>"Joshua Bell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Both my wife's reaction and my own upon reading ST was that Heinlein was
>doing a thought experiment on what such a society might be like, possibly
>advocating it, in the guise of a "Boy's Life"-type serial novel with guns
>and bugs and space ships.
>
>I subsequently heard (somewhere) that Heinlein was attempting to show the
>*evils* of such a system and how that must never be allowed to come to
>pass,
>and how easily it would come to be controlled by the military, since the
>voters were predominantly those previously part of the military-industrial
>complex.
>
>The Starship Troopers movie certainly takes the latter interpretation,
>right
>down to Doogie Howser's Nazi/SS regalia. But then, Verhoeven is
>delightfully
>cynical like that.
>
>Anyone know more concrete details of the motivation behind the book?
>
>Joshua
>
I've read that Starship Troopers was Heinlein's "love song" to the military.
He was a veteran himself, and I read somewhere (sorry for the lack of
references) that he always had the highest respect for military folks.
I'm not sure exactly how that book shows the *evils* of that system. He
makes a very strong case for the fact that only the people who have earned
it should be able to vote. He spends a lot of time describing how much
better society as a whole is under that system. He also talks about the
social climate in general, about how kids aren't unruly, how corporal
punishment is a great thing, and the other usual stuff that an ex-military
person of his generation would normally think would be a good thing. It's
been a couple of years since the last time I read it, but I think I'm
remembering it correctly.
I do remember reading... I don't remember if it was in an interview, or if
it was in something else that he wrote, where he emphasises that it was not
just military service, but any kind of civil service that made you eligible
to participate in the political process in that system. I think it ties in
to his beliefs about personal responsibility. The only way that you can get
any kind of authority is to show that you are responsible enough to enlist
(civil or military) and stay in for your whole time, to make sure that
people don't get political power just because they come from wealthy
families, and can't just buy their way into the White House without having
done some sort, any sort, of public service.
The basic idea is, if you don't understand serving, then you won't
understand leading. This is a problem in today's political landscape even
more than it was when Heinlein wrote SST, and it is endemic across the
political spectrum.
Again, it's been a couple of years since I read the book, so if I'm
mis-remembering any of this, everybody please feel free to jump in and
correct me (just not all at once :-). I'll try to find that interview or
article I mentioned above (I've got a hunch about where I might have a copy,
but I won't be able to get to it until pretty late tonight -- lots to do on
the homefront).
Reggie Bautista
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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