Preface To Rotten: The End Of The Quadrilogy

Here's Johnny!

As I have explained in my introductions to the last three shows - with themes catastrophe, chaos, & loneliness - I was severely affected by the President's terrible performance in the June debate. One of my friends who is a doctor wrote on Facebook, "He's sundowning onstage!" Other people may have had a better time - I'm sure there were many who had a worse time - but speaking for myself the years 2017 to 2020 were made extra-difficult because of the person in the Oval Office. That debate seemed to suggest that it was inevitable he would return there next year.

Now I want to point out that Self Help Radio isn't overtly political although I doubt any people who are supporters of the former president are listeners (actually I doubt anyone is a listener) but I certainly don't want my hopes & fears about politics to be a major factor of the show. Somehow my depression - my doom & gloom - my trepidation & sense of futility - they shaped into the four themes I came up with after that debate.

This week is the last: rotten. Something was rotten in the States of United. The whole world looked to be turning rotten. It seemed like, as Robinson Jeffers once wrote, America was indeed "settling into the mould of its vulgarity." I had told my wife I couldn't live for four more years in that America. So I was feeling I'd need to escape the rottenness of the situation.

These days I don't feel that way tho I recognize lots can happen in the next two & a half months. It takes me a while to prepare these shows so I couldn't really scrap them once the fortunes of democracy changed. They are a snapshot of how I was feeling - & perhaps what I may still feel.

Of course the show has nothing to do with Johnny Rotten. I don't even think he'll make an appearance!