Some of you may have seen a movie that came out recently entitled "STARSHIP
TROOPERS!"
That movie was based on a science fiction book written by a man named Robert
Anson Heinlein.
I read my first book by Bob Heinlein when I was in Junior High -- more than
40 years ago. Over the years, I’ve read everything he’s written that I
could get my hands on. I have most of his books and several collections of
his magazine articles and newspaper columns.
As a kid, I decided to "ELECT" Bob Heinlein as my unofficial favorite "uncle!"
Later on, I grew to consider him my favorite "Team Daddy!"
I tried my best to understand and live by the values that he stood for in
his books and in his life.
The book "STARSHIP TROOPERS" (that I referred to) was the most controversial
book that Heinlein ever wrote. It generated more mail -- running to both
extremes -- than anything else he ever wrote. It was written primarily for
young people. But it was full of Heinlein’s values – values like DUTY,
HONOR, and PRIDE IN MILITARY SERVICE.
In the first part of this book, the young hero, Johnny Rico, is in a
required high school class on History and Moral Philosophy --- this course
is REQUIRED of ALL students for graduation. This course, by law, HAS to be
taught by a military combat veteran.
The teacher has just made the statement, "The basis of all morality is duty,
a concept with the same relation to group that self-interest has to
individual." He goes on to say, "a human being has no natural rights of any
nature."
. . . . Somebody took the bait. "Sir? How about ‘life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness?"
"Ah, yes, the ‘unalienable rights.’ Each year {in class} someone quotes
that magnificent poetry. Life? What ‘right to life’ has a man who is
drowning in the Pacific? The ocean will not hearken to his cries. What
‘right’ to life has a man who must die if he is to save his children? If he
chooses to save his own life, does he do so as a matter of ‘right’? If two
men are starving and cannibalism is the only alternative to death, which
man’s right is ‘unalienable’? And is it ‘right’? As to liberty, the heroes
who signed the great document pledged themselves to buy liberty with their
lives. Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the
blood of patriots or it always vanishes. Of all the so-called natural human
rights that have ever been invented, liberty is least likely to be cheap and
is never free of cost."
"The third ‘right’? --- the ‘pursuit of happiness’? It is indeed
unalienable, but it is not a right; it is simply a universal condition which
tyrants cannot take away nor patriots restore. Cast me into a dungeon, burn
me at the stake, crown me king of kings, I can ‘pursue happiness’ as long as
my brain lives --- but neither gods nor saints, wise men nor subtle drugs,
can insure that I will catch it."
{The teacher} then turned to {Johnny Rico}. "I told you that ‘juvenile
delinquent’ is a contradiction in terms. ‘Delinquent’ means ‘failing in
duty.’ But duty is an adult virtue – indeed, a juvenile becomes an adult
when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge of duty and embraces it as
dearer than the self-love he was born with. There never was, there cannot
be, a ‘juvenile delinquent.’ But for every juvenile criminal, there are
always one or more adult delinquents – people of mature years who either do
not know their duty, or who, knowing it, fail."
"And that was the soft spot which destroyed what was in many ways an
admirable culture. The junior hoodlums who roamed their streets were
symptoms of a greater sickness; their citizens (all of them counted as such)
glorified their mythology of ‘rights’ . . . and lost track of their duties.
No nation, so constituted, can endure."
Later, when Johnny was going through Officer Candidate School, he was
surprised to discover that ‘History and Moral Philosophy’ was again a
required course. In this class, the teacher discussed the fact that – in
that society, at that time – ONLY retired military veterans were allowed to
vote. The teacher explained this to the class in these words ----- "Under
our system EVERY VOTER AND OFFICEHOLDER {my emphasis} is a man who has
demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the
welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage. . . . . Since sovereign
franchise is the ultimate in human authority, we insure that all who wield
it accept the ultimate in social responsibility – we require that each
person who wishes to exert control over the state to wager his own life –
and lose it, if need be – to save the life of the state. The maximum
responsibility a human can accept is thus equated to the ultimate authority
a human can exert."
See the movie for kicks ---- Read the book! You'll be glad you did.
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