Magnus Enckell:
The Awakening
(1894)

"I say we should agree to pay Heaven every goddamned penny we owe."

The midterms seemed to break a long-persistent trance that had held us in involuntary thrall. I felt afraid every day, afraid of what horrible event might next occur, given that we had a literal madman at the wheel. It felt truly terrible to be unable to identify a single mitigating characteristic our elected incumbent ever exhibited. What did this say about the electorate? What might this say about me? I will never understand what some found attractive in either this man or his message, but whatever it was, it must have been utterly entrancing. My most generous interpretation of the situation lies in concluding that nobody who voted for him or supported his “movement”, or, heaven forbid, agreed to “serve” at his twisted pleasure, knew what they were doing. They were every bit as entranced as Sleeping Beauty ever was—Sleeping Ugly?—in desperate need of some wandering Handsome Prince to break the spell somehow. Time stood frozen, if not precisely still, while we increasingly impatiently awaited our Untrancing.

Their trance was somewhat communicable, for it disempowered even those for whom it held absolutely no attraction. It was a definite poison in the system, affecting even those who only witnessed its presence without once even distantly supporting its tenets. While it sure seemed like excruciatingly difficult work simply witnessing its presence, and it most certainly was that difficult, now, with the actual Untrancing, the really hard work starts. The very obscenity of its extended presence seems to have diminished our ability to engage with our highest ideals. We feel tempted to punish with the same rusty sword they used to insult us. We might no longer really be above falling to that seduction. We could come to believe that vengeance is rightfully ours when it was never anybody’s right or duty. We must somehow deal exclusively in justice or forfeit the very ideals we told ourselves we would uphold once the siege was lifted. The obscenity will never be conquered or cast out by merely employing a seemingly more high-minded obscenity. We dare not succumb to the lure that any dream of getting even might seem to promise. We should not desire to get even with any crooked entity, for that could only further degrade the polity and ourselves.

I already hear the clamor to depose those who successfully led us out of the shadows. Shumer and Jeffries have lived politician’s lives, and neither should be mistaken for Moses. Their very fallibility might be their greatest credential. Unlike our present incumbent, who has never once admitted error, our leaders must own their own ambiguity, and the polity must allow reality rather than ideology to primarily influence their support. The incumbent clearly and repeatedly demonstrated the cost of ideology-driven policies and how they utterly undermine the very purpose of self-governance. The most vocal complainers in this world were born to be ankle biters rather than strategic leaders. They tend to push minority positions until they widen opposing perspectives rather than encourage healing and resolving. Our leaders should rightfully be flawed, and admittedly so, not in any way above the actual fray they inescapably engage in. The proper effort will remain a struggle regardless.

The prospective Chairs of the various committees insist that they can indict and chew gum at the same time. They must indict, regardless of the obvious embarrassments this will introduce. We should seek truth as well as reconciliation, for anything less risks continuing the BIG lie that produced the mess, out of which we’ll have to litigate our exit. Impeachment should not for a second seem out of the question, for it must be an imperative—impeachment with retribution, with guilty sentences duly handed down in the Senate. We owe ourselves penance to remind ourselves of what we committed together, and what we must never allow ever to overtake us again. And we owe enormous reparations, attempts to repair what our incumbent, and we, by extension, have otherwise irreparably broken. We should rightfully be ashamed of ourselves. We must be better than that and pay for the damage inflicted in our wounded name.

If we are truly committed to being the adults in the room, then we must assume responsibility for righting the wrongs our resident adolescent committed against us and the world. Contrition might become an essential precondition to interpreting our Constitution from here. Now that we’ve proven we’re neither exceptional nor essential, we must settle into our rightful role as citizens of this world, not just our little corner of it. We dare not seek dominion, but union. As citizens Untrancing, we hold the sacred responsibility to simply get along. Not to evangelize our creed or to insist that others must be like us, but to peacefully co-exist with respect for the diversity that will always exist, regardless. May we be known as peacemakers, and for our tenacious decency as recompense for the grievous crimes our duly elected incumbent committed against all of us in our name. We have either Heaven or Hell to pay. I say we should agree to pay Heaven every goddamned penny we owe.

©2026 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Comeuppance, #PureSchmaltz