My favorite Heinlein bit

M

Marko Kloos

Inactive
I have read the Heinlein quote "An armed society is a polite society" a lot lately in some of the TFL member sigs. Here's my favorite quote of Heinlein, lifted from "Requiem". We all have more in common than some of us want to admit.

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I am not going to talk about religious beliefs but about matters so obvious that it has gone out of style to mention them. I believe in my neighbors. I know their faults, and I know that their virtues far outweigh their faults. Take Father Michael down the road a piece. I’m not of his creed, but I know that goodness and charity and loving kindness shine in his daily actions. I believe in Father Mike. If I’m in trouble, I’ll go to him.

My next-door neighbor is a veterinary doctor. Doc will get out of bed after a hard day to help a stray cat. No fee--no prospect of a fee--I believe in Doc.

I believe in townspeople. You can knock on any door in our town saying ‘I’m hungry,’ and you will be fed. Our town is no exception. I’ve found the same ready charity everywhere. But for the one who says, ‘To heck with you, I’ve got mine,’ there are a hundred, a thousand who will say, ‘Sure, pal, sit down.’

I know that despite all warnings against hitchhikers I can step up to the highway, thumb for a ride and in a few minutes a car or truck will stop and someone will say, ‘Climb in Mac - how far you going?’

I believe in my fellow citizens. Our headlines are splashed with crime yet for every criminal there are 10,000 honest, decent, kindly men. If it were not so, no child would live to grow up. Business could not go on from day to day. Decency is not news. It is buried in the obituaries, but is a force stronger than crime. I believe in the patient gallantry of nurses and the tedious sacrifices of teachers. I believe in the unseen and unending fight against desperate odds that goes on quietly in almost every home in the land.

I believe in the honest craft of workmen. Take a look around you. There never were enough bosses to check up on all that work. From Independence hall to the Grand Coulee Dam, these things were built level and square by craftsmen who were honest in their bones.

I believe that almost all politicians are honest...there are hundreds of politicians, low paid or not paid at all, doing their level best without thanks or glory to make our system work. If this were not true we would never have gotten past the 13 colonies.

I believe in Rodger Young. You and I are free today because of endless unnamed heroes from Valley Forge to the Yalu River. I believe in -- I am proud to belong to -- the United States. Despite shortcomings from lynchings to bad faith in high places, our nation has had the most decent and kindly internal practices and foreign policies to be found anywhere in history.

And finally, I believe in my whole race. Yellow, white, black, red, brown. In the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability, and goodness of the overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters everywhere on this planet. I am proud to be a human being. I believe that we have come this far by the skin of our teeth. That we will always make it just by the skin of our teeth, but that we will always make it. Survive. Endure. I believe that this hairless embryo with the aching, oversized brain case and the opposable thumb, this animal barely up from the apes will endure. WIll endure longer than his home planet -- will spread out to the stars and beyond, carrying with him his honesty and his insatiable curiosity, his unlimited courage and his noble essential decency.

This I believe with all my heart.
 
This I Believe, wonderful.

My favorite is: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooporate, 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.

While I've tried most of these (except dying), I do want to improve my performance on all of them.

Other favorites are most of the "Notebooks" (the other favorites would take too long to look up immeidately, but the chapter quotes in "Cat" come to mind.)
 
Hey, I just got promoted to "Senior Member". What did I do (my "senior birthday isn't until a distant August date (although rapidly approaching))? Is there a pay raise in it? Anyway, I would like to thank the academy, my parents and all you "little people".
 
Greg, yeah, your pay is doubled from that of Member Basic. ;)

That passage is a keeper... but then, 99% of RAH's work is a keeper as well.

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"If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance."
-- Samuel Johnson
 
Some of my favorite Hienlein stuff comes from "Starship Troopers" and "Number of the Beast".

Also started reading Kipling after hearing so much about it, and liked a lot of that too.

Anyone else think the style of government he put forward in "Troopers" would work? I could really get behind something like that.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by artech:

Anyone else think the style of government he put forward in "Starship Troopers" would work? I could really get behind something like that.[/quote]

I agree with Robert Heinlein on this.

I find it very tough to follow a "Commander-in Chief who weaseled out of duty in a war, now sending troops in harm's way in fights that aren't really our business.

You might also like the revolutionaries' concept of government in "Moon is a Harsh Mistress".
 
Somebody who hasn't served has no business being a commander-in-chief. Some folks argue that you don't have to be an agricultural expert to be president because you get to rely on a Secretary of Agriculture...but I'd rather have somebody who's "been there" making the decisions on whether to send his comrades into harm's way. More at stake than trees and deer.

IMHO, neither Clinton nor George W. are qualified as CINC. Look at Somalia if you want to see what a non-serving president can do to a good outfit. Randy Shughart's dad told Clinton at the Medal of Honor ceremony for his son that Clinton wasn't fit to be CINC, and he refused to shake Clinton's hand. Randy Shughart deserved the Medal of Honor, but he wouldn't have had to earn it *posthumous* if Clinton hadn't gotten the rangers into a mess by turning feed into fight.

[This message has been edited by lendringser (edited February 13, 2000).]
 
Heilein's got some great stuff. Too bad the movie (Starship Troopers) didn't live up to the book but the special effects were pretty darn good.

One of my fave RAH's is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. "Teach 'em to throw rocks!" & a half-good primer on setting up a cell system, 'specially if you got yourself total control of the planet's communication systems.
 
My favorite is:
Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human; at best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bath and not make messes in the house.
 
Lendringser - A question. Which branch of service did FDR serve in prior to leading us, quite ably, through most of WWII? Was he the exception? I believe the Founding Fathers got it right the first time - born here and 35. John
 
Well, did we win WWII because of FDR, or in spite of him? Whole 'nother can'o'worms here.

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"...and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."
Luke 22:36
"An armed society is a polite society."
Robert Heinlein
 
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy under Woodrow Wilson. As I understand it, that is the only 'military' service he had.

As a side note, I find it interesting that he was denounced as a 'warmonger' during the late 30's. Up until the United States entry into WWII, IIRC.

FDR is responsible for giving us the CIA and the NSA. He instituted the COI, and later the OSS, the direct ancestor of today's Intelligence services in the US.

LawDog
 
Check me her if I am wrong. Didn't G.W. Bush serve in the National Guard in Tejas (Air National Guard)? Who are the first to go?

Bob
 
The problem with Heinlein is that in his later books he is hung up with going back in time and Freudian bingbang with his momma.

He was also big on having his hero clone himself as two female twins and ...

Stick with his early work, IMHO
 
He was also big on having his hero clone himself as two female twins and ...

AND???

C'mon, Glenn, don't leave me hangin' here! :D



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"If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance."
-- Samuel Johnson
 
He was a smart man. I loved his veiws on not letting every zombie who could walk have the right to vote.
I like how he doesn't like putting 20 year old ROTC punks in charge of platoons.
 
Sorry, Coinneach. A menage a trois with women clones of myself is not high on my hit parade of fantasies.

Heinlein started to weird out with Farham's
Freedhold (title?) and then with the Lazarus Long goes time traveling books.

He was really big into gender change and keeping the family tree straight in his last writing.

Before that, I loved his work.
 
I liked the government's setup in Starship Troopers, too. The best part was that everyone took responsibility for authority. I know there is a distinction between corporal punishment and physical abuse. There is also a distinction between help catching a robbery perp because we happen to be there and being a vigilante. The problems will show up when kids/teens/immature adults go undisciplined because we don't want to risk physical abuse charges, and when criminals go unpunished because law enforcement does not like vigilantes turning into lynch mobs.
Voting rights: Sure the US constitution says everyone born here or naturalized over 18 can vote. But just how many actually vote? Personal sacrifice in unpleasant duty to the society sounds like the right work to earn the priviledge to vote and thereby govern the society. Human nature treasures the hard-earned priviledges and looks down upon easy gets. Even down right evades duties. (I am thinking of jury duty)
On a side issue, ALL men should visit divorce court with their fiance before entering into a marriage contract. Too many judges side with women to burn the divorced fathers.
Commanders: a person in command should feel the weight of the wellbeing of his/her people before sending them into harm's way. Everyone fights. Everyone works. No slackers.
Women in the mililary: One of these two has to go. (a) teach our young men to protect women and expect them to take care of women, or (b) put women in the front lines next to men. A better way is segregate the squadrons or make women the officers. The segregation removes the sexual tension, conflict, protectiveness that is built into human brains. The officer bit takes advantage of the societie's teaching about being protective toward women. Heck, some mother figures are very good at bossing people. Probably make for good sergeants, if not officers.
Leaders in general should experience being lead into harm's way. Literally and figuratively. We have a problem where a man must spend ten to 100 grand to get elected into an office that pays 50 grand a year. If that pay isn't attracting politicians, what is? A politician like a governor or a senator should see her wealth diminish or grow as the governed diminish or grow. The sign of corruption is a community leader getting rich while her community descends into poverty.

(ducking in anticipation of flaming) :)

[This message has been edited by yy (edited February 16, 2000).]
 
My favorite is probably "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel". This is where I found my personal motto: "Powered By Clean Living and Righteous Thoughts". I grew up with the early works like this one and "Time for the Stars", etc.
 
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