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. This stands as the best of all purposes for employing it. The InvisibleEnemyWithin cannot be confirmed, but neither can it be successfully denied. Shoving any controversy into the imaginary renders it conventionally unresolvable. Since Decency’s enemies cannot possibly discredit Decency for sins of commission, since Decency doesn’t sin on indictable scales, better to employ innuendo and suggestion, the perfect mediums for ImaginaryEnemiesWithin to flourish. Remember our incumbent’s great blunder of proclaiming that millions of slathering, raping, and murdering aliens were living within our borders. These were clearly ImaginaryEnemiesWithin, but they seemed so closely associated with probable actual people that it seemed reasonable for his administrators to set physically unrealistic bounties. Because there were not even a hundred thousand actual such enemies within, the round-ups of presumed aliens appeared thin. Further pressure to fulfill expectations goaded the thugs to start racially profiling and illegally jailing naturalized citizens, even children. Caution should be taken when identifying ImaginaryEnemiesWithin to ensure they remain imaginary.

When employing ImaginaryEnemiesWithin, it remains usually best to stick to abstract labels, especially those with emotional associations. Communists serve as a reliable all-weather enemy, especially the card-carrying kind. Socialists will do in a pinch, since nobody West of Europe has a clue what constitutes socialism, though almost everyone carries a seemingly inbred fear and distrust of it, whatever it entails. Specific brands of abstractions work best when sparingly used: Bolsheviks, for instance, since they haven’t actually existed since the nineteen-teens. Racial epithets must be used sparingly lest they offend current and future trading partners. Entirely imaginary abstractions work under almost every condition: Antifa, Scum, Human Garbage. A variety of designations reliably shields the nascent abuser from too much focused scrutiny. Use some slur, then move on to another. This connotes a sense of overwhelm that even Decency finds empathy toward.

The gist, the essence of employing ImaginaryEnemiesWithin, lies in the absence of fingerprints available to prove the offending assertion. The Decent can respond with a consistently self-demeaning “Nugh Ungh,” but will prove unable to definitively discount these assertions. Because there can be no credible witness for the defense, such as a representative from Antifa, available to take questions at a press conference, there can be no defense. The accusations were hollow from inception. Denials seem ever more hollow, too. To even acknowledge the assertion ennobles it into an existence wholly unworthy of consideration. InvisibleEnemiesWithin amount to invitations to wrestle with nothingness, something the indecent absolutely revel in purveying. Their purpose was always to distract rather than engage in substantive consideration. Their least intention couldn’t bear the tiniest scrutiny, and they’re more aware than anybody of their indefensible positions. If they can throw chaff into the face of Decent questions and further demean Decency in the process, they register every sown confusion as a victory.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Decency, #PureSchmaltz