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.)
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).
ReplyDeleteNaturally, 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.)