Eric Wyatt's Page

Blog: Independence Day Tea Party Speech

 Independence Day Tea Party Speech: July 2^nd, 2009

Press coverage here: http://www.kokomotribune.com/local/local_story_183221401.html

Economic Slavery, Velvet Tyranny,

and Big, Big Lies

As we gather here tonight, I wonder; Do you have the same question I do? “How on earth did we get HERE?” How is it that we are gathering—just as thousands of others are doing all around the country this weekend—not just to celebrate the founding of our great nation, but also coming together in recognition of the fragile state of our liberty?

It wasn't so long ago that I thought I was crazy. I wrote a book about the Coming Storm—the chaotic mess caused by a lack of civic vigilance and boiling economic turmoil—and all the while I kept thinking to myself, “Won't I look terribly silly to have written these things if none of this happens?”

And then I stood in front of you, just a few months ago, on April 15th, and I said the economic struggles of 2008 would seem like “the good old days;” that the America we knew was fading away, and what was replacing it would be unrecognizable.

I so wanted to be wrong.

Sadly, I wasn't.

ErnstWiley.com now optimized for iPhone

As of tonight, the Ernst Wiley website is more accessible to those of you who use the iPhone, Android, or other mobile platforms for web surfing. The mobile-friendly version of the site should automatically appear when you are surfing from a mobile device.

Thanks to all of you who have visited Ernst Wiley over the last six months. Your continued support is noted and appreciated.

Best,

Eric Sheridan Wyatt

Blog: The Wisdom of Friedman

This is an excerpt from the classic, Free to Choose, by Milton and Rose Friedman. It is strong enough to stand on its own, without additional commentary. It just needed to be shared.

(Unfortunately, the Friedmans were old, white people, and didn't have the wisdom of a latina woman, with her rich experience. But it is still pretty good.)

(You can find Free to Choose and other books of similar quality in the bookstore. Hint, hint.)

New Old Fiction

I am posting something for your consideration. It isn't the usual political stuff I post. No history or economics. Nothing involving tea parties. The only tea mentioned is sweet iced tea, plentifully supplied to wash down loads of fresh seafood on a hot Carolina day...

The following links below will bring up chapters of my novel In Loco Parentis, as it currently stands. ILP is known around the Wyatt ranch as the "first" novel. It has been getting a lot of interesting queries lately. When I tell people the basics of the plot's set up, they say, "When is it coming out?!?"

If only it were that simple.

Blog: False Premise - What the Government Should Do

With the announcement of an opening in the Supreme Court, it seems prudent to step back and look at a few things.

One of the sections of Facing the Coming Storm that a lot of people have found useful is the "False Premise" section. In that section, I lay out some of the underlying "conventional wisdom" which is crippling us as a country.

One of those sections is reprinted below, and it talks briefly about the idea of Progressives that we should turn to the Government to solve all of our problems.

Today seems like a good day to reprint that section of the book.

False Premise: Ask What Your Government must do on your behalf

The biggest shift in American perception is a movement away from a civic philosophy of limited government interference, toward a mindset which assumes the role of government is to fix things and manipulate reality to “better” our lives. Prior to the early 1900s, the prevailing attitude was that a government big enough to give you something, was a government big enough to take it all away. Or, in Milton Friedman's words:

Publisher's Notes Interview

Gather 'round the radio kids, it's time for....

Eric Wyatt? Who let that poser on the radio?!?! 

Below you'll find a link to the audio from the radio interview I did with Abdul, Stephen Lucid, and Dan Fischer on their weekly radio show, Publisher's Notes on WXNT, 1430-AM, Indianapolis. Publisher's Notes airs on WXNT (1430 AM, Indianapolis) every Saturday at noon. No matter where you live, you can listen live via internet streaming. Click the radio microphone below to get the audio:

The audio runs about 30 minutes, and you'll need a program that plays MP3-format audio to listen.

Thanks to the folks at New Century Publishing for inviting me on, and for your permission to post this audio. Check out their page. Their mission is to find and promote new Indiana writers, and that is a cause near and dear to my heart.

Before the shameless plug for my book, check out the books at New Century, and the blog for Stephen Lucid who is an Indiana author of the new book, The Incident.

Also, finally, thanks to the callers who called in with such encouraging words. You were very kind!

A few of you have asked if I'd be willing to do interviews in other locations. Of course, the answer to that is yes. You can forward this page to other radio shows and such, and perhaps I'll get a few more of these going. Also, please consider forwarding this page to friends and family who might enjoy the book. The radio interview gives a "feel" for the content of the book and it is less of a committment to listen than to read. Perhaps by listening first, a spark will be lit.

Thanks to all of you who are reading, chatting, tweeting, and listening. You make all of the long days worthwhile.

You can also find many of the books that inspired Facing the Coming Storm in the ErnstWiley bookstore, powered by Amazon.com.  

Blog: Text of Tea Party Talk

The text below is the as-written text for today's Kokomo-area Tea Party, and differs slightly from the speech, as-given.

*Following Introduction*

Thank you for having me here. I do have a book called, Facing the Coming Storm, but I’m not here to sell books. I’d be happy to talk to you about it afterward, but that’s not why you’re here, and it isn’t why I’m here. But, I will happily talk a little about why I was inspired to actually write a book.

James Madison, commenting on the nature of political power, once said, “One-hundred and seventy-three tyrants would surely be as oppressive as one.” The Founders were well-versed in history, and they understood that there was a great risk involved in the task they were undertaking. What good would it have been to separate from King George, if we replaced his monarchy with the tyranny of an elite ruling class?

Well, the country has grown a bit, and we are up to 535 members—or should I say tyrants?—in Congress, but the wisdom of Madison’s words remains.

For the last year, I’ve been enamored with the Founding of our country. Shaking off a monarch and establishing a government of the people, by the people and for the people—a government under which all men could enjoy liberty and the freedom to seek individual happiness—it was their chief aim, but the Founders—in their wisdom—looked forward to guard against the likely pitfalls of self-governance.

Blog: Knowing Where We Came From

The Founder's Foundations

An Excerpt

The men who contributed to the revolution of the American colonies and spearheaded the subsequent founding of a new nation are among the most studied and admired men of history. In considering the importance of our Founding Documents it is impossible to over-emphasize the role of these men, our Founders. In recent years, it has become more fashionable to detract from their sometimes-mythological histories than it is to view these men as role models. It seems to me, though, that an understanding of our Founding is instructional. In order to maintain a proper perspective about where we are going, it helps to understand where we have come from.

One of the riveting facets of the lives of the Founders was depth of their classical education. These men were well read, well spoken, and well versed in the philosophies of the ancients and in the proper role of this ancient knowledge in their lives.

It is no secret that the Founders came to view themselves through the prism of the great Roman Republics; going so far as to assign to one another the persona of various Roman politicians and leaders. It was the example of Cincinnatus that informed George Washington's refusal of perpetual power and inspired his return to civilian life after his second term as President. It was the common name, Publius, associated with political oratory, that Hamilton, Maddison, and Jay adopted as they published the Federalist Papers. The influence continued as the Capitol was designed and built with a nod to classic architecture.

This classical knowledge wasn't confined to just the “upper crust” of colonial citizens. Even those less educated Americans of the time had a fondness for the Roman ancients, and Republican idealism. The themes of ancient Rome had been promoted by preachers, moralists, and newsmen throughout the colonies during the years of waning enthusiasm for the British Crown.

Blog: Why Does it Even Matter?

An excerpt from, Facing the Coming Storm:

Why Does It Even Matter?

Where Capitalism and the Constitution Collide

Politicians today have lost the Spirit of Cincinnatus that informed the public life of so many of the Founders. At the same time, the public has stopped expecting genuine public service and begun to take corruption and political back-scratching for granted. Some have come to this point as a matter of experience; having had one-too-many run-ins with shady local politicians. Another – growing – portion of the electorate has reached the point of complacency because they benefit – whether directly or indirectly – from corrupt processes.

The Founders believed in certain rights, given by God to every man as an integral part of their humanity. Government's only legitimate duty is to ensure these basics of our humanity are not encroached upon. But, modern America believes in her own god: the god of material wealth. Almost every debate is reduced to terms of material wealth, and who has or doesn't have it. In 2008, we have shown our belief in the omnipotence of this false god. We have entered into a practice of unchecked deficit spending which ignores one truth of the material god: material wealth is not limitless power, nor is it created out of nothing. It is, indeed, finite.

Leaders in Washington are happy to promote the myth of easy, limitless wealth and have us overlook their role in all of the financial problems of 2008. They are thrilled to hear blame being laid at the feet of the free market. In a Washington Post column, Peter Schiff writes:

Absent from such conclusions is the central role the government played in creating the crisis. Yes, many Wall Street leaders were irresponsible, and they should pay. But they were playing the distorted hand dealt them by government policies. Our leaders irrationally promoted home-buying, discouraged savings, and recklessly encouraged borrowing and lending, which together undermined our markets.

Blog: Regulatory Purgatory

Today, I continue with another excerpt from Facing the Coming Storm. This is a continuation of yesterday's blog regarding the consequences - intended or otherwise - of a hyperactive government interference in the market...

Regulatory Purgatory

We have already looked at several self-correcting aspects of free-market theory. As with any human endeavor, markets are rarely as perfect in practice as they are in theory. From time to time, a call arises for governments to intervene in some aspect of the economy; a call to mandate or regulate this or that practice.

Sometimes, this meddling on the part of the government is justified, but more often than not, government interest in the market is self-serving and ripe for corruption. Michael Medved, in his recent book, The 10 Big Lies About America, cautions us about the dangers of government intervention:

Giving public officials, elected or appointed, the power to decide winners and losers in the business world – by offering tax breaks and subsidies on one hand and regulatory citations and fines on the other - makes the temptations for bribery and favoritism become more acute, not less so. This means that efforts to 'clean up' the business world with increases in regulation, supervision, or investigation often lead to more mess and less efficiency as business leaders try to balance the sometimes contradictory demands of meddling bureaucrats and market forces.

Government-sanctioned dishonesty and deception are harder to overcome and the results more disastrous than those of a corrupt businessman or a cheating company. For this reason, government intervention into the inner workings of the economy must be the exception, not the rule. All government manipulation of fundamental market forces should be specific, limited, and temporary. Unfortunately, an enduring lesson of our American experience is that once government is involved, it tends to stay involved.