James Naumburg Rosenberg:
Mad House (20th century)

"May Decency preserve us until this Madness crumbles."

Occasionally, in the course of human affairs, sanity becomes an impossibility, so Madness takes over for a spell. These periods tend to be brief in the scale of any country’s history, but memorable in terms of lessons learned, or, if not necessarily learned, then lessons experienced. These lessons become uniquely memorable, in part, because they produce devastating results: stock market crashes, wars, famines, and the occasional pestilence and plague. It’s almost as if success became unbearable, so voters opted to try failure for a while. Their world shortly thereafter goes to Hell. That they brought it on themselves complicates responding in any otherwise reasonable fashion, so squabbling consumes what might have been a crisp reply. Countries do tend to eventually achieve recovery, albeit a chastened one. Then comes the painful period where they try to learn something from their experience. Much blame changes hands, and eventually, what will pass for a fresh sanity takes over.

During the period of degradation, Decency becomes a stranger. It’s a dog-eat-dog world then, ruled by the most primitive emotions. Those still clinging to reason speak exclusively to partisans or, more often, deafened ears. Before the Madness becomes unignorable, the abuses seem like so many odd rumors. It seems evident that nobody in their right mind would ever choose to embody the hinted-at policies, so they seem fictitious. Later, it will come to light that it was much worse than this, and without even indecent reasons. Madness elevates whim to the position of Prime Minister. It demotes reason to the role of trash collector.

Madness might be the most communicable condition humans can contract. When present in a leader, its spread renders wildfires envious. It colors responses and numbs reactions. Those still sane in insane places receive little benefit for their effort. They soon get subsumed into the dominant focus. When the baseline proves crooked, every other element of the construction gets affected. Level gets assessed on a canted scale. Reformers are multiple times more likely to get corrupted than they are to reform. Even the average person, if such a person exists, gets affected, as their choices shrink and their options disappear. After a carrot lands in the pea soup pot, it becomes pea soup more than carrot. It was never destined to transform that pea soup into carrot soup. Madness moves like this through even the otherwise most Decent populace.

While it seems urgent to address such Madness at the earliest, even inconvenient possible moment, it must run its course. Madness tends to be a self-correcting infection in that it works hardest to undermine its own position. It cannot construct robust support mechanisms, so it relies upon rather flimsy, jury-rigged ones. Often, these contradict each other, thereby undermining themselves. Madness knows no reason. Nor can it comprehend justification. It becomes at best the sum of its contradictions, and often, some wild exponent of them. Madness cannot comprehend exponentiation, let alone perceive it. It moves its chess pieces, incapable of strategic intent. It plays with each game it attempts to play, rendering even friendly competition impossible. Madness ultimately suffocates itself. The question becomes, “What’s left to build back from?”

Discredited partisans rarely learn their lessons. Some portion of the vanquished throng will continue to play along as if everything hadn’t changed forever. They will never understand and will very likely continue to oppose Decency even when it benefits them and their family. Those who come to see will assume Prometheus’ role, or Sisyphus’. Neither role will seem particularly uplifting except in the longer run than most who build it will be alive. Recovery is for upcoming centuries more than today, and Decency gladly sacrifices to avoid revisiting recent history. Sanity might not necessarily be more alluring than Madness, but it’s usually longer-lasting.

Who knows what will stumble our present spate of Madness? Many of us see multiple crashes coming, any one of which could flip the switch, but none of which guarantees it. We try to keep the faith, even as the temple walls crumble around us. We might be fortunate to feel the craziness more than those consumed by the Madness ever will. Social evolution proves ugly in practice. Lessons experienced hurt more than any lesson learned. The insanity should persist until it can no longer continue. Every day seems as though we might be getting closer to a tipping point, and every damned day seems even further away. May Decency preserve us until this Madness crumbles.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Decency, #PureSchmaltz