Hendrick ter Brugghen (signed by artist) (1628)
Heraclitus
Gallery Notes: The Greek sage Heraclitus was known as the crying philosopher because he mourned the folly of humankind, while his opposite, Democritus (the nearby pendant), could only laugh at it. Here, Heraclitus looks like a melancholy old man. Downcast, he leans on a terrestrial globe and gestures dismissively with his left hand, as if to say: ‘All is for nought, the world will come to nothing.’

Hendrick ter Brugghen (signed by artist) (1628)
Democritus
The Greek philosophers Democritus and Heraclitus were considered to be polar opposites. In contrast to the old, melancholy Heraclitus (the nearby pendant), Democritus appears as a young, laughing hedonist. He points to the distance, as though that is where the folly of mankind is found. Together, the pair of paintings conveys a moralizing message: whether you laugh or cry, the world remains incurably foolish.

" … when we're not watching closely enough to notice."

I rarely acknowledge how steadfastly I oppose my actions. If a loyal Opposition exists, I embody it. I hesitate when I might charge. I likewise usually fail to notice how effectively everyone around me works to undermine themselves, too. It's as if we each possess a gyroscope spinning somewhere inside that tries to keep balance by introducing opposing forces into our efforts. On my better days, I feel fully capable of acknowledging these forces, and even that they sometimes seem to manage to eventually produce the opposite of whatever it was I claimed to be pursuing. The Ancient Greek Philosopher Heraclitus insisted that things inevitably become their opposite, as if this was as normal an attribute as height or weight. This trait need not necessarily spark concern. I take considerable solace in acknowledging that our incumbent must be prey to precisely this same force of nature.

I suspect he's unaware that he represents his own, most effective opposition. Most of the rest of us readily acknowledge in his utter ineptness a stronger-than-typical tendency to undermine his intentions. He can't seem to launch anything except it comes out backwards. His promises evaporate like snowflakes hitting a hot skillet. He seems the very soul of inconsistency, seemingly always chickening out, or so the critics have noticed. He appears to cheat at everything he does, though he seems to be the only one in his cartoonish entourage who notices. I suspect they're just deflecting acknowledgment in the probably misguided belief that if they can pretend it didn't happen, it didn't happen. This deep-down dishonesty will probably not deflect the reckoning. His administration will also ultimately embody the opposite of its originating intentions.

Each overreach throws the operation further off-balance. Each overreaction further undermines original intentions. The theatrics alone reveal the shallowness that supports the operation. It's hardly anything at all, other than slogans and fanfare, which, combined, seem to signify nothing. They do have innocent immigrants to harass, which only further erodes whatever credibility their goons were supposed to have. If they were supposed to scare somebody, they will eventually come to scare themselves as they watch decency surround them while they possess only flashbangs to defend themselves against The People they were supposed to be protecting. The worse they get, the better they will become, for there is a bottom to even the gravest depravity. Nobody will be erecting any statuary celebrating their courage or their cowardice, polar opposites that collapse into the same substance with repeated iteration.

Most days, I'm watching a baseball game where the same team occupies both dugouts and struggles in opposition to itself. Neither side seems to make any progress. Whether they cooperate or compete doesn't seem to matter; they struggle hard to defeat themselves on a slightly different timescale than they play. They stoke up undermining energy as they move through the innings; the new rules, intended to speed up the game, only make it less enjoyable to watch. Eventually, Major League Baseball will probably go the way of bowling and golf, no longer worth even considering watching anymore. Would that our political moment would hasten into its opposite, for its current incarnation doesn't seem to be producing much of anything for our nation. I wonder what the undermining factor will turn out to be, or if it will simply become one of those overwhelming oppositions that tend to arise when we're not watching closely enough to notice.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #CHope , #PureSchmaltz