Jacob Jordaens:
The Master Pulls the Cow Out of the Ditch by its Tail (1652)

ABOUT THIS ARTWORK
The title and subject of this etching come from a proverb in the Dutch poet and humorist Jacob Cats’s 1632 Mirror of Old and New Times. The proverb explains that it is necessary for a person to take responsibility for his or her own affairs. Jacob Jordaens depicted the proverb literally, showing a cow that has fallen into a ditch and must be pulled out by its master. The crowd of onlookers does not help the man, for it is his duty to care for his animal. The theme of this etching exemplifies the moralizing nature of many Dutch works of the period, and the composition recalls a tapestry by Jordaens in his Proverbs cycle.

"We dare not sit silently while this perverse, immoral minority tries to take over our state."

Our world has always been overfilled with seductions. Depending upon individuals’ proclivities, they might find infinite ways to fall. Some tumble to the ever-popular omission while others prefer to commit something, but none of us were ever impervious to some perverse attraction. Our moral and ethical fiber seem unlikely to ultimately save anybody, but a time will come when one will face a choice. Most choices will not come nearly as simply as any either/or, and many if not most, might manifest more like dilemmas, where your response will appear to damn you, whichever side you take. A moral or ethical compass finally shows its inherent usefulness after perhaps a lifetime of idling. Then, the defining difference might emerge. Then, the underlying purpose of every prior struggle might find meaning. Once one makes this choice, it's likely to be irrevocable. The fate's sealed. Identity is finally revealed. The question was always, "Will you become a Nazi?" You're already done for if the answer isn't "No!”.

The rise of NextWorld harbingered just such a choice. It had history, though, offering several not completely irrevocable decisions before. As the Repuglicans descended into ultimate indecency, each successive degradation proved seductive for some and increasingly repellent for others. Some found the rhetoric reassuring, while others found it off-putting. For me, it became a matter of common decency. As the arguments against our familiar form of government became alarmingly militant, they came to seem self-defeating, like self-hating. What possible benefit could come from explaining ourselves in such denigrated terms? We were never mere slackers or dedicated immoralists. We didn't seem to be on the take or card-carrying communists. I came to understand that the right wing held perverse ideals, and they held them with genuine religious fervor. This seemed to me to violate the sacred separation of church and state. The most conservative states started legislating questionable moral conditions, glaringly vilifying abortions along with many other minority rights. I found their social and political positions morally and ethically repugnant and came to recognize their positions as abominations. I knew I could never become a Nazi.

The MAGA crowd was Nazi from the outset. Apologists have tried to rationalize their attraction to the underlying perversion, but they have failed as far as I'm concerned. They toppled to seduction, and there had never been any decent justification to support those decisions. Some signed on because they were greedy bastards. Others, because they were genuinely cowed. It was not like a sophisticated propaganda machine hadn't been mustered to encourage belief in the lies. They were obvious lies that not everybody managed to see through, though naivety and innocence don't buy anyone much once they've started giddily goose-stepping and burning books. Reviling the fake enemies seemed altogether too easy for some. It seemed to me to be evidence of some severe psychological damage. The much-touted base was, indeed, deplorable in practice. They seemed to specialize in hate.

Their candidates became well-schooled in appearing righteous. They were frequent attendees at right-wing-sponsored prayer breakfasts, which was plenty of a tell for many of us. Nothing screams Nazi like performance worship does, that kind that coerces participants into confessing sins they haven't committed and publicly testifying about having been saved from the sins they would never stop committing. Their purpose was to upset the founding order, implement a dictatorial Old Testament state, and finally get to tell others what to think. To enforce their form of God-given righteousness. To represent a stingy God through the state. Mostly, they just wanted to cut their own taxes and prevent others from receiving the benefits they enjoyed. They celebrated inequality. They just seemed immoral and cynical. Democracy demands generosity. It smothers under immorality and cynicism.

In August 1941, Harper's Magazine published one of their most enduring articles, Who Goes Nazi? by Dorothy Thompson. In it, the author introduces a parlor game. To play, one needs to go no further than a party and observe the attendees while asking one's self, Who Goes Nazi? The answers might not prove all that surprising. I've engaged in this parlor game since the earlier uprisings in Reagan's Repuglican Party. I concluded that Reagan was a Nazi. Read the article, and perhaps you'll understand why. Last month, I attended our new congressional representative's first public forum. Those who had been unable to attend asked me afterward what he was like. I responded with, "A standard second-class Nazi." He had failed to answer a question without resorting to lies and spent most of his listening time lecturing. Yesterday, he produced a press release going all in on our incumbent's disgusting new position on Ukraine. I sent him a note earlier this morning imploring him to resign. He went full-on first-class Nazi in two short months after being sworn in to defend a constitution he's already violated multiple times. He seems to care nothing for the rule of law unless it protects him and his cronies.

Beneath contempt. Those who hold these beliefs can no longer be counted as merely misguided. They are traitors now. They actively undermine what this country was founded to preserve. They sold their cow for less than the traditional pocketful of magic beans. They sold out their birthright for advantage, I guess, or because they grew up to be professionally misguided. Why doesn't any longer matter. We now know why their campaign seemed so shady. They were apparently attempting to hide the truth about their intentions. They were running for office to undermine our form of government and replace it with chaos or some spinoff of a Shiite state. It's not yet too late, but the clock's ticking with renewed purpose. We dare not sit silently while this perverse, immoral minority tries to take over our state. I’m making noise!

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #NextWorld, #PureSchmaltz