[Author’s note – This is the next in a continuing series of book reviews for sci-fi classics. Troopers, as I well refer to the novel from now on, is one of the more influential and controversial sci-fi novels ever written. In it we see Heinlein’s writing begin to turn away from the juvenile novels of his early career and his move towards his more libertarian views. The novel is both loved and hated by critics for its content and to this day sharply divides readers. Heinlein is one of my favorites and I will no doubt review some of his other works later on in the series. As always, spoilers from here on out so if you don’t want to know, stop reading.]
Troopers was a controversial novel even before it was published. Written at a time when public opinion was beginning to turn away from unwavering support for the military, the original publisher rejected the novel. Heinlein was incensed by this rejection and decided to end his long association with this publisher and he also decided to begin writing books that dealt less with action and more with abstract concepts and ideas.
As a former military man he had the utmost respect for the military and one of the ideas he wanted to explore is what a world run by not a military dictatorship but a military democracy might look like.
One of the biggest misconceptions that the book has suffered in its history is that Heinlein was promoting fascism through this book.
During his life Heinlein progressed in his political views from being quite progressive (he supported Upton Sinclair in his bid for the California governor’s race and was quite active in the EPIC movement in the 1930s), to being quite conservative in the 50s and 60s, to finally settling into a libertarian stance by the 70s until his death. One thing that he was never about was being fascist.
In the novel the idea of universal suffrage has been replaced by earned suffrage. The entire world is now under one single global government. Although everyone is a resident of Earth, not everyone is a citizen.
Heinlein makes a distinction between protections and privileges. While everyone enjoys equal protection under the law not everyone enjoys the same privilege and the primary privilege denied to some is the right to vote. Only those that agree to serve the state can vote. Here is where the confusion lies. Many critics charged that Heinlein meant only those that served in the military could vote but the text clearly states that any sort of government service would suffice.
The central idea that Heinlein is trying to get across in Troopers is that citizenship was not just a passive concept that was handed to the individual at birth but an active concept that had to be earned by merit otherwise it became a stagnant and meaningless construct. Food for thought for a country such as our own where sometimes less than 50% of eligible voters turn out for elections.
The story itself is fairly straightforward. We begin with a “flash forward” as the protagonist, Juan Rico, engages in a battle on an alien world wearing a futuristic space suit called power armor and from there we flash back to before the war when Juan, a young man born into a rich Filipino family, falls in love with a young lady who is enlisting in the military. Trying to win her favor he enlists and is promptly disowned by his father. With no choice he goes through basic training.
During training the enemy, a race of arachnid aliens, destroys Buenos Aires and kills his mother. Now driven partly by revenge we follow along as Juan participates in several major battles. He is sent to officer training school. During his training he reunites with his father who is now also in the military and they reconcile. The novel ends several years later as he finds himself now in charge of a company of troopers preparing to invade the enemy homeworld.
Along the way the narrator engages in a series of discussions with professors and instructors that are really expositions of thought concerning several of the key concepts that Heinlein wanted to cover in the book. These include debates on merit based suffrage, how the current form of government had evolved, the root cause of all wars (Heinlein’s conclusion was that the root cause of all wars was economically based), the morality of using violence to resolve disputes, and the strengths and weaknesses of a “free” civilization such as humans had versus a totally communistic civilization such as the type that the arachnids had.
A note on the alien arachnids. Physically they were described as a giant version of a spider crossed with an ant. Arachnid civilization was subdivided into a caste system of warriors, workers, and royalty. The worker caste did all the manual labor, the warrior caste did all the fighting, and the royalty caste included not only leaders but scientists and engineers. The caste system not only described the jobs held by each arachnid but extended into their physical structure. Arachnids for one caste were different from arachnids for another caste.
The entire arachnid civilization worked as a hive mind working for the good of the whole. The suffering or the death of the individual did not matter as long as the hive prospered. To Heinlein this was what contemporary communism represented. The individual subsumed into the state and made into nothing more than an insignificant part of a larger machine.
The influence of Troopers has been primarily felt in the military. The novel has become suggested reading in some branches of the military and several key concepts have worked their way into contemporary strategic thinking. The primary concept of making the military into an all volunteer and professional army is the prime effect. At the time of first printing the U.S. still relied on a large, unwieldy, and badly trained conscript army. In the last half century the military has reduced in size considerably and the training and equipment for each and every soldier has more than made up in the amount of offensive potential.
Other things like the power armor concept, a mechanical and armored exoskeleton, worn by characters in the novel are well under development and will probably enter service within the next 20 years. The concept of mechanically enhanced strength is currently under development.
In pop culture the novel has affected a genre of Japanese animation called mecha anime. This has spawned entire anime series and movies as well as live action Hollywood movies.
For me though the main takeaway from the novel is the discussion of what it really means to be a resident versus a citizen of a nation. The citizen has to take an active interest in the welfare of the nation otherwise he is nothing more than a spectator or commentator just criticizing from the sidelines and never taking responsibility for making the situation better.
Scene from the justifiable panned movie version of Starship troopers
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