heinleinblog

Dwayne A. Day’s July 2 article for The Space Review: With these concepts in mind, it is worth looking at a rather amazing memo that Heinlein wrote in 1945 advocating a rigorous American missile and space program. Heinlein wrote it soon after the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Japan. He argued that the [...]

[Read more]

There’s the beginnings of a good discussion on that question in alt.fan.heinlein. Commenters insist the book is shock full of examples of characters in the Federal Service without being in the military. However, James Giford writes (PDF format) that there is no specific example of someone being able to earn Citizenship except through uniform-wearing military [...]

[Read more]

Government employment is often permanent employment, and the quality of service from civil “servants” is about what you expect from someone who cannot get fired. Heinlein didn’t think any more highly of workers sucking at the government teat any more than do most libertarians of today. “In a mature society, ‘civil servant’ is semantically equal [...]

[Read more]

You don’t have to be a libertarian to oppose gun control, but libertarians are strong defenders of Second Amendment rights. RAH shared this libertarian perspective. According to letters included in Grumbles from the Grave (1989), the original draft of Red Planet (1949) included a lecture on the evils of gun registration. Heinlein’s editor balked and [...]

[Read more]

In his own words, Heinlein found common ground with those at the forefront of modern libertarianism. “I would say that my position is not too far from that of Ayn Rand’s; that I would like to see government reduced to no more than internal police and courts, external armed forces — with the other matters [...]

[Read more]

Robert A. Heinlein met Virginia Gerstenfeld where they both worked at the Philadelphia Navy Yard during World War 2. They married her 1948. She, like her husband, was a former naval officer. By all accounts, Virginia was and still is a remarkable human being, as were most of the female protagonists in Heinlein’s fiction. “Ginny” [...]

[Read more]

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress popularized the concept of There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, or TANSTAAFL. (Actually, the phrase may have its roots in the writings of ethicist Alvin Hansen in 1952, only he used the phrase “there is no such thing as a free lunch” or TINSTAAFL.) In Heinlein’s [...]

[Read more]

Libertarians believe in religious freedom — the right to worship or not worship. Organized religion has no role in U.S. government. Heinlein agreed. “It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing [...]

[Read more]

Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians all say they favor equal rights. And so did Heinlein, who believed in equality under the law, but possessed a libertarian distrust of affirmative action, set asides and quotas that perpetuate economic inequities and fosters continued animosity between the races. Check out “Over the Rainbow” (1980) in Expanded Universe. Its hero [...]

[Read more]

Libertarians believe it is not the place of government to provide goods and services that can be provided by the private sector. Examples are stadiums and other facilities that are used for professional sports. Libertarians believe the Social Security system can be overhauled so that investments are made in the private sector, which would provide [...]

[Read more]