Starship Troopers Redux

As mentioned yesterday there was a reason I choose Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers for this week's review Part of the reason are items that have stuck with me since the first time I read the book and part of the reason I like to re-read the book every now that then. The other reason is because it helps with the build up for next Monday's post. Keeping in mind that I am not saying that I agree 100% with the book's system of government merely using it as an example to facilitate conversation and though leading up to Monday's post.

The first quote from the book that has always stuck with me and one that I would challenge any code pinkers/peace-nics to respond to:

"...Anyone who clings to the historically untrue - and - throughly immoral - doctrine that 'violence never settles anything.' I would advise to conjure up the ghost of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms."

While I'm not certainly saying violence is the answer to every problem. To all those who believe that violence never solves anything: "I'm sure the city fathers of Carthage would be glad to know that. " O' wait Carthage was destroyed. So while violence should not be the only option, it should never be ruled out, especially when your adversary believes and will stop at nothing less than your complete and udder destruction.

The second quote from the book is directly related to the first but takes place later in the book:

"... Bear in mind that this is science, not wishful thinking; the universe is what it is, not what we want it to be. To vote is to wield authority; it is the supreme authority from which all other authority derives - such as mine to make your lives miserable once a day. Force, if you will! - the franchise is force, naked and raw, the Power of the Rods and the Ax. Whether it is exerted by ten men or by ten billion, political authority is force.

But this universe consists of paired dualities. What is the converse of authority? Mr. Rico.

He had picked one I could answer. "Responsibility, sir."

Applause. Both for practical reasons and for mathematically verifiable moral reasons, authority and responsibility must be equal - else a balancing takes place as surely as current flows between points of unequal potential. To permit irresponsible authority is to sow disaster; to hold a man responsible for anything he does not control is to behave with blind idiocy. The unlimited democracies were unstable because their citizen were not responsible for the fashion in which they exerted their sovereign authority... If he voted the impossible, the disastrous possible happened instead - and responsibility was then forced on him willy-nilly and destroyed both him and his foundation less temple..."

This section goes on to later describe the thinking behind the book's system of government.

" Since sovereign franchise is the ultimate responsibility in human authority, we insure that all who wield it accept the ultimate in social responsibility - we require each person who wishes to exert control over the state to wager his own life - and lose it, if needs 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. Yin and yang, perfect and equal."


The last two quote that have always stuck with me and I would like to bring to everyone's attention because even though this book is a work of science fiction, these two quotes are 100% accurate, especially in the U.S. at this point in history with our 100% all volunteer military. AND in light of the recent court victory by Albert Synder against the foul people who had the despicable nerve of disrupting with hate speech and signs, this family's mourning of their hero son, I wish I could require every to read and memorize this first one:

" " What is the moral difference, if any, between a solider and the civilian?"
"The difference," I answered carefully," lies in the field of civic virtue. A soldier accepts personal responsibility for the safety of the body politic of which he is a member, defending it, if need be, with his life. The civilian does not.""

So for those of you who think you are more morally superior than the brave men and women past, present, and future who have/will under taken "the civic virtue", accepting the "personal responsibility" by serving in our Armed Forces and who protest those very men and women with signs that say:"thank god for dead soldiers". I invite you to STFU!!!!!!!

You can take your so called moral superiority and shove it! While I understand and cherish the 1st Amendment to our Constitution and value free speech, protecting it is part of why others like me serve in the Military in the first place. Protesting the men and women who make the free speech possible, , especially at their funeral, while ironic and sad, is personally sickening. If you disagree with what the contry is asking of its Military to do, write your congress person, Senator, President and/or get out and VOTE.

And the final quote I will leave you with today and wish to remind the code pinkers and others of:

"Man is what he is, a wild animal with the will to survive, and (so far) the ability, against all competition. Unless one accepts that, anything one says about morals, war, politics - you name it - is nonsense. Correct morals arise from the knowing what Man is - not what do-gooders and well-meaning old Aunt Nellies would like him to be."


Ish

* All quotes have been taken from the Starship Troopers, Ace Books edition/May 1987, Copyright 1959 by Robert Heinlein.