Author Note
As recently as 2006, the conservative Supreme Court made certain that any "free speech" inside Washington won't be allowed to interfere with the process of opening up the U.S. Treasury to the predations of insider corporations. What began as a firestorm under Reagan has ignited into a nation-draining catastrophe.
In a 5-4 decision, Garcetti v. Ceballos, 126 S. Ct. 1951 (2006) , the Supreme Court ruled against the interests of all Americans, conservative or otherwise, by effectively vaporizing the First Amendment. As it stands now, any American in the employ of Uncle Sam can be terminated for revealing the truth about the ongoing criminality, fraud, and waste that ruins lives, kills people, and flushes billions per day down the tubes for no good reason. This ruling compares favorably with the Alien and Sedition Acts of another century.
As Dostoevsky once said, "Tyranny is a disease ... it grows upon us."
- M. B. Neff |
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YEAR OF THE RHINOCEROS
by Michael B. Neff
Red Hen Press
Published 2009
ISBN: 978-1-59709-137-4
   
Author Bio | Interview | Novel Prose | Memorable Quotes | Controversial Reviews
On Tyranny and Whistleblowers
From an interview with Michael Neff by Cicily Janus at Eclectica
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: this interview took place while George Bush Jr. was in office, however, many of his appointees and followers (as well as those of past presidents) now form the bureaucrat mainstream in Washington, and as federal bosses, continue to retaliate and serve causes hostile to the welfare of the country.
CJ: When creating Year of The Rhinoceros, you essentially put yourself in the position, in your words, of the voice for the whistleblowers in Washington. Who were these people and why do you feel the need to give them a voice?
MN: They are numerous and mostly unrecognized, whether or not their efforts are met with any success. I stand in awe of anyone who finally decides to take a small stand by just saying no to compromising those basic values of honesty and integrity most of us were raised to accept, but so few of us are willing to support when things get tough. The true whistleblower is a hero. I feel honored to give them a voice. Their efforts also provided me with the vehicle I needed to get a cross-section view of the whole criminal enterprise of the American government. The agency distorted by the Reagan White House into a force employed to discover and betray whistleblowers is the setting of the novel, and it still operates today.
CJ: You claim that your novel is based on non-fictional circumstances, the background having been pieced together from Hill hearings, studies, articles, and secret interviews with former agency staff members who must remain anonymous. How much of the story is fact? How did you incorporate the facts in a fictitious manner in order to create such a compelling novel?
"Tyranny is a habit; it grows upon us and, in the long run turns into a disease... A society which can watch this happen with equanimity must itself be basically infected." MN: The setting is real. The circumstances are real. The struggles of the whistleblowers are real, and their prosecutors are real—just the names changed to protect the guilty. The plot is fictional, but based on a true story. Laney Dracos was a real person and she really did suffer for her beliefs and for her resistance to the god of rhinos. One particular way I incorporate facts into the story involves the pseudo-legalistic manner in which whistleblowers were forced by Reagan's agency to run a gauntlet of tests to determine authenticity. Of course, no one ever made it through the tests alive. That way, Reagan's team of sociopaths could rightfully go to Congress and testify they'd never actually met a "real whistleblower" in their lives. It was all a game, one designed to prevent Reagan and his corporate pals from suffering the loss of any important contracts.
CJ: You mention that the partial purpose of this work is to set the record straight on Reagan's terms in the White House. Why is this important to you? What do you hope to gain by "exposing" the truth behind Reagan and his administration?
MN: Like many in this country, I am tired of the purposeful revisionism on the part of some Republicans regarding the presidency of Ronald Reagan. They want to make him over into their version of Kennedy, mythologize him into something he wasn't. Reagan's regime was one of the most corrupt in American history, especially when one takes into account the number of public officials caught exercising their right to criminal behavior.
The Nixon era was more publicized because of Watergate, but the Reagan era was a free-for-all of rampant fraud, waste, and abuse of power at all levels. Also, there is the ridiculous myth that Reagan was responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union. That is a little like giving Nixon credit for the first U.S. landing on the moon. Reagan just happened to be making rehearsed speeches at the time of the collapse.
One particular way I incorporate facts into the story involves the pseudo-legalistic manner in which whistleblowers were forced by Reagan's agency to run a gauntlet of tests to determine authenticity. I recently had a long talk with Tom Devine, director of the Government Accountability Project in Washington, D.C., one of the top three watchdog organizations, and he told me the Reagan group was more energetically evil than the Bushies—who are mostly morons and evaders. It was during the Reagan era that corporate America began taking over Washington. The Pentagon had already succumbed, but much more was left to do. The Reaganites infiltrated like viral organisms into every niche of government, spreading corporate cheer and influence. EPA was a shining example. Ann Burford set an example and conducted a marvelous cleansing campaign that reverberates even to this day.
CJ: Your protagonist, Manny Eden, is described as an activist from America's heartland, and like thousands of other young idealists, "dangerously naive and anxious to devote his life to public service." Do you see a part of yourself in the protagonist? If not, is this, Manny Eden based upon someone you know or just an ideal of someone, or a collage of multiple people?
MN: Manny Eden and I were both naïve. We both suffered a sense of betrayal. However, I was never a fan of Ronald Reagan, whereas Manny hero-worshipped him. Manny was/is the archetypal idealist. We follow him into the leviathan, we learn something, we experience it as he does. The city of Washington chews these people up and spits them back home again, or else they move to Virginia and work for General Dynamics. Or else they stay and become part of the problem. Back to social Darwinism…By the way, Walt Whitman had a great quote about Washington, something like, "I am here amongst the great mass of loafers, traitors, incompetents, and axe-grinders that goes by the name of Washington." I love that quote because it's so true.
CJ: If there is one idea from your book that you wish for readers to ponder, to question, to reflect upon finishing the book, what would it be?
MN: That as human beings we often labor in self-destructive fashion, even in the most subtle and trivial of ways, to create an environment hostile not only to our political well being, but to our survival as a whole—and amazingly enough, while readily assuming the role of predator and hypocrite, to punish anyone who attempts to save us from ourselves. This is the source of the anger and angst endured by whistleblowers. It's as if an entire world conspires to ruin them. My favorite Dostoevsky quote sums all this up: "Tyranny is a habit; it grows upon us and, in the long run turns into a disease... A society which can watch this happen with equanimity must itself be basically infected."
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