heinleinblog

From the libertarian-minded Nolan Chart:

Robert Heinlein wrote in his novel, Friday (Ballantine Books, New York, 1982, p.242), “Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms…but a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than a riot.”

I strongly agree with Heinlein, although I think he made one small mistake in his comment. Rudeness is not just a symptom of a dying culture when it involves a “lack of consideration for others in minor matters”. It also involves a lack of consideration for others in major matters.

Take, for instance, the case of South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson who so famously shouted out, “You lie!”, in the middle of President Obama’s address to Congress a little more than a week ago. Wilson wanted to dramatically make the point that Obama’s proposed policies encourage providing public health care for illegal aliens, contrary to what the President himself said. Unfortunately for Wilson, his point has been completely lost as a result of his outburst. Scan Google News or nearly any major newspaper or magazine’s article on the subject, and you’ll see scathing reviews about the comment itself, about his censure before Congress, about how the comment was racially motivated, and about a score of other points.

From Reason

More often, though, the conversion stories include unplanned encounters with books: the writings of Ayn Rand, Robert Heinlein, and Robert Anton Wilson; moldy old Reader’s Digest versions of Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom; used-bookstore copies of Murray Rothbard’s For a New Liberty; unsolicited Laissez-Faire Books catalogs.

<y two cents: I can vouch for this. I devoured Heinlein as a teenager and a young adult. Burt I grew up in a working-class household. Eventually, Heinlein’s basically libertarian values won out and I rejected knew-jerk libertarianism. I still lean toward the liberal among other libertarians.

From Huffington Post:

Rose-colored glasses screen out the responsibility that comes with freedom and the power to make decisions. Problem: there is no such thing as responsibility-free living. Robert Heinlein said it in one word: Tanstaafl! (”There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.”) If you smoke cigarettes or weigh 400 pounds and get “free” health care, someone is paying for the extra resources you consume.

Now that you are free of newspeak, scotoma, and see clearly, you can grasp the probable results from ObamaCare, from adding a Government Insurance option to the mind-numbing morass of insurance choices and limitless paperwork.

I seem to recall old Doc Johnson from TSBTS taking chickens for payment.

Heinlein is evoked here in a column abut property taxes:

There is nothing inherently wrong with property [tag]taxes[/tag].

But here’s what someone once said: “There is no such thing as a fair tax” — [tag]Lazarus Long[/tag] AKA Robert A. Heinlein.

Heinlein is used in a blogger’s argument against cutting [tag]gasoline taxes[/tag]:

In Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, the author comes up with the concept of TANSTAAFL (There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Lunch). Dr. Paul, in his article for the Free Liberal, seems to ignore that concept. Gas and diesel taxes, however painful, go toward the building, maintenance and rebuilding of our highway infrastructure, along with any tolls enacted for the same purpose …

Cutting what is essentially a user fee for drivers (thus forcing the government to either borrow the money or raise taxes somewhere else) is hardly a libertarian solution.

[tags]Ron Paul,TANSTAAFL[/tags]

The OC Register mentioned RAH in this editorial:

Get the state out of marriageOCRegister, CA - 20 hours ago… odd marriage arrangements, such as polygamy, or perhaps even those "line" marriages detailed in Robert Heinlein's novel "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. …

Original post by Robert Heinlein – Google News

Heinlein gets a mention:

“It's a good thing Greg Thomas reads Robert Heinlein. "There is no way that writers can be tamed and rendered civilized," Heinlein wrote in 1985 …”

Original post by Robert Heinlein – Google News

An Australian libertarian blogger wants to borrow from Heinlein when it comes to suffrage:

“The idea wasn’t ours, of course. It was Robert Heinlein’s in Starship Troopers. If you serve your society, you get to vote. You’re not required to serve. But if you don’t, you don’t vote. Heinlein figured that those who choose to defend the political society they come from – a free one – have a pretty good understanding of the value of freedom, having defended it against real enemies.

“Plus, Heinlein figured there were certain virtues you’d learn in military service that might make you a better voter. You’d learn that the welfare of your unit (or the polity) means not always gratifying your own desires and instincts. It’s an interesting idea, that voting requires some virtue. “

It’s just as bad here. In the United States, the government does its best to make sure that the anyone too stupid to find their way to get register on their gets signed up anyway. And then we make sure that it’s as as easy as possible for individuals who have no right to vote actually do so. Because, as you know, the number of people involved in making a decision improved the quality of the decision making. That’s why corporations get their board of directors by grabbing people randomly off the street, making sure they grab a couple of unemployed homeless losers because that makes it more diverse.

Via MyrtleBeachOnline’s business section:

Writer Robert A. Heinlein used to argue in favor of arming almost everyone, saying that if you knew that the person you were dealing with carried a gun, you would be extra careful and sensitive to their needs. That’s not entirely dissimilar to what we have in this age of transparency, when someone can Google a person before they go out on their first date.

Behaving as if everyone is armed with your personal information is a very good idea, according to author Seidman, because they are. Databases and Web sites track individuals’ and institutions’ transactions, words, accomplishments and crimes. Something you say or do will come back to haunt you or help you.

Blogger Dr. Helen has started an advice column on Pajamas Media. Her first post is about when she thinks every adult should be able to do. She used the famous quote from The Master:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

She has a few good ideas of her own, in my humble opinion. To my embarrassment, I cannot drive a stick.

Dr. Helen also gets added to the blogroll.