Author Interview

Interview with Wells Earl Draughon. Author of:
Lies
The Rape of Alma Mater
A Thanksgiving Miracle
Last Things, First Things
Always
Traci
While America Sleeps

Heather:
As the author of numerous titles, both fiction and non-fiction, which do you prefer to write?

Each is challenging and satisfying in its own way. Non-fiction (for me) is by far the easier.


Heather:
At one point in my reading your latest work, "While America Sleeps," the thought occurred to me that this seems to be something that your career has built up to, that the fiction writing might have been a path to this non-fiction, in that your adoring readers will be a ready audience for this work. Was this your plan or were you simply writing fiction?

The fiction writing was never building up to this; however, my unusual background certainly prepared me to write this book. The only novel of mine that is relevant to this book is “The Rape of Alma Mater,” which could have been a non-fiction book. I thought it would be more enjoyable to read in a fictional form. Also, I had known the various people that make up the main characters, so characterizing them was easy. There are a number of “famous” people portrayed too (with changed names), but I did not personally know these people.


Heather:
Can readers look forward to more fiction from you in the future?
More non-fiction? What projects do you have in the works?

More fiction, yes. More non-fiction? It depends on whether there’s a need, a problem to be solved that I think I can solve, or help to be given that I believe I can give.


Heather:
How long did it take you to finish this latest book? The amount of research alone must have taken a good deal of time.

I never planned to write such a book. In fact, two years ago, if someone had listed for me the conclusions reached in this book, I would have been skeptical or even rejected them out of hand. Some years ago, I happened upon a book by a Conservative on the remainder table and read it. It was unconvincing and offensive, but some of the claims were so important I decided to investigate further.

By diligent and time-consuming searching on Amazon.com, I found a number of more competent books, read them and found that some of their conclusions could not be so easily dismissed. I continued searching for the most reliable books available, studying them and assessing their claims and the evidence they cited, but still had no intention of writing a book myself.

As my research led me into more and more areas, especially education, I saw that I did have something to contribute to the debate. First, I could sift out the information which was best supported, assess it from a scientific standpoint. Second, I could show how the various problems kept each other going. Finally, I understood all that lay behind the scare-term “political correctness” in a way Conservatives never will. I saw that our society is dealing with a more-or-less complete ideology with its own social control system, one which needs to be understood, not merely treated as a magic word and railed against.

Once all the problems were solved and organized into a detailed outline, the writing (given the huge amount of nonfiction writing I’ve done over the decades) took only a few months.


Heather:
Briefly, please explain your inspiration for "While America Sleeps."

First, there are the scary prospects. Could there really be civil war inside the United States? Two years ago, I would have said, “Nonsense!” Now, I’m not so sure.

Second, there are all the quite reasonable and practical solutions, and the fact that none of them is being implemented. This is intriguing. Why? I wanted to know.

Finally, there is the disappearance of that condition so dear to the hearts of liberals and Pragmatists: a marketplace of ideas. I had been forced to discover that this condition disappeared from the field of professional philosophy in the late 1970s. I discovered ten years ago that it had also by then disappeared from the field of literary studies. The research that I began to do two years ago showed that it has now disappeared from the area of current affairs, a socially more devastating development.


Heather:
What qualifies you to offer such a work?

Years ago, I deliberately acquired undergraduate majors in each of the social sciences (sociology, psychology, political science, economics) to reinforce my studies in philosophy (particularly political philosophy, logic and philosophy of science). Having taught scientific method a number of times at the undergraduate level and having done some empirical research, I can easily assess statements that claim to be factually accurate. And being a philosopher, I can easily recognize the difference between a descriptive claim and a normative claim. And years of debate with professional philosophers have enabled me to recognize every “trick in the book.” This made wading through the mass of claims and counter-claims relatively easy.

Problem-solving skills are less easy to quantify, but along the way I managed to acquire those too.


Heather:
Please give us a brief bio.

Wells Earl Draughon has published articles in Public Affairs Quarterly, Social Theory and Practice, Psychological Reports, and other journals. He has a PhD from New York University and is the author of the book “What Freedom Is.”


Heather:
If there were one thing you wish readers to know about you, what would that be?

It is that I have always been and remain an unrepentant egalitarian who is appalled by the death of liberalism and who is dismayed by the realization that the two dominant political points of view in our society today are anti-egalitarian (the Conservatives on the one hand and the New Ideologists on the other) and that both views are held and enforced in a fanatical way.


Heather:
Who are your favorite authors to read yourself? Fiction - ? Non-fiction - ?

I realized after many years that the notion of a favorite author or a favorite book is a misguided idea. The novel or movie that is best for me at one time may not be the most satisfying at another time. I do not plan to read much in current affairs in the future, although I will keep up. Currently, I’m reading a biography of Iris Murdoch. Also, a work that I’ve re-read a number of times over the years is the four-volume autobiography of Simone de Beauvoir, particularly “The Prime of Life.”


Heather:
If you had to name one book that you think people ought to read, what would it be?

It would have to be “While America Sleeps.” It’s depressing, but it contains what we all need to know. Of course, the myriad factors that influence the course of events can change for the better, and I certainly hope they will; but at this point and for the next two or three years, there is no sign of a change for the better. It is said that an ancient Chinese curse is, “May you live in interesting times!” From all indications, the next 20 to 30 years are going to be an “interesting time.”