They conveniently overlook his contempt for collectivists and what is arguably his most famous quote.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Starship Troopers
They conveniently overlook his contempt for collectivists and what is arguably his most famous quote.
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Many years ago in Compuserve's SF & Fantasy Forum, I started a nasty argument over Starship Troopers. The lefties were jumping on it as justification for mandatory federal service. I noted that, in my personal experience, Heinlein's fictional assertion that those who served had proved that they put society's good ahead of their own was BS. Most people I dealt with saw it just another job, often something they only resorted to because the economy sucked and nothing else was available; many demonstrated some degree of "patriotism" but it usually ranged from a secondary or tertiary motivator to lip service rationalizing why they joined (an exception to that was a Staff Sergeant who had immigrated -- legally -- from an Eastern Bloc country as a child and hated any form of socialism/communism).
Naturally, that pissed off a lot of folks, who then asserted that I had no right to talk, and that Heinlein was far more wise and experienced than I. In return, I pointed out that I had a lot more active duty military time (including an undeclared war or two) than RAH. That merely resulted in them declaring that RAH was an officer while I was merely an ignorant enlisted peon.
So were most of the novel's characters they were glorifying for serving the State. [grin]
I hardly had a chance to point out the more... individualistic orientation of other Heinlein works.
(That was an interesting forum. They routinely backroomed anyone who expressed pro-RKBA sentiments, and actually banned me for receiving a death threat from another forum member. But I had already pissed them off -- and gotten backroomed -- by noting in the public forum that the moderators -- good little socialists -- made money operating that forum.)
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