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The Myth America Pageant
by Robert Wickes
Purchase The Myth America Pageant: How Government & Politics Really Affect the Ordinary Joe at Amazon.com
Most writers would hesitate to write about politics unless they had a background as a politician or in political science. What inspired you to write about this subject?
All of us Ordinary Joes in the country are subject to the vagaries of politics and it’s tough to know what’s coming at you next. Sometimes it’s like playing a game where the rules are constantly changing, even in the middle of a play. Politicians are supposed to be a bunch of smart fellows trying to help us all get through life. And yet these supposedly smart fellows are constantly doing things that are supposed to help us but seem pretty stupid to me. I couldn’t help but be curious about why these supposedly smart fellows kept doing stupid things, so I became determined to find out. When I did, I was amazed. Actually, I was appalled. So I decided to tell other Ordinary Joes about what I found behind the wizard’s curtain.
Did you have a set time every day that you wrote, a goal of so many words, or did you just write your book as you could?
I do my best thinking in the shower and in the late evening when the house is quiet. Since it’s tough to write in the shower I mostly write at night. I might get underway at nine, but if I get on a roll I am often still at it at two in the morning. When the ideas are flowing it’s hard to stop. Now, the old gray matter just ain’t what she used to be, so I never go anywhere without a 3×5 card and a pen in case I get an inspiration away from my laptop. But the key is to be flexible. I might do most writing at night because I’m not normally a great morning person, but I’ve been known to jump out of bed two hours early to capture some idea that was channeled to me by my pillow. I’ve written in hotel rooms, on planes, anywhere.
When writing The Myth America Pageant, did you do much research, or did you want your work to be strictly an “Ordinary Joe’s” opinion?
I consider myself an Ordinary Joe because my background and opportunities were very average for my generation. The core observations and the remedies offered are pure Ordinary Joe, but I had to do a tremendous amount of background work first. The only thing I admit is probably very un-Ordinary is the time I took to investigate subjects instead of just accepting the proffered explanations by the politicians and pundits. I had to explore history, education, philosophy, and economics before I was able to fully understand the issues myself, let alone try to explain them to others.
Where do you feel your personal politics fall within the context of our current political spectrum? And do you feel the political party system in this country can still work?
The core point of Myth America is that human conflict stems from the imposition of will by one person or group over another, and that the opportunity for peace and prosperity is only enhanced when that imposition is limited. War is the extreme form of conflict, but governments also involve the imposition of will; in a democracy we call it majority rule.
The current political spectrum is a very misleading comparison between two supposedly opposing philosophies—left versus right. It is misleading because we are being told that we must be either conservative or liberal, and if we fall in the middle we are moderate. Nonsense! The real political spectrum runs from individual control of one’s life to state control of it. So the extremes would range from anarchy to totalitarianism. Every political philosophy would occupy a point on that line. Both current major political parties are rapidly moving towards the government control end. I’m at the other end—individual rights, personal responsibility and accountability, and the free enterprise and voluntary associations we call civil society.
With power comes conflict. It’s predictable, it’s unavoidable, and it’s counter-productive to society’s best interests. The current political party system is about gaining and retaining power, not about solving problems and helping people. Every issue is deliberately painted one way or another in a constant pandering for voting blocs. The system won’t work until there is another American Revolution—a revolution in understanding by the people.
After reading The Myth American Pageant I wondered if you had an interest in running for office? We felt your “Ordinary Joe” approach would be refreshing.
I have too much self-respect to become a politician. If I could skip the basics and go straight to Emperor, I might reconsider. The actual problem is that even an honest, well-intentioned candidate faces an unassailable stonewall once in office. The majority party and seniority systems ensure that if you don’t go along with the good old boys running the show you’ll likely find yourself on the Shoelace Import Oversight Committee. Then, after a couple of futile years of tilting at windmills, the voters would decide that you didn’t bring home enough bacon and they’d chuck you out of office in a heartbeat. And the work of dismantling common sense would continue without you.
Is there any advice you can give to aspiring authors of non-fiction books?
It’s frustrating, not unlike getting your first job. You can’t publish non-fiction unless you’re an expert in your field, and you can’t be an expert unless you’ve written a book. I’ve got 40 adult years’ experience being an Ordinary Joe, which makes me an expert, but the publishing industry doesn’t look at it that way. The most important thing for non-fiction is that your facts are accurate and you document everything you didn’t think of yourself. Compile your reference list as you go, because when the book is done you’ll invariably have forgotten where a quote or number or idea came from.
The other thing is to make sure you are writing for the audience you expect to pick up your book. Myth America is not a scholarly work aimed at think tank geniuses. It’s meant to be a simple conversation with other Ordinary Joes. If I’d written it for politicians, I would have had to “dumb it down” considerably.
If you could do it all over, would you approach publishing in a different manner? If so, what?
Yes. I would be a bestselling author before trying to publish my first book; I think that would have made things a lot 
easier for me. Seriously, while I’m subject to fits of impatience, it’s still pretty early in my own effort to conduct any intelligent retrospective. If I end up selling 100,000 copies, I’ll probably say no, I would change a thing; if I sell 10 copies, I’ll probably just go postal for a while and then call it a day.
Is there another book in your future?
There’s actually a book in my past. I’ve already written a political intrigue novel, but shelved it to work on Myth America. If the latter does well, I’ll dust off the novel. I’d love to get it out because it would be the first of a four-part series, where the last two books would present alternate endings—á la Allen Drury’s Advise and Consent series—about the fate of the nation.
I loved the whole process of creating both the novel and the non-fiction works. I’d love to retire and just write. I have two other novels outlined, both based on true stories from the two world wars. I’m also dying to do what would be the flip side to JFK’s Profiles in Courage. And if the world gets any whackier, I may have to do The Myth Universe Pageant.
Stumble it!
