R.A.H. is invoked to discuss the life sentence handed down to Zacarias Moussaoui, who helped plan the terrorist attacks of 9-11:
Robert Heinlein imagined a deliciously suitable way of dealing with society’s worst criminals in his story “Coventry.” They were simply banished to a country of their own, to live as best they might manage among others of their own kind. Society then simply put them out of mind, which seems to me a far nobler exercise of the rule of morality. It says “You have proved that you cannot live peaceably among us. We do not presume to decide your right to live, simply your right to prey upon us. Begone!” It works pretty well for the Amish and the Mennonites. Moreover, it is in itself an almost unbearable fate for one who aspires to cut a blazing figure in the world as a martyr to some insane cause or another.
I have a feeling Heinlein would be spitting nails at the idea that we’re going to be paying for the care and feeding of Zacarias Moussaoui instead of sticking his head on a pole outside the city gates.
Coventry, as I recall, wasn’t a criminal sentence, but a place they send people who wouldn’t seek treatment for their “atavistic” behavior, such as punching someone in the nose. Not an apt analogy, in my humble opinion.
How curious that they ignored the entire hanging scene from Starship Troopers.
Not to mention the whole “tourist getting whacked for crowding in line” in ‘The Cat Who Walks Through Walls’ (why Hazel was held up during the first confrontation between Richard and “Dr. Lafe Hubert”).