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pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: OnBeingDecent...
"Decency's question is rarely what but when."

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This Decency Story finds me describing not how to be Decent, but the seemingly simple invocation of it. On Being ... Decency: OnBeingDecent... "Decency's question is rarely what but when." On Being Decent … In Indecent Places I can speak with authority only about my personal experiences, and even that ability seems limited. I have nothing to teach anyone else, except by example, often by bad example. I am no paragon of anything except not being a paragon of anything. This context says nothing about the content of whatever I consider here, for I consider here to present an example of considering, not necessarily to conclude anything. That said, I have been writing Decency Stories for eighty-two consecutive days, discovering more than declaiming, sometimes seemingly shaming myself in the process. I have stumbled into contradictions and many tenacious misconceptions, realizing how little I understood the topic of my efforts. As I near the end of this series, I realize that I probably won’t be offering any crisp summarization of my subject at the end. I didn’t intend this effort to reduce understanding into a spare handful, but to expand it. It has proven more expansive than I could have imagined when I began. One prominent subtext, though, that many of these stories have shown, involves one of the more common yet perplexing situations: On Being Decent In Indecent Places, not How To Be Decent In Indecent Places, but “merely” On Being Decent. ...
December 13, 2025 at 4:03 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 12/11/2025

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This Decency Story contains a summary of my last week's writing. Thank you for following along! Decency: Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 12/11/2025 This writing week proved to be a relatively quiet roller coaster ride with highs and lows properly attenuated and ultimately, unsurprisingly, unanticipated. Little happened as I’d either hoped or feared, so much for prescience and good fortune. I’m coming close to concluding that we’re not the deciding factor here; we might thrive on synchronicity and luck, whether good or bad, but ultimately beyond our ability to influence. The fact that we feel an innate ability to control only makes this roller coaster ride more entertaining as our expectations repeatedly and ultimately, thankfully, disappoint our expectations. We should be both well used to and warmly accepting of these disappointments that visit us when we don’t immediately realize that our prescience so frequently fails us. Decency was not as I'd expected it to manifest. ...
December 12, 2025 at 4:05 PM
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Decency: CynicismProofing

"I mount my defence against encroaching seasonal cynicism with some Decent poems."

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This Decency Story finds me battling cynicism with Decency again. Decency: CynicismProofing "I will mount my defence against encroaching seasonal cynicism with some Decent poems." I believe that there’s only one essential battle fully worthy of human engagement, the eternal battle against cynicism. Cynicism has always been humanity’s greatest foe. It possesses strange attractors, though. It tends to interest those who have grown weary of the utter predictability of existence, those who convince themselves that they can see through “the game.” Those who contend that they play no game play the most encumbering one of all. The utter predictability of life can sometimes seem like a curse. Three score and ten, give or take, including the genuine risk of an early demise. The galling impermanence of existence off-puts. Those who fain invulnerability embody only cynicism. They project what they claim to oppose by merely breaking rules, as if liberty were little more than a tenacious inability to get along with anybody else. After a dog-year downwind from utter incompetence, this witness to the attempted reintroduction of cynicism into our governance finds himself exhausted from the unending exertion. ...
December 11, 2025 at 4:32 PM
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Decency: InPractice

"I might have initiated this enquiry only to continue it ad infinitum, InPractice."

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This Decency Story finally finds Decency lurking InPractice rather than in theory, in enquiry rather than exposition. Decency: InPractice "I might have initiated this enquiry only to continue it ad infinitum, InPractice." I should not feel so surprised when I stumble upon the discovery that Decency, like every other concept, only manifests InPractice. In theory, it seems to contradict itself. Only InPractice does it exhibit its underlying nature, which proves to be indescribable. The description clearly ain’t the thing. InPractice, Decency seems to exhibit little if any ‘thingness.’ Not natively being either person, place, or thing, it steadfastly sidesteps all attempts at facile description, let alone definition. I suppose its dictionary definition performs as well as any dictionary definition might aspire to, though, as I believe I’ve shown in this series so far, much variation swirls around the concept’s central core. Decency can never manifest contextlessly. In fact, Decency seems unusually dependent upon well-formed context to exhibit much of any meaning at all. You might not notice it when it exhibits. ...
December 10, 2025 at 3:50 PM
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Decency: Endimbenment

"Certainty must certainly be the surest sign of ignorance."

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This Decency Story discloses what I've been learning about Decency through this enquiry. Decency: Endimbenment "Certainty must certainly be the surest sign of ignorance." Acquiring knowledge and understanding never occurs as advertised. I understood that I would be acquiring something and come to know as a result of my efforts, but the outcome seems to reliably be different than either of those. Determining the endpoint, when such searches are finished, proves challenging, and applying what I learn, even more so, for it seems that I acquire much less, but also much different, than I expected. Even when I adjust my expectations beforehand, based upon my long and disappointed experience, the result underwhelms me. It always seems much simpler than it should properly seem and also much more complicated. I tend to find myself incapable of explaining what I experienced, what I definitively learned. I feel more humbled than haughty. It’s little wonder why the uneducated look down their noses at eggheads, for the learnéd among us have suffered a shit ton more humility than have the great unwashed. ...
December 9, 2025 at 3:24 PM
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Decency: DecentPeople
"My Decencies seem as fleeting as my days."

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This Decency Story finds me feeling remorseful for passing judgment on indecent as well as DecentPeople. Decency: DecentPeople "My Decencies seem as fleeting as my days." People seem to have a deep need to classify each other into categories. A deep need for self-esteem might drive this tendency, though there must be better ways for us to feel good about ourselves. This practice seems the likely source of prejudice, misogyny, and a startling list of the more prominent human frailties. I wonder why we couldn’t be generally better than this, since we hold the capacity to make finer judgments and even to choose to make no judgments at all. Would it kill us to make fewer judgments under some ‘judge not, lest ye be judged’ rule? I suspect so. I feel embarrassed to acknowledge that, in this whole series, of which this writing finds me 85% finished, I have been spouting deep antipathy toward a class I labeled Indecent without clearly defining who belonged to that group. ...
December 8, 2025 at 5:04 PM
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Decency: SelfDeception
"... the intensity of each audience member's suspended disbelief..."

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This Decency Story explores the importance of SelfDeception in the everyday practice of Decency. Decency: SelfDeception "The difference between Decencies might not matter as much as the intensity of each audience member's suspended disbelief, not to mention the actors'." Discussions of Decency rarely mention the essential role that SelfDeception plays in its daily practice. Unlike a character in a novel or history, the Decent must wrestle with all the complexities and contradictions inherent in any practice. From one minute to the next, conditions might change, disrupting an intended trajectory. So, while one hears plenty of talk about choosing a path, one only rarely hears stories of having to pick and then continually choose again and again. There sometimes seems to be no end to the choosing when it comes to Decency. This can become understandably frustrating, with some loss of focus and discipline seeming common. The Decency originally intended can sometimes get twisted in delivery and manifest in rather embarrassing ways. A Decent SelfDeception might kick in then, to preserve self-esteem. The story remembered often seems divergent from the story as initially intended and executed. Lapses in discipline are not uncommon. ...
December 7, 2025 at 3:13 PM
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Decency: HarshJudgments
"Let he who is without indecency cast the first criticism."

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This Decency Story wonders whether it can be considered Decent to make HarshJudgments. Decency: HarshJudgments "Let he who is without indecency cast the first criticism." The Decent seem to have the greatest license to criticize those with fewer scruples. They appear to inhabit unimpeachable high ground that bestows better judgment, so who better to critique others? Does Decency necessarily assign such a responsibility upon its perveyors, or are they somehow enjoined from overly overtly criticizing, lest that seem unseemly? I suspect the answer to these questions must be the responsibility of each Decent person. I know the answer for myself, though my answer sometimes shifts, depending. I do believe it’s unseemly of me to criticize harshly, or, perhaps, to criticize at all. ...
December 6, 2025 at 4:19 PM
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Decency: Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 12/04/2025

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This Decency Story contains a summary of my writing from over the last week. Thank you for following along! Decency: Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 12/04/2025 This writing week saw the first hard freeze in this Valley They Liked So Well. It also saw the start of its typical seasonal socking-in as this bowl filled with fog that the weakening sun could not manage to burn off. Rudolph the Red-Nosed had a prominent franchise here in my youth, and would today if video games hadn’t undermined most of our traditions. The Villa felt cozy with the fireplace blazing after my granddaughter Tilda struck the fateful match that lit the first pile of kindling and firewood, leaving the fireplace warming through the long post-Thanksgiving weekend. I continued my exploration of Decency in its surprisingly many guises. I suspect that if I focused this much attention on any topic, though, I’d only undermine whatever I thought I understood about it beforehand. Learning settles nothing, but usually opens ever more complicating and confusing cans of worms, ad infinitum. ...
December 5, 2025 at 2:50 PM
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Decency: Ferocency

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This Decency Story reminds me that Decency sometimes appears in ferocious guise. Decency: Ferocency "Under certain uncertain conditions, a two-by-four to the side of the head could be considered an intervention of Decency." Varying intensities are permitted when deploying Decency. It needn’t always seem gentle or even necessarily kind. As with most things, tough love equivalents unquestionably exist, though one must usually deploy them circumspectly lest motive be interpreted differently than intended. In business, for instance, certain otherwise unseemly intensities seem permitted under the self-referential rubric that “business is business,” a multi-purpose excuse intended to cover every possible variation. It seems as though nobody can call “violation” regardless of the intensity of the application if it’s done in the pursuit of profits. I’ve also noticed a certain erosion of what used to pass for decorum, allowing for some rather coarse words to be injected into otherwise benign conversation. ...
December 4, 2025 at 4:04 PM
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Decency: MoralHazard
"What does it mean to respond Decently then?"

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This Decency Story asks how the presence of insanity affects Decency. Decency: MoralHazard "What does it mean to respond Decently then?" Decency seems to demand continual adaptation. What constitutes Decency in one context might border on indecency in an adjacent space. Further, emotional states also enter into this calculus. One might easily justify different responses when feeling angry than when feeling secure. Decency does not provide an isolated or isolating platform for responding. Everybody’s inescapably in each fray together, whatever their behavioral or moral preference. It might not prove helpful to equate Decency with morality, especially when subtle senses of superiority creep into the internal conversation. That said, the Decent might behave more consistently, if only because they insist upon certain limits and boundaries. There are probably many more things Decency won’t consent to do than indecency even notices. I’m fussing today about how Decency can get twisted in the presence of the insane. ...
December 3, 2025 at 4:15 PM
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Decency: InnerIndecency
"They ultimately only manage to fool themselves."

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This Decency Story speaks about how we seem to perceive InnerIndecency. Decency: InnerIndecency "They ultimately only manage to fool themselves." Some things I firmly believe that I can see might not actually exist. Belief provides more than adequate evidence to convince almost anybody that almost any nonexistent entity probably exists. Beliefs can be remarkably incorrigible beasts, so they must be held with a certain circumspection. They might support unshakeable conviction in absolute fiction. I concede that many of the worst indecencies I’ve ever witnessed fed on just such convictions. Furthermore, few who held those convictions were ever considered to be felons, though the damage they inflicted might well have supported criminal indictment. ...
December 2, 2025 at 4:43 PM
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Decency: SelfDealing
"Nobody Decently corners any competition."

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This Decency Story discusses SelfDealing, a hair-splitting necessity sometimes taken to indecent excess. Decency: SelfDealing "Nobody Decently corners any competition." Decency requires some hair-splitting. One must somehow manage to sustain oneself without over-reaching. Society maintains laws against monopoly because we deem SelfDealing indecent. It’s unseemly for anybody to merely compete with their own interests. It’s considered Decent to engage as a part of a system rather than as the entirety of it. Monopolists freeze others out, essentially robbing them of opportunity, however much their monopoly might resemble greater efficiency. Efficiency in the service of nobody else amounts to wasted effort. Efficient monopolies are merely rapacious. Oligarchies are monopolies on steroids. ...
December 1, 2025 at 4:09 PM
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Decency: RelativeDecency
"…I will remain confident in what constitutes some relatively absolute Decencies."

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This Decency Story dabbles in relativity, a property that even Decency exhibits. Decency: RelativeDecency "…I will remain confident that I understand what constitutes some relatively absolute Decencies." Like everything else, Decency exists on a sliding scale. Few absolutes seem appropriate when considering it. One person’s Decency might well prove to be another’s downfall. Further, it often appears in know-it-when-I-see-it guises. I sometimes feel surprised to find that what I thought might degrade me turns out to elevate me instead. Likewise, some actions initiated in good faith and lofty intentions leave me feeling humiliated. Even with my considerable decades of experience, I have yet to develop a foolproof method for classifying Decencies. Yet I continue as if I understood, as if I could know how to tell Decency in action. I’ve many times proven myself fully capable of fooling myself. What could be preventing anyone else from fooling me, too? I still consider myself firmly on the side of Decent. ...
November 30, 2025 at 3:12 PM
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Decency: D_e_C_ency
"Beware the land speculator promising to eliminate non-existent swamps."

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This Decency Story deconstructs the false "Drain the Swamp" story concocted to foster the self-hate that authoritarian states require. Decency: D_e_C_ency "Beware the land speculator promising to eliminate non-existent swamps." Contrary to popularly promoted misconceptions, our nation’s Capitol was never a shithole. It did begin life as a swamp, one owned by that era’s most enthusiastic land speculator and so-called founder of our country, none other than General Geo. Washington, esquire. Those promising to “Drain The Swamp” were centuries too late, for the original swamp had long before been drained and filled to allow a truly great city to be built. The result was not, like most of this world’s capitols, some ancient artifact built on ruins, but a testament to a country’s citizens’ dedication to self-governance. They funded and built an odd collection of buildings, some grand and inspiring, others quite the opposite. The boulevards were broad and laid out so that every few ran diagonally. The result seemed absolutely unique in this as well as every other country. Its heritage was that of a swamp, for sure, but its legacy was self-esteem. Many have noted that perhaps the primary function of government has always been to “Make Sausage.” ...
November 29, 2025 at 1:27 PM
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Decency: Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 11/27/2025

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This Decency Story contain a summary of my last week's writing. Thank you for following along! Decency: Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 11/27/2025 This writing week, like every previous week, was destined to become a writing week that was. Like you, I live with a trailing tail endlessly emerging, persistently trailing me, and refusing to let go of my present past or my fading presence. I routinely accomplish considerably less than I might otherwise prove capable of producing. Any engine designed with the presumption that it might perform at its design peak was always designed to fail. Any engine built to perform well beneath its design spec was always built to actually exceed its more optimistic expectations. I began this writing week naming a familiar haunt, the Dundency that has always followed me. I praised that most unlikely and always welcomed couple, Dignity and Freedom. I reframed my experience of Decency as a Decendency rather than as an ascendancy up and into any place above. I reported that indecency seems radioactive in Radioactivization (which is a term Google® found no hits for on the internets). I ended this week with a short screed insisting that Decency must be deployed relentlessly if it is to be effectively used. I appreciate all those who shamelessly employ their Decency without ever once necessarily expecting to be rewarded for their efforts. Bless us all as we defend the continuing insults to our Dignity again. Thank you for following along! ...
November 28, 2025 at 1:46 PM
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Decency: Relentless
"This necessarily requires that the Decent fear less and be Relentless more."

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This Decency Story explains that Decency demands to be deployed in a requisitely Relentless manner. Decency: Relentless "This necessarily requires that the Decent fear less and be Relentless more." As near as I can determine from here, the universal antidote to indecency must be RelentlessDecency. Nothing more annoys the indecent than Relentlessness being employed in the service of the Decent. I know that we most often associate Relentlessness with more nefarious activities. However, I suppose that Decency probably seems evil enough to the indecent, perhaps among the most heinous possible activities, especially for the Relentlessly indecent. To be Relentless in the service of the good side of any equation demonstrates a reassuring dedication, for even Decency demands some consistency. Nobody much appreciates the merely fair weather Decent. One must, it seems, become requisitely Relentless to be taken very seriously. If I retreat into numbed silence or simply disappear whenever another indecency appears, especially when it seems Relentless itself, I might just as well have never been here. My sporadic contributions to the general well-being might not have gone for naught, but they probably didn’t go half as far as they might have gone had I more diligently held my ground. Relentless Decency demands some courage from its practitioner, for it won’t always feel safe to honestly display your Decency when immersed in some den of iniquity. ...
November 27, 2025 at 3:21 PM
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Decency: Radioactivization

"That's what Decency appears to be here for."

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This Decency Story recounts how radioactive indecency tends to seem. Decency: Radioactivization "That's what Decency appears to be here for." Indecencies seem radioactive to me. They perform like unstable elements, bleeding atoms on their way to becoming something else. They are by their very nature transitory and poisonous. They produce waste that outlives their original purpose. They prove unsuitable for use in anything lasting. We do not build bridges out of radioactive materials for good reasons. We avoid including them in connecting roads, too. They can produce relatively short bursts of extreme energy and, when properly harnessed, longer-lived power. Whatever the use, though, they leave behind messes far exceeding their initially intended usefulness. Their use requires more than usual justification. I visited my dentist last week and noticed that they no longer draped a reassuringly weighted lead-lined blanket over me when taking pictures of my mouth. ...
November 26, 2025 at 5:07 PM
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Decency: Descending_Into_Decency
Because Decency’s always a choice, it brings certain limitations. ...

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I hope this Decency Story helps dispel the notion that Decency usually comes from somewhere on high. I think it more likely that we're usually Descending_Into_Decency instead. Decency: Descending_Into_Decency "That's how Descending Into Decency feels to me." I instinctively think of Decency as holding an elevated position, slightly higher and left of some center line. When I engage in an act of Decency, though, I feel a sensation more like Descending. I reflectively think of myself as Descending into Decency rather than stepping up into it. This descending should not be mistaken as degrading or any of the other coming-down metaphors. Decency feels like immersive activity, effort that seems to cloak and reassure me, as if I were being carried and cared for, even though I know I’m the one caring for myself in those moments. Decency seems inherently innocent. It expresses an inner innocence regardless of a person’s prior experiences. It can even be an antidote to some experiences, a penance, or a form of forgiveness. Because Decency’s always a choice, it brings certain limitations.
November 25, 2025 at 3:40 PM
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Decency: CommonDecency
"…everything's extraordinary, especially and including CommonDecency."

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This Decency Story explains whatever happened to CommonDecency. Decency: CommonDecency "…everything's extraordinary, especially and including Decency." I once inhabited a now utterly mythical place: The Past. What seemed ordinary and commonplace then, when it was present, seems utterly extraordinary and absolutely unattainable now. I do not mean that some rare and special things are now rarer and even more special, but that even the most pedestrianly commonplace items have now joined the ranks of the exceptional. I can almost experience these once-so-ordinary things vicariously now, through dreams and fading memories, though the colors and textures seem blunted after the passage of so much time. I have been noticing lately just how remarkable almost everything suddenly seems. ...
November 24, 2025 at 3:05 PM
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Decency: Dignity&Freedom
"May Dignity&Freedom never abandon them…"

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This Decency Story celebrates Dignity&Freedom, two prominent attributes of Decency. Decency: Dignity&Freedom "May Dignity&Freedom never abandon them…" Facing invasion by a hostile neighbor, Ukraine declared its purpose for defending its sovereignty. It announced that it was fighting for Dignity&Freedom. Their Freedom demanded a deeper purpose. It could not stand alone as sufficient to justify the suffering inflicted in its defense. Dignity would have to be Freedom’s companion to properly justify the struggle. This combination has lent Decency to Ukraine’s otherwise purely defensive strategies, inspiring freedom-loving nations around the world. Unfortunately, my country tisn’t of this at present. Our incumbent has made it his special mission to discourage our intrepid ally by denying it the necessary and prudent support that any freedom-loving nation deserves. Now the world observes a different struggle, one between Decency and its enemies, who presently most prominently include Russia and the once United States. ...
November 23, 2025 at 2:11 PM
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Decency: Duncency
"Let such mysteries be."

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This Decency Story introduces a familiar sort of Decency in which everybody occasionally engages: Duncency. Decency: Duncency "Let such mysteries be." Not all Decencies contain the same quantity of sincerity. Some seem more phony than actual. Some seem counterfactual. I mention this not to encourage paranoia, for minor discrepancies are probably nothing to lose much sleep over. For one reason or another, or for no discernible reason at all, some will pretend to be acting Decently when they actually aren’t. The motive probably doesn’t matter. The insincerity says much more about them than it ever could about you, and what it says about them will probably remain unspoken, even if you were to break ranks and ask after the disconnect. These acts most often remain uncommentable. You might be able to convince yourself that something smells fishy, but the fish rarely admits to any deliberate deception, or even inadvertent. This often means they’re not aware of their inauthenticity. So be that. I speak here of that niceness that seems out of context. ...
November 22, 2025 at 3:41 PM
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Decency: Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 11/20/2025

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This Decency Story contains a summary of my last week's writing. Thank you for following along! Decency: Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 11/20/2025 Our concrete contractor, Pablo, and his crew laid a new sidewalk on the north side of our newly refurbished front porch this week, bringing us one step closer to completing our infinite front porch remodeling project. A new sidewalk serves as the closest thing The Muse and I might ever contribute to permanence here, lasting evidence that someone once lived here, evidence that should last well into the following century. This Writing Week proved to be more speculative than concrete. Change seemed prominent without necessarily feeling imminent. Our hapless administration, still apparently uninterested in administering anything, has been exhibiting some gravely serious difficulties recruiting and retaining EvilPeople in sufficient numbers to completely undermine our Democratic order. I sensed an impending Awakening. The Elites seemed teetering again, on their usual precipice of greatness … or something. I praised our sacred Jurisprudence, which has proven to be the most stalwart defender of our civic Decency. I admitted to feeling Enraged, however politically unacceptable that emotion might seem in a discussion of Decency. I ended this writing week praising the Insubordinate as the true patriot of Decency in our ongoing passion play. Thank you for following along with me here. ...
November 21, 2025 at 3:16 PM
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Decency: Insubordinate
"The Decent direct themselves for their own damned reasons…"

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This Decency Story discloses an unsettling fact about the Decent. Their gift often requires them to act as an Insubordinate. They have to be responsible for their own actions without relying upon another's orders. Decency: Insubordinate "The Decent direct themselves for their own damned reasons…" Decency must be an Insubordinate act. It cannot be ordered or productively insisted upon, but must be more or less freely chosen by the individual engaging in it. One may take instruction in its practice, though this offers little beyond a grasp of its underlying concept. Practice proves different in actual practice and utterly depends on context, which shifts so that any two instances might prove the opposite of being indistinguishable from each other. Even experienced practitioners often wonder if what they just tried really represented the Decency they intended. Not even the receiver can always confirm receipt. So much of its delivery depends upon intention, which often necessarily remains implicit. Decency frequently appears in unexpected guises. Indecencies can easily be coerced. ...
November 20, 2025 at 2:26 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: EnRaged
"Don't tread on Decency!"

Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz...

Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/decency-en...
This Decency Story tries to clear up the popular misconception that Decency necessarily equates passivity, when Decency might more often understandably feel EnRaged! Decency: EnRaged "Don't tread on Decency!" Contrary to popular misconception, the Decent do not naturally lean heavily toward passivity. In some significant ways, Decency can encourage a fury, if only because it tends to sharpen sensibilities. Those incapable of properly parsing experiences, who live a more numbed existence, might find it more challenging to act out when encountering the subtly outrageous. Many infractions fail to pierce together their native insensitivity. This can lead to a disturbing passivity. Those, however, more primed to sense disturbing differences might be much more easily encouraged to respond with rage, and even to complain that certain events leave them feeling EnRaged. This fury doesn’t always show, for Decency sometimes, even often, paradoxically, encourages a stifling of certain rages, lest a reaction appear equally outrageous. The resulting ‘anger turned inward’ can spawn periods of dark depression as inner frustration fails to find adequate release in outward expression. The Decent sometimes foments dissent. ...
November 19, 2025 at 3:58 PM