Waiting for Someone to Explain It: The Rise of Contempt and Decline of Sense

“May you live in interesting times” has taken on a new alarming meaning. We’ve all heard commentators saying “you can’t make this stuff up.” These “times” have all the elements of Absurdism and, thus, the main title of this book, “Waiting for Someone to Explain It.” It is a term expressed by playwright Eugene Ionesco, who said “As the world is incomprehensible to me, I’m waiting for someone to explain it.” The book’s subtitle, “The Rise of Contempt and Decline of Sense” narrows the “world” down to American politics, cultural values and fiscal affairs at the onset of the 21st century.

Its author, Robert Hagelstein, maintained a blog during this period, contemporaneously commenting on, and documenting, the datum of this rise and fall. In “Waiting for Someone to Explain It; The Rise of Contempt and Decline of Sense,” he chronologically presents them and weaves a narrative which reads as a whodunit but without a singular smoking gun. There are many, and one intersects with another, resulting in the normalization of contemptible behavior and the inexplicable abandonment of fiscal and legislative common sense.

Be prepared to meet the major players in this drama; Environmental Issues, Trumpism, Obama Hope, Gun Control (or the lack of) and Mass Shootings, Income Inequality, Racial Issues, Tax Reform, the Financial Crisis and Deficit Spending, Societal Polarization, Government Impairment, Stock Market Decline and Recovery, Inflation Vs. Deflation, Foreign Relations, Election Primaries and Rigging, Job Creation, Gaslighting and Fake News, Celebrity Culture and Anti-Intellectualism (to name a few). These players come and go in the drama, rising and falling on the sea of news cycles that assault societal consciousness.

Even though the book does not purport to have the “answers” reading “Waiting for Someone to Explain It” is a compelling argument that “we have met the enemy and he is us.

"Thoughtful and wise, Robert Hagelstein’s 'Waiting for Someone to Explain It,' offers an illuminating, much-needed depiction of how we have arrived at our current politically contemptuous state - and how the party of austerity has given the U.S. its largest and steadily growing deficit. Must reading for anyone interested in the political and economic challenges currently facing our country." ....Ron Chambers, Former Director, Naval Institute Press

"Bob Hagelstein has the gift of being able to seamlessly weave whimsical commentary about our daily lives with insightful observations about our turbulent times. Reading 'Waiting for Someone to Explain It' is like sitting down to dinner with dear friends – the conversation just goes where it goes, sometimes serious or poignant, other times ironic or funny. Bob has graced us with musings on the blog from which this book draws for more than a decade now. In a way, I don’t want ‘someone to explain it,’ because reading Bob’s efforts to figure it all out while he’s waiting is far more enriching and entertaining. ......David Einhorn, Editor, writer, and professional musician.

"On one level 'Waiting for Someone to Explain It' chronicles with Pepysian precision the political and cultural progress of our time. Hagelstein’s sharp sense of the absurd allows both penetrating commentary and humor. Our own days are enhanced as we meet the author commenting on events readers knew or witnessed. .....Bruce Rettman, former Co-director of the Boston Writing Project and NEH Hemingway scholar English Department Chair