Richard Dadd:
Sketch to Illustrate the Passions—Senility or Peevishness
(1855)

"I fear we're just investing in an impending Comeuppance instead."

If I asked you to name the most likely outcome from a country being named the most prosperous in the history of the world, I doubt that you would reply, “Paranoia,” yet that’s what we find. We are that country. We could have been recognized as the most generous or the most peaceful in the history of this world, but we aren’t. We aren’t, and we’re slipping further into Paranoia. Congress allocates around 50% of our annual discretionary budget to Defense, though it comprises only about 15% of our overall budget. We spend more on mandatory spending like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, but we also complain much louder about those choices. In some ways, our Federal budget mirrors our society’s Paranoia: we focus the bulk of our spending on ensuring our future security, yet we remain perhaps the most Paranoid country in the history of this world.

What justifies such a self-image? What might have encouraged us to feel overly suspicious and irrationally distrustful of others? Let me count the ways, but many countries would and perhaps should come out of such an accounting feeling at least equally Paranoid. Most sinned in their own particular ways to become the nation they eventually became. The Land of the Free enslaved. The Home of the Brave swindled. Whether viciously savaging designated savages or raping their raw materials, every society has ample experience in disappointing its higher aspirations. Some worked through their shortcomings to achieve a cleansing acceptance. Canadians better integrated their First Nations. The British abolished their slave trade much earlier. Each engaged in unforegiveable atrocities along the way. We achieved many great things, too, but still retain what a psychologist might trace to an absence of self-forgiveness. We can’t seem to stop looking over our shoulders, expecting some jealous competitor to be overtaking our position. Maybe we deep-down understand that we deserve some Comeuppance, and rightfully expect some of it to catch up to us. Whatever the original cause and the continuing reinforcement, we seem to undeniably be a paranoid society.

The Muse and I were reflecting on how poorly we’d handled the endings of our first marriages. We behaved abysmally, only perhaps necessarily, for such bonds shouldn’t properly be casually broken. Of course there were extenuating circumstances. It took two to tango, but the breaks required some stretches of everyone involved’s imagination, and the accounting never could have truly balanced. We both wronged. Our present lives, which seem as satisfying as they seem, stand upon a foundation that could and perhaps should leave us both feeling Paranoid. Some Comeuppance might still be outstanding, and we might be fully psychologically justified in feeling Paranoid. We cannot count ourselves qualified to cast a first stone. We moved on.

We could construct a story that might fully justify adopting a paranoid lifestyle for ourselves going forward, but we haven’t. Maybe being immersed within a clearly Paranoid society has given us enough pause to deliberately make another choice. Paranoia might well seem self-reinforcing, but its absurd results might eventually encourage some serious questioning. Trusting might never require anyone else to exhibit overwhelmingly believable trustworthiness, however we might imagine that it might manifest. It might require me to forgive myself first, to accept the shameful acts that I committed with adequate personal contrition. Yes, I am guilty as charged. No, I no longer feel as though I deserve any Comeuppance. Others might disagree, and even feel justified in considering me untrustworthy, but if I can find justification to trust myself, that formerly overtaking Comeuppance might stop constantly shadowing me.

Our Department of Defense, now claiming to be our Department of War, presents as simply our Department of Defensiveness, an understandable distinction, since its real business seems to be encouraging Paranoia. There is and never was any adequate defense against Paranoia. Once experienced, it’s already breached the walls and taken up residence in the least accessible places inside the castle. It self-reinforces. Paranoia seems to come from out-there forces, though this inevitably and always proves not to be the case. Paranoia is a choice, and one always available to accept or reject, regardless of the apparently justifying causes. Not one witness was ever qualified to cast that first stone. No country ever really stands alone, though none feel more lonely than those who take their quite understandable Paranoia too seriously. The wealthiest country in history could easily afford to purchase something better than a defining Paranoia with its wealth. I fear we’re just investing in an impending Comeuppance instead.

©2026 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Comeuppance, #PureSchmaltz