Charles WIlliams: A New Mode of Presenting Two Addresses at Once
(published February 1818)

"We must be their enemy."

When one feels called to save the world, one must find some Pretext for engaging because nobody would ever recognize their savior should they happen upon them. Vonnegut described The Second Coming as featuring an undescribably ugly alien who appears at a suburban shopping mall and communicates exclusively through tap dancing and farting. Rather than recognize salvation in their midst, a disgruntled crowd beat him to death. One might choose to dress themselves up in any costume, but whichever one they choose, it will be a mere Pretext, a cloaking mechanism primarily intended to prevent others from understanding one's agenda. This charade must occur if the means don't matter. If the ends truly justify whatever must be done to achieve them, then deception becomes job one. Making America Great Again, for instance, must involve tearing down America's reputation. The best economy in the world must be characterized as failing. Justice must be framed as fundamentally unjust. Wrongs become violated natural rights. Up must always be referred to as down.

Educating a population in this kind of negative thinking also involves continuous Pretexting. The stories must be bread and butter simple so they can be easily recognized as not just benign but beneficial. Who wouldn't want to Make America Great Again? Who really stops to wonder when America lost its greatness? The borders were never open, though they sure became porous when the ex soon to become our next President distracted enforcement by focusing on building an utterly ineffective wall. The wall was meant as a metaphor, for it communicated more than ten thousand empty insistences could. Everyone knows what a wall's for. Besides, good fences make good neighbors. The old Democrat poet Robert Frost said that. The shady insistences are all Pretexts, sleight-of-hand motions intended to draw attention away from whatever's actually happening. They are the studied actions of pickpockets everywhere. They befriend so as to fleece better.

The whole premise for MAGA turns out to be a lie. Making America Great was never the intention. That story was always window dressing. Who knows the real purpose, except to note that the underlying purpose was to credibly lie to the American people, to misrepresent whatever in the Hell they're up to? They are clearly not working toward truth, justice, or what we'd come to understand represented the American way. They might be intending to create a Christian nation, but I sincerely doubt that. The Christianing seems like Pretext, too, though they sure overplay the holier-than-thou shit. I suspect they're merely self-serving. Their egalitarian premise strongly suggests they're just in it for themselves to prevent the intolerable condition that the wealthiest should pay their fair share of taxes. We know they're venial in the nth degree. They are most probably the opposite of whatever they insist they are. I bruise my imagination, failing to visualize what that might be.

Understanding them demands thinking backwards. They do not employ logic if only because it's too easily fact-checked—Pretexting demands false intentions. Any attractive attention might do. They're not going to support a nationwide abortion ban. Instead, they propose fresh legislation intending to extend ‘special care’ to our women. That care will also certainly include a nationwide abortion ban, but only under the pretext of ‘special care.’ Euphemisms proliferate as the dystopian underpinnings take root. Upon inauguration, a new dictionary will be released to all Federal agencies. This dictionary will expressly exclude specific terms. (This actually happened the last time this clown took office!) Henceforth, referring to global warming in any federal document will be illegal. It will be up to us to read between the lines after they have been whitewashed for political advantage. It will be best to question everything the Republican government says because we should understand by now that everything they proclaim will be a mere Pretext. They will be lying through what's left of their teeth.

They will characterize those who won't get with the program as communist, socialist, democrat, or any of dozens of approved derisions. These labels identify those still defending liberal democracy and so will be duly characterized as the mortal enemy. I'm counting on this house of cards rather quickly collapsing around the MAGA's shoulders, but I could be wrong. They are the most practiced and skilled liars to come along and will continue to be tenacious. With the presumed power of the federal government defending them against truth and justice, they could prove to be an utterly overwhelming opponent. We dare not forget that they assumed power through false premises. They firmly believe that they alone hold the salvation of their imagined nation. They have no compunction against doing whatever they feel their dark intentions might take to implement. They will watch our civilization crumble without concern. They are as evil as anyone has ever been. We must be their enemy.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #NextWorld