young, male, and healthy, he may wind up as cannon fodder. But there are long
chances against
it.
2. He/she can resign at any time other than during combat-i.e., 100%ofthe
time fori9 out of2O; 99%± of the time for those in the military branches of federal
service.
3. There is no conscription. (I am opposed to conscription for any reason at
any time, war or peace, and have said so repeatedly in fiction, in nonfiction, from
platforms, and in angry sessions in think tanks. I was sworn in first in 1923. and
have not been off the hook since that
Page 166
time. ~.4y principal pride in my family is that I know of not one in over two
centuries who was drafted; they all volunteered. But the draft is involuntary
servitude, immoral, and unconstitutional no matter what the Supreme Court says.)
4. Criticism: “The government in STARSHIP TROOPERS is militaristic.”
“Vlilitaristic” is the adjective for the noun “militarism,” a word of several
definitions but not one of them can be correctly applied to the government described
in this novel. No military or civil servant can vote or hold office until after he
is discharged and is again a civilian. The military tend to be despised by most
civilians and this is made explicit. A career military man is most unlikely ever to
vote or hold office; he is more likely to be dead-and if he does live through it,
he’ll vote for the first time at 40 or older.
“That book glorifies the military!” Now we are getting somewhere. It does
indeed. Specifically the P.B.I., the Poor Bloody Infantry, the mudfoot who places
his frail body between his loved home and the war’s desolation- but is rarely
appreciated. “It’s Tommy this and Tommy that and chuck him out, the brute!-but it’s
‘thin red line of heroes when the guns begin to shoot.'”
~4y own service usually doesn’t have too bad a time of it. Save for very
special situations such as the rivers in Nam, a Navy man can get killed but he is
unlikely to be wounded.. . and if he is killed, it is with hot food in his belly,
clean clothes on his body, a recent hot bath, and sack time in a comfortable bunk
not more than 24 hours earlier. The Air Force leads a comparable life. But think of
Korea, of Guadalcanal, of Belleau Wood, of Viet Narn. The H-bomb did not abolish the
infantryman; it made him essential. . . and he has the toughest job of all and
should be honored.
Glorify the military? Would I have picked it for my profession and stayed on
the rolls the past 56 years were I not proud of it?
I think I know what offends most of my critics the most about STARSHIP
TROOPERS: It is the dismaying idea that a voice in governing the state should be
earned instead of being handed to anyone who is 18 years old and has a body
temperature near 3 7°C.
But there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
Democracies usually collapse not too long after the plebs discover that they
can vote themselves bread and circuses. . . for a while. Either read history or
watch the daily papers; it is now happening here. Let’s stipulate for discussion
that some stabilizing qualification is needed (in addition to the body being warm)
for a voter to vote responsibly with proper consideration for the future of his
children and grandchildren-and yours. The Founding Fathers never intended to extend
the franchise to everyone; their debates and the early laws show it. A man had to be
a stable figure in the community through owning land or employing others or engaged
in a journeyman trade or something.
But few pay any attention to the Founding Fathers today-those ignorant,
uneducated men-they didn’t even have television (have you looked at Monticello
lately?)- so let’s try some other “poll taxes” to insure a responsible electorate:
a) Mark Twain’s “The Curious Republic of Gondor”- if you have not read it,
do so.
b) A state where anyone can buy for cash (or lay-away installment plan) one
or more franchises, and this is the government’s sole source of income other than