On the Side of the Human Race

As I read through Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers, I was moved by the hero's dedication to his cause. His utter belief in the righteousness of his cause was beautiful and stirring, and I found myself envying his faith. I wonder if, in our current culture of overwhelming ammounts of information, we can really relate to Rico anymore. When I finished the book, I regretted that my government did not inspire me to that level of patriotism or belief.

Either way, I sort admired and resented Heinlein's ability to see force and convenient survival morality as a positive thing. His characters voice the appealing idea that what is right for a group's survival (physically, culturally, spiritually) is what that society deems "morally correct." I don't have time in this post, but I'm not sure his arguments would hold up so flawlessly under heavy scrutiny.

Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.

Morals - all correct moral laws - derive from the instinct to survive. Moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level...Correct morality can only be derived from what man is.

-- Lt. Colonel Dubois

Heinlein goes on at length about how wars should be conducted and the violent nature of humanity. While he was militant in most of his characters' speeches, I was touched by his belief that (at least in human-to-human relationships) we are a compassionate and loyal species.

(We have) a racial conviction that when one human needs rescue, others should not count the price. Weakness? It might be the unique strength that wins us a Galaxy...The universe will let us know - later - whether or not Man has any right to expand through it. In the meantime the (Infantry) will be in there, on the bounce and swinging, on the side of our own race.

-- Mr. Rico

In my science fiction readings class, our discussion sometimes falls back on the subject of violence and whether or not it is inherant in human nature. I don't like the idea that our species is hardwired for violence anymore than the next guy. But evolutionarily, we are the dominant species on this planet, fighting for the past billion years or so to claim absolute control, molding natural and technological worlds to our will. We are currently the only known species capable of obliterating everything.

While I adored the book, I realized that as a generation of relativists, we try to stand for something and be tolerant at the same time - we're caught in the middle and that makes us indecisive. I think that Heinlein probably conveniently simplified the underlying issues addressed in Starship Troopers. The enemy threatens the entire human species...and the enemy is not human. They're bugs. That makes a difference.

Any thoughts? What's your opinion on Heinlein's ideas or Starship Troopers in general? Are these tropes particular to science fiction or do you think they could work outside the genre?

So say we all.

Bri

p.s. I'll tell you about Mass Effect later this week.