed from the constant pressure otherwise necessary for mere survival, a hierarchy of needs emerges. Higher order urges can take over once Prosperity seemingly resolves the barer necessities, even if only temporarily. I do not believe these higher-order interests are unavailable to the Pre-Prosperous or even the pauper; they just seem more conveniently accessible once simple survival no longer dominates existence. Many artists have flourished while living in icy garrets. Prosperity can reassure without necessarily resolving any of the inescapable human frailties associated with disease or even death. Prosperity cannot prevent that pirate from visiting, or even the odd thief in the night, but it can cast a convincing enough shadow to allow other interests to temporarily dominate one’s consciousness. It opens space without really resolving much.

We humans seem remarkable for how distractible we’ve always been. We seem quite naturally attracted by most any bright shiny. We carry much grander expectations than we almost ever actually experience. We might be largely imaginary. If something as thin as Prosperity can inspire us, it’s a wonder we ever retain focus. We seem to believe ourselves exceptional, as if the laws of the universe were crafted to rule over others, not us. We might be easily discouraged, but we seem to be much more easily reassured. From lucky pennies to four-leaf clovers, Prosperity might emerge from any seemingly pedestrian activity. We seem to find our Easements in the most unlikely places. A decent meal can leave me feeling like the king of the world. I seem to forget that I woke up hungry that morning and am more than merely likely to wake up hungry again tomorrow. For that moment and the few that follow, even that tiny Prosperity almost renders me a God.

It might not matter that we remain so fruitfully forgetful. If we were truly obsessed with all we cannot under any condition access, we would be much worse for our innocent preoccupation. We inhabit a fanciful planet, rife with strife, for sure, but also buffered by our own spirited resistance to the realities swirling around us. We inhabit placid corners, however temporarily, and we seem fully satisfied by even the tinier Easements we stumble across there. The rich man who lives in the mansion at the end of the block is no more immortal than the pauper who inhabits the shack on the backside of that same block. Yet, we envy the apparent Prosperity the rich man holds without acknowledging that the pauper in his shack has access to Easements every bit as reassuring as any the rich man might possess, perhaps even greater. Those Easements only seem like possessions. They are more certainly leased, and likely to be yanked at any time, without adequate prior warning, a feature that renders them somehow more permanent, trustworthy, and sacred. We do not so much trust in God, but in our envies and our temporary Easements, Amen.

Prosperity has never really been anybody’s real property, regardless of what wording might be present on the deed. The deed never was worth whatever paper it might have been printed on, for the actual Prosperity, whatever its apparent source or manifestation, was never for a moment real. Prosperity only comes in imaginary forms, many more convincing than anything anyone’s actually held in their hand. Prosperity isn’t just a delusion, though; it’s more of a conviction that seems real enough to provide actual Easements. The Easements are actual regardless of the illusory nature of their emergence, regardless of their missing protections from the existential dilemmas of human existence. Prosperity works entirely As If it works, not because it ever actually does.

Weeks ago, I proposed that Prosperity was a NoThing, and here’s that theme taking another entrance. Entrancing though it might seem, this NoThing can be very convincing, but it seems to be in the nature of NoThings when encountering humans that they take on especially significant existences. I might insist that our most significant notions have always been of this same insignificant-seeming substance, beliefs easily undermined if anyone cared enough to undermine them, illusions capable of almost effortlessly supporting entire societies. Such NoThings have always carried great significance throughout human history, and have largely remained an unstudied mystery. It might be that nobody really wants to pop this particular balloon that has served humanity so well for so long. What other human facility has proven to so reliably encourage the best out of us? Without the resulting Easements, we might well still be little more advanced than cave people, battling each other’s spare realities with the jawbones of asses. It’s not that we’re better than that, but that we firmly believe ourselves better that’s made the difference, though we sometimes lose connection to this legacy, our inheritance.

©2026 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Prosperity, #PureSchmaltz