Little Bang Theory

…And quite circuitous, too.

As a usual part of my “work day,” I try to catch some of “The Round Table,” the morning show on my favorite Public Radio Station. WAMC out of Albany, NY. It’s amazing, really, to hear this team of on-air and behind-the-scenes folks put on three hours a day, five days a week, of local interest stories, commentary on National news, daily interviews with local politicians with generally astute analysis by their Resident Expert, Dr. Alan Chartock (who by the way is another cunning runt, only without the capital letters, ’cause I’m runtier!)

Add to that a “Poll Question of the Day” with insightful call-ins from The World’s Best Informed Audience and a half-hour segment of live music performed in real time by local and visiting musicians, and you’ve got one helluva show!

But my favorite part of the morning, if my work schedule permits, is a fifteen minute or so conversation with an author of note, discussing their latest book. Usual Interviewer Joe Donahue has a way of getting an awful lot out of his guests, asking insightful questions and letting the author “run with the ball.” The result is nearly always stellar.

Today Joe spoke with American historian and author Jay Winik about his new book, “The Great Upheaval – America and the Birth of the Modern World.” The book is ostensibly about the transformation of Governments and Societies which occurred from the 1780s to 1800 and beyond, a time in which the top-down control, the Absolute Power of Monarchies and Empires began to give way to government with a representative voice of the proletariat.

At this point I’m tempted to huck a “Hyuh, Right!” into the mix and go off on how that chapter of human history seems to have ended, hosed down the drain by the political reverse-peristalsis of our current King George The Lesser, but then I might never get to the point I wanted to make.

After missing a chunk of the interview, I got back into the van just in time to hear Mr. Winik describing how both Napoleon (a cunning proto-runt) and Russia’s Catherine the Great (a running, um, proto-cunt, by all accounts) had invaded the Ottoman Empire with the intent of subjugating the Muslim world, and despite initial claims of “Mission Accomplished” brought on by spectacular military victories, both were slowly bled dry by years of guerrilla warfare, their Empires unable to fully quell the slippery resistance movements, and how France in particular, financially weakened by it’s support for Our Own Little War, collapsed under the strain of it’s endless war effort, with discontent on the home front devolving into the offing of many, many heads.

And here, finally, is the afore-alluded-to point of this little rant:

How Fucking Wrong is it to see the United States make this same mistake a century later, when the consequences of our impending mis-steps are already documented by history?

How Fucking Sad is it to see our Drunken AWOL Frat-Brat President be so willfully ignorant of that little bit of history?

How the Fuck can We The People elect such a Homicidally Incurious Half-Wit to lead our Country, not once, but twice??

It boggles my mind, it really does. It blackens my heart with hatred, it withers my soul with despair. It makes me fear for the world my children will inherit.

It makes me wish ill on another human being. A rattler in the Texas brush, a stroke out in the hot sun, a head-busting tumble on the tarmac.

I hate feeling this way. I fight it, but some days I lose.

‘Scuse me, Neighbor, but if I could borrow a cup of hope just for tonight, I’ll pay you back tomorrow.

Promise.