For those who don’t know, this blog started as a static Web site dedicated to refuting those who claimed Robert Heinlein was a fascist.
It’s easy to do, considering that “fascist!” is almost always a kneee-jerk reaction when liberals encounter anything more conservative than thay are. The idea that someone could write a book lookinn into a world in which military service is necessary to be considered a voting citizen fits that description.
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The thing about Troopers, is not that everyone was required to volunteer for military service, but that they were required to volunteer for whatever was needed by the society. This assured society that they would put the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the few (theoretically anyway). It was made clear in the classroom that they would find some service for anyone to do, regardless of how unfit they were for service as it was their right to become citizens if they so desired.
I don’t see that as being fascist, I actually think RAH had some very good ideas in Troopers that this society could well learn from. The use of corporal and capital punishment for example.
But, that’s just My Arrogant Opinion.
Thanks for the comment.
Exactly what constituted “service” in SST is a subject of heated debate even among RAH’s most ardent admirers, myself included. I’ve read the book several times, and I cannot find one single reference to where service meant anything other than military service. Sometimes, this service was simply that of cook, but as it is today, even cooks are sometimes called upon to fight. And as long as you insisted on serving, they would find something for you to do.
Heinlein is quoted as saying “service” didn’t include the military, but there’s no evidence of it in SST, I’m afraid. There’s no indication anyone earned the right to be a citizen by serving in the future version of the Peace Corps.
Page 32 of the 1968 Berkley pb edition:
“I didn’t bother to list the various non-combatant auxiliary corps because, if I wasn’t picked for a combat corps, I didn’t care whether they used me as an experimental animal or sent me as a laborer in the Terranizing of Venus…”
Also, what is the point of stop-motion snapshots of GWB with his hand held out?
Once, long ago, I drove a cab. I noted that when there was a crowd trying to hail cabs, it looked a bit like a Nazi rally.