Unknown Artist-East Asia, Japan:
Decorative Sculpture in the Form of a Grasshopper or Cricket
(Late Edo period, 1615-1868, 19th century)

"The crickets said more than words in response."

Decency makes no discernible sound. Descretion regulates its responses. It will not easily rise to provocation. It holds its cards closest to its vest. If you want to know what Decency thinks, ask, then wait for an interminable-seeming time, for Decency will never be in the business of disclosure, and it demands deliberation time. It will not move with the wind and does not require much ego gratification. It understands that very little is ever about it and takes very little terribly personally. It already has plenty and does not desire to accumulate much more. It avoids appearing unseemly at pretty much any cost. It does not do surly.

A large room filled with generals and admirals, brought together to rile them up, remains silent through speeches that were intended to burn barns. You could have heard Crickets. Intended jokes fell flat. Passionate enticements fell even flatter. Every attempt to ignite passions cooled their heels in a placid pool. Generals and Admirals are diplomats first. They are well-used to being sphinxes. They never forget their underlying strategic intentions. They do not produce or otherwise engage in pep rallies. They understand the difference between bullshit and the bully pulpit. They could not be incited.

What did they really think? Read the Oracle of Delphi if you dare. Nobody who was there could dare decide what those leaders heard. They were witness to the performance, not critics. They were called there to fill seats, and they by God filled some fuckin’ seats. If there will be heat to be taken for their less-than-enthusiastic reception, they will remain inscrutable. If some are called to secretly disclose what all those generals and admirals were really thinking, they will quite honestly report that they have no idea what their fellows were thinking. If asked what they personally thought, to a person, I suspect they’ll report that they found the gathering “interesting,” or some equally opaque response. If threatened, they’ll remain nonplussed. They understand that we need them a whole lot more than they will ever need us.

We find ourselves inhabiting an inciting culture, one where it sometimes seems as if everyone’s employed to either try to elicit a rise out of others or to provide a rise to some enticer. We are implored to abandon our discretion and sin as an expression of our God-given freedoms. We are continually reassured that we can do no wrong because we are the chosen people. We receive invitations to engage in what was traditionally unspeakable, let alone undoable. Each of these accepted invitations further degrades ourselves and our culture. We engage in endless races to the bottom without once wondering what might happen to anyone who wins.

Our generals and admirals remain professionals. They inhabit, by training and long tradition, the highest ground, higher even than that maintained by any elected politician. These are the best of what we aspire for ourselves, selfless and steady. They might be ready for war, but their primary role has always been to preserve the peace, if at all possible. The times when we’ve strayed from that ideal have become real learning lessons, and they have not forgotten the price of their own belligerence. Vietnam and the War on Terror are not fondly remembered in the ranks, and they serve as cautionary tales for everyone holding flag responsibilities. That our incumbent and his odd secretary believed they might recruit the admirals and generals into insurrection against themselves counts as naiveté in extremis. The crickets said more than words in response.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Decency, #PureSchmaltz