Fukushima Ichirō: Wave in Chiba (Shōwa period,1926-1989)

"Perhaps our Decency utterly depends upon such useful fictions."

Decency, like matter, simultaneously exists in two states: Particle and Wave. As a particle, it appears as recognizable acts, physical incarnations of what might otherwise be nothing more than some psychological state. As a wave, it exists as more of a felt or abstractly felt sense, a ‘vibe’, if you will. Some Decency seems incredibly easy to see, obvious, while other Decency seems utterly invisible, yet still decidedly present. It’s incredibly easy for us humans to get so focused upon one of these two incarnations of Decency that we fail to see or sense the other. This phenomenon might explain the recent reports of Decency seemingly disappearing. If I overlook all but the most obvious and tangible Decency, I should excuse myself for failing to notice all the tacit Decency remaining.

Or, perhaps both forms are now threatened. It has been proven possible to extinguish an experience by simply failing to notice it. Expecting green, it appears yellow and thus slips by the watchman unnoticed. Decency, like pretty much everything, can occur in a wide variety of guises, from familiar to strange. Depending on how strictly I adhere to my preconceptions, I might overlook the more exotic forms that manifest. Certainly, when visiting other cultures, I misinterpret many of the behaviors I witness around me, for I lack the understanding to properly interpret what I experience. Some cultures more exuberantly embrace, for instance, in ways that surely seem downright indecent to me. Even closer to home, familiarity can induce situational blindness, where kindness may not even register as present and countable. We might have been lately suffering from a form of Decency blindness.

The foreground noise sometimes completely blocks the subtler backdrops. If we are competing for attention, the flashier forms can overwhelm our ability to register the more subtle ones. The unamplified guitar cannot be heard above the headbanger group’s Marshall stack. We’re all sometimes standing back, further from the center of attention on stage, and, like with any blindness, we don’t lose a piece of our visual field to an absence, but experience what seems like a complete and accurate portrait of the space surrounding us. None of us ever experiences the full richness surrounding us due to the various and sundry blindnesses that routinely visit us all.

A generous interpretation seems necessary and essential to experience reassurance in times like these. With headlines and chyrons screaming, it’s no wonder that we feel as if we’re engaged in extended screaming matches. We carry our amplifiers in our pockets now and have become accustomed to the volume. Quiet disquiets us. Waves seem ever further away, perhaps non-existent under the present barrage. They seem too subtle ever to draw the requisite attention to go truly viral. Maybe we must actively imagine Decency’s waveform, which might only appear to exist as an as-if. We are inescapably native to particles, and only later, depending on individual training and interest, do we even encounter waves. They seem like an article of faith since none of our five primary senses can reliably perceive their presence. We come to acknowledge their influence without the customary confirming experience. We even imagine that we can become more or less sensitive to their presence, even though we possess no capability to sense them.

For better or worse, we live within a dualistic universe. Half seems obvious, while the other remains largely invisible to us. We must adopt some useful fictions if we expect to productively cope with our existence. We must, it seems, believe in some things without insisting upon confirmation of their presence. These must include those self-evident rights otherwise unsupported by physical statute. We believe in these because they cannot be physically observed. We adhere to their principles because we consider them essential, regardless of how invisible they may seem. They sustain us even in their conspicuous absence. Maybe Decency belongs on the shelf next to these, as something we fervently believe in regardless of whether or not our primary experience insists they’re present. Maybe holding such a curious belief determines who’s Decent. Perhaps our Decency utterly depends upon such useful fictions.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Decency, #PureSchmaltz