L
lostmuskrat
Guest
I, too love the book. On one level you have an epic struggle between good and evil that's a rollicking good story. I think Heinlein's brilliance is displayed in the way he uses the book both to criticize and reinforce American (and western) culture and institutions in the 1950s. The struggle between the bugs and humans is on another level the struggle between Communism (especially the Maoist brand thereof) and western-style liberal democracy. The bugs are a collectivist group with few leaders and many expendable grunts whose goal seems to be takeover through swarming with sheer numbers. The humans stress individualty and the potential for anyone to take part in the political process - so long as they want to put in the effort. Heinlein reinforces the idea that, in the 1950s, the world is at war, there is a struggle for survival and only time will tell who will win - the bug/communists or the human/democrats. In the book, he paints the struggle as one we must win - if only for our own survival.
That being said, Heinlein pulls no punches in roasting government, society and the military for what he sees as being wrong with American society in the 1950s. The justice system does not adequately protect citizens. The political process is corrupt and flawed. People are more concerned with rationalizing their distaste with making tough decisions than with correcting real problems by whatever means necessary. The very way society views the nature of the individual ignores the fact that people are animals, with animalistic drives and instincts - to survive, to reproduce, to thrive.
Heinlein also takes aim at the political-military establishment in the early 1950s. During the Korean War, the US Army had just recently desegregated and put white and non-white soldiers into the same unit. Many leaders opposed this for thier own personal (and in hindsight, racist) reasons. Heinlein's cap troopers live in a world where racism in the military is irrelevant. Likewise sexism, Heinlein's wife was also a US Navy Officer, and Heinlein advocated the idea of "best person for the job." In Starship Troopers, it doesn't matter if you're male or female, if you can do the job better than anyone else, that's what you're going to do.
Many of his ideas were totally speculative and whimsical (gee, what if we could have an army where everyone was an infanteer?) but were interesting ideas to be kicked around. There's many good reasons why this book has persisted on military reading lists fifty years on.
That being said, Heinlein pulls no punches in roasting government, society and the military for what he sees as being wrong with American society in the 1950s. The justice system does not adequately protect citizens. The political process is corrupt and flawed. People are more concerned with rationalizing their distaste with making tough decisions than with correcting real problems by whatever means necessary. The very way society views the nature of the individual ignores the fact that people are animals, with animalistic drives and instincts - to survive, to reproduce, to thrive.
Heinlein also takes aim at the political-military establishment in the early 1950s. During the Korean War, the US Army had just recently desegregated and put white and non-white soldiers into the same unit. Many leaders opposed this for thier own personal (and in hindsight, racist) reasons. Heinlein's cap troopers live in a world where racism in the military is irrelevant. Likewise sexism, Heinlein's wife was also a US Navy Officer, and Heinlein advocated the idea of "best person for the job." In Starship Troopers, it doesn't matter if you're male or female, if you can do the job better than anyone else, that's what you're going to do.
Many of his ideas were totally speculative and whimsical (gee, what if we could have an army where everyone was an infanteer?) but were interesting ideas to be kicked around. There's many good reasons why this book has persisted on military reading lists fifty years on.
