Revolution International!

by Flavio Goncalves

The first book I read authored by Robert A. Heinlein was “Stranger in a Strange Land”, I borrowed it from my younger brother, it was a cheap paperback edition with a very beautiful cover, I still keep it in my library at my family home, in the Azores. “Stranger in a Strange Land” was considered as being very progressive in his days, dealing with the sexual revolution when that sort of thing was still considered counterculture and giving Heinlein some sort of guru status, even though the book was first published in 1961 that edition was censored and the readers only got a chance to read the book in it’s entirety in 1991. Some claims have been made that this was the book that inspired the Manson Cult, even though Charles Manson himself came to public stating that he didn’t ever even read the book and had no responsibility on what his followers read.

Born July 7, 1907, Heinlein started his political trail as a regular left-winger but somehow along the trail that changed, upon his death he was already viewed as some sort of right-wingish anarchist, I can’t really tell you what happened but his “Starship Troopers” novel did sound a bit anti-communist to me and it was published earlier than “Stranger in a Strange Land”. But since anti-communism can not be considered as something owned only by right-wingers, after all regular anarchists also are anti-communist as part of their anti-authoritarian agenda (say what you like, proletariat dictatorship is still a dictatorship) and that goes as far back as the First International, when Mikhail Bakunin clashed with Karl Marx. So, many left-wingers (I would dare say most) are anti-communist and that’s nothing new.

I’ll avoid all the fuss about whether “Starship Troopers” was an ode to militarism or some sort of patriotic fascist order and place it instead, side by side, with “1984”, “The Iron Heel” and “Brave New World”: it pictures a future under an authoritarian form of government. And that is that! Let me borrow a quote from Wikipedia:

“The overall theme of the book is that social responsibility requires individual sacrifice. Heinlein's Terran Federation is a limited democracy with aspects of a meritocracy based on willingness to sacrifice in the common interest. Suffrage belongs only to those willing to serve their society by two years of volunteer Federal Service (there is no draft)”

Well, it does sound good to me, that is one of my views on Socialism, the common interest of the people should be more important than the interest of individuals, that would improve our modern society, even though my personal views would prefer a much deeper change.

Returning to Heinlein, as it seemed it was common practice among militaristic science fiction writers: once upon a time he was a soldier, served in the United States Navy during World War Two, but due to health reasons he never had a chance to fight, he remained in the States, in the background, during the war. He and his wife, during the Cold War, founded the Patrick Henry League when the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, in 1958, tried to unilaterally stop all nuclear weapons testing in the USA, while the Soviet Union could keep testing theirs… sounds like the act of a patriot.

To this day “Starship Troopers” remain as part of the reading list in four of the five existing American military academies (covering the Army, the Marines and the Navy).

So, what was he? He has been labeled a fascist, a nazi, a racist, at the same time has homophobe and sexual liberation promoter, and if in “Starship Troopers” we see him picturing good government as big government, on the other hand we find him fighting central government in “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress” while promoting small communities as models to individual freedom (as any good anarchist should) and what can be said regarding his “Take Back Your Government!: A Practical Handbook for the Private Citizen Who Wants Democracy to Work”?

All of his earlier writings and even Socialist political activism will picture him has an anarchist, due to the peculiarities of the Cold War he also embraces patriotism, his country was at war with a federation of foreign countries and it seemed natural to him to stood up for his fellow countrymen, but let us not forget that his position regarding homosexuality, sexual liberation, his criticism of organized religion and private issues (he remained a nudist all of his life) can hardly be pictured as rightwing, his writing was revolutionary, his positions were those of a traditional anarchist, but when needed be he also was a patriot and criticized Soviet Communism, that should not be mistaken with Socialism.

His books remain today as exciting as they were almost half a century ago, great lessons can be learned from all of them as well as great entertainment (he did won 4 Hugo awards), let us hope that this revolutionary writer and thinker will not be forgotten so soon.

July 7, 2007