Starship Troopers

I first heard of Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers when the movie came out in 1997. I heard friends talking about the book it was based on and determined I needed to read this "sci-fi classic" for myself. Well, I swear there was a conspiracy to keep my away from this book despite my best efforts to locate it in book stores and books clubs. (OK, "best efforts" is perhaps not all accurate, but I did keep my eye out for it). Finally on Friday afternoon last week I found it in Chapters on Pinecrest and Iris and read it over the weekend and early part of this week. It was thoroughly enjoyable and definitely gave me things to think about, some of which I wanted to discuss here.

Note: spoilers ahead.

At its heart, Starship Troopers is a utopian novel describing a united human race with one government and multiple extraterrestrial enemies. We are told about this human society from the point of view of the narrator but it seems as if the author wishes us to believe that his view of the world is accurate and not overly biased.

The society is based on the concept that only citizens can vote and to become a citizen you must serve successfully in the military for one term minimum. Failure to do so means you remain a civilian. Civilian's have all rights and privleges except the right to vote in government. The novel states that this form of government is so successful because in order to complete your military service you must prove that you can put the group interest ahead of your own interests, and that this self-sacrificing attitude in the military leads to better choices when voting for governments.

It is an attractive possibility. An electorate that does not immediately vote with their own best interests at heart but the best interest of the country/humanity? Can you imagine how that would change politics? Can you imagine how that would change political leaders?

Of course, like most good utopian fantasies there are flaws that exist in humanity in the real world that make his society unlikely if not impossible.

First issue is the problem that most Canadians are becoming painfully familiar with and that is the stench of corruption. In Heinlein's novel the military is perfectly disciplined, well-led, and consistently produces the self-sacrificing citizens its society needs to continue functioning. Too perfect. In all history every institution that exists for a period of time develops some corruption in its membership. With the proper checks in place this corruption can be controlled or minimized but never eliminated. In the novel there should develop a portion of the voting citizenship that finds ways for their offsrping to become citizens without enduring the difficulties of military service, or true military service at any rate. This would create a class of voters without the self-sacrificing attitudes of Heinlien's perfect citizens. These individual's would probably attempt to gain more power as the selfish are wont to do and in the process corrupt the system to protect them and their compatriots.

Second issue: as these corrupted citizens gain power, they would seek to remain in power. In a voting government one way to do increase your votes is to be the one that grants the franchise to those that do not have it. In gratitude they often cast their votes for the party that gave them the ability to vote. This is how the franchise was extended from property owners to all adult males (amoung others over time). With the distinction between civilian and citizen no longer relevant, the government in Heinlien's book would start to look a lot like ours of the 20th century.

The third issue I have is Heinlien's proposition that all that is wrong with today's youth is that they need corporal punishment to keep them straight. A couple floggings and strappings here and there and everyone would smarten up! The reason kids today are often delinquents is because they have no moral sense instilled in them from the back of the hand of authority. While I do think today's parent's can be overly permissive and that there are some glaring holes in society's approach to rearing childern, I don't think the magic answer is flogging unlike what has been suggested in Starship Troopers. Its a simplistic yearning for simpler days when one argues that all kids need is a spanking and everthing would be better again.

All in all I enjoyed reading the book. It is a hopeful view of what humanity can be even if I disagree with the mechanics of the government and society.