Robert Heinlein at 100

http://www.reason.com/news/printer/120766.html ^

[tpaine]

Heinlein the Libertarian

"Ayn Rand is a bloody socialist compared to me," shows yet another side to the Heinlein paradox.

As a literary influence on the emerging libertarian movement, Heinlein was second only to Rand.

Yet his statement about self-sacrifice and duty to the species seems as un-Randian as you can get. Heinlein, a human chauvinist, always believed freedom and responsibility were linked. But he would never have thought it proper to impose the duty he saw as the highest human aspiration.

Heinlein once told a visitor, "I'm so much a libertarian that I have no use for the whole libertarian movement." Although never in lockstep with every libertarian attitude, Heinlein's fictions seemed derived from libertarianism before the modern movement even fully existed. Before books like Rand's Fountainhead and F.A. Hayek's Road to Serfdom sparked the modern libertarian movement in the mid-'40s, Heinlein had published a novelette, "Coventry," about a world whose government was based on a freely entered covenant that said that "no possible act, nor mode of conduct, was forbidden to you, as long as your action did not damage another."

Heinlein's other contributions to the libertarian zeitgeist include one of the epigrams of the gun rights movement, "an armed society is a polite society" - a line first published in his 1942 serial Beyond This Horizon.

He was also a direct intellectual influence on many important libertarians. David Friedman, author of the anarcho-capitalist classic The Machinery of Freedom, considered Heinlein's 1966 novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress vital to his intellectual evolution. (One of Moon's heroes was a professor advocating "rational anarchy," partially based on Heinlein's one-time neighbor, Robert LeFevre, founder of the libertarian Rampart College.) David Nolan, founder of the Libertarian Party, got his start in political activism in 1960 sporting a self-made "Heinlein for President" button. Another Heinlein devotee was Robert Poole, longtime editor of Reason and founder of the Reason Foundation, one of the first institutions to try to effect libertarian change in the real world in a practical manner. Poole's efforts could be seen as a legacy of Heinlein's interest in the nuts and bolts of how his imagined societies would actually function.

Even though he adopted the Milton Friedmanite phrase "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch" as a slogan for his revolutionaries fighting colonial oppression in Moon, Heinlein was not deeply embedded in the economic strain of libertarianism, which stresses the importance of spontaneous order, the failures of central planning, and the efficiency of free markets. As the economist Robert Rogers has argued, Heinlein's fiction seemed to believe that it took Great Men or a single mind (sometimes human, sometimes computer) to make sure economies ran well. In a 1973 interview with the libertarian writer J. Neil Schulman, Heinlein was doubtful when Schulman referred to the greater efficiency of free markets. "I don't think the increase in efficiency on the part of free enterprise is that great," Heinlein said. "The justification for free enterprise is not that it's more efficient, but that it's free."

Heinlein was, then, his own kind of libertarian, one who exemplified the libertarian strains in both the Goldwater right and the bohemian left, and maintained eager fan bases in both camps. A gang of others who managed the same straddle, many of them Heinlein fans, split in 1969 from the leading conservative youth group, Young American for Freedom, in what some mark as the beginnings of a self-conscious libertarian activist movement. In a perfectly Heinleinian touch, the main sticking point between the libertarian and conservative factions was one of Heinlein's bêtes noires: resistance to the draft, which he hated as much as he loved the bravery of the volunteer who would fight for his culture's freedom or survival.

Heinlein the Iconoclast

The prominence of his juvenile novels and his galvanizing effect on so many adolescent fans have led many critics to condemn Heinlein's work as inherently unworthy of serious adult attention. As one scholar, Elizabeth Anne Hull, has written, "In an attempt to account for the extraordinary popularity and influence of the novels of Robert Heinlein, it would be all too easy to assert that the masses are asses and let it go at that. Those of us academics who read Heinlein are likely to admit it with an apology [and consider] our weakness in enjoying his work a minor character defect."

Heinlein is indeed best approached when young, because his work appeals to that eternal youthful question: How should you live as you grow into a culture you did not make?

Heinlein does this best via his defining characteristic, one that bridges the apparent divides in his work. As William Patterson, the author of a forthcoming two-volume biography of Heinlein, told me, the best way to understand Heinlein in toto is as a full-service iconoclast, the unique individual who decides that things do not have to be, and won't continue, as they are.

That iconoclastic vision is at the heart of Heinlein, science fiction, libertarianism, and America.

Heinlein imagined how everything about the human world, from our sexual mores to our religion to our automobiles to our government to our plans for cultural survival, might be flawed, even fatally so.

It isn't a quality amenable to pigeonholing, or to creating a movement around "What would Heinlein do?" As Heinlein himself said of his work, it was "an invitation to think-not to be-lieve." He created a body of writing, and helped forge a modern world, that is fascinating to live in because of, not in spite of, its wide scope and enduring contradictions.

[Bender2]

Re: Aren’t you forgetting the remote material manipulation devices that later, when finally developed, the “inventors” of them called them “Waldoes”, in full deference and tribute to RAH and “Waldo and Magic, Inc.”, the true inventor?

I seem to recall Heinlein saying once that even if he did not invent strong drink, he did his part to keep it from going extinct!

And he added to be wary of strong drink. It may cause you to shoot at a tax collector... And miss!

[Pablo64]

I share your opinion of RAH. I have enjoyed Asimov as well (just got my wife to read his Foundation trilogy). Both are giants in the genre, but I have to say, for strictly sci-fi (not sci-fi/fantasy) Heinlein is still my favorite. The first book of his that I read was Glory Road and I've been hooked ever since.

An author that my wife and I have grown to love in the fantasy realms is Terry Goodkind. His Sword of Truth series has been excellent and we are looking forward to the release of the final book later this year (release originally scheduled for early '08, but has been moved up). The scope of this story has been incredible, the social commentary thought provoking (his message all but screams out loud "Commie Libs Suck!). Anyone who enjoys Heinlein and also has a taste for the fantasy stories should check out Terry Goodkind.

[Alain Chartier]

I read Between Planets at the age of 11. I loved it, and spent that summer reading the rest of his juveniles. Reading them now, I think they still hold up pretty well, and I still like his old "Future History" series. I thought Stranger in a Strange Land was great when I was fourteen, but now I find it overlong, self-indulgent and as silly as the society it purports to satirize.

[TrueKnightGalahad]

Neither offense taken and nor apology needed, sir; even as I hit the "post" button I thought, "Oh, no, wait, it's not HIS list!" So it's my apology that's due to you, hereby proffered. :-)

I'm glad to see so many Heinleinistas here. The influence he has had on my life is literally incalculable. His ability to hook a reader with the very first sentence was nonpareil; even now, I'll grab at random one of his books, every one of which I've read dozens of times, and still be as enthralled as I was the first time.

After his death his wife moved a couple of miles from my house in Florida, and while I never had the privilege of meeting her in person, we corresponded, and also participated in on-line Heinlein group chats. Maybe it was best that we didn't meet -- I've always had a terminal weakness for redheads, and despite the age difference I probably would have fallen in love with her :-) especially as she was the prototypical Heinleinian SuperWoman!

-----------------------

PS, I read your post below anent selling 21(!!!) firsts, and nearly had a heart attack! I have his modern firsts, but I'm glad I was able to snag a few of his rarer juvenile firsts as well. That you would even consider giving them to friends is most generous. I'm thinking about being buried with mine, because whether I go UP or DOWN, I'm going to want something to read!

[Bender2]

Ya know, just about every Heinlein thread I ever saw on FR ended up with several hundred posts...

Gad, I miss him!

I used to write... That is typewritten letters stamped and mailed to Heinlein’s publishers and Agent, Lurton Blassingame, back in the 1960s & 70s asking for news on when his next work would be out...

I can remember waiting out the months before one was to be published!

Gadzooks, the hair on the back of my neck just stood up...

You know, this getting old biz sucks! It is no job for a sissy nor a young whippersnapper...

But, guess, I'll stick it out a while longer.

[Erasmus]

Maybe they could if it was all featherbed.

[VermiciousKnid]

Even though I’ve been a Heinlein fan literally all my life, I have never seen that photograph. Thank you for posting it.

RAH is the ONLY famous person whose death caused me to cry.

Regards,

[VermiciousKnid]

Bender,

I think I’ve read all of Varley’s works, and his first three, though his most famous, disappointed me, too. However, if you have nod done so, you might enjoy “Steel Beach” and “The Golden Globe,” both of which are MUCH closer to Heinlein’s work.

Regards,

[Bender2]

I had a very kind reply from his wife in 1988. I was writing a political commentary column in those days and did one on Bob’s passing. Someone sent her a copy and she wrote to tell me how much she appreciate my words.

Some years ago I had a fire that wiped out all my columns I had scanned into my then computer and floppy disks. I still have the actual hardcopy of the newspapers on the days my columns ran and if my spirit ever gets high enough some day, I’ll go to that back Fibber McGee closet and try to find the one on Bob.

So, here are few of my favorite quotes of his:

A generation which ignores history has no past and no future. (Way too damned true nowadays!)

Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.

One man’s “magic” is another man’s engineering. “Supernatural” is a null word.

You live and learn. Or you don’t live long.

The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility. And vice versa.

Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.

Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let’s play that over again too. Who decides?

Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How’s that again? I missed something.

Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.

No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript troops and in the long run no state ever has. Roman matrons used to say to their sons: “Come back with your shield, or on it.” Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome.

The power to tax, once conceded, has no limits; it contains until it destroys.

The United States has become a place where entertainers and professional athletes are mistaken for people of importance. (This was written some 30 years before Michael Vick every owned a dog...)

Luck is a tag given by the mediocre to account for the accomplishments of genius. (I suspect some of ya'll here on FR call me lucky, but I'll not want it engraved on a tombstone till I die! };^b)

Anyone who clings to the historically untrue - and thoroughly immoral - doctrine that violence never settles anything I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler would referee. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forgot this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and there freedoms.

And lastly from Citizen of the Galaxy written before the electron microscope was commonplace: “Nobody has ever seen an electron. Nor a thought. You can’t see a thought, you can’t measure, weigh, nor taste it- but thoughts are the most real things in the Galaxy.”

Amen, Bob... Amen!

[RightOnline]

As a younger person, ALL I would read was sci-fi. Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Zelazny (a weird guy but a personal favorite), McCaffrey, so many others.......but Heinlein’s books were consistently on my list.

He may not have been as cerebral as Asimov in some ways, but Heinlein could suck you into a story like none other. I consider him a genius and cherish the memories of reading his books. I agree with so many who loved “Starship Troopers” but loathed the way Hollywood treated such a classic work; still floors me, because if any movie had stayed true to the book it would have been a FAR grander spectacle; a far greater story and movie.

Heinlein was a national treasure. Reading this thread makes me want to pick up my childhood passion for reading sci-fi.

[Bender2]

Re: I think I’ve read all of Varley’s works, and his first three, though his most famous, disappointed me, too. However, if you have nod done so, you might enjoy “Steel Beach” and “The Golden Globe,” both of which are MUCH closer to Heinlein’s work.

I shall go to Amazon.com and if they are there, I'll buy copies of Varney's Steel Beach and The Golden Globe and read them on the strength of your good word.

Of course, if they are crap... I'll have to hunt you down and kill ya!

I apologize for not living up to my high graphic standards these past few days, but I am over at a friend's home taking care of them during an illness and must rely on their computer. When they finally get well I will jump their shinola big time for making me use this graphically challenged CPU!

[Coyoteman]

Good post and good thread. Thanks to all.

My favorite quotation:

Piling up facts is not science--science is facts-and-theories. Facts alone have limited use and lack meaning: a valid theory organizes them into far greater usefulness.

A powerful theory not only embraces old facts and new but also discloses unsuspected facts.

Expanded Universe: The New Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein, 1980, pp. 480-481

[Drumbo]

And, amongst all that, he invented the waterbed.

AutoCad as well (Drafting Dan).

Don't forget that he also invented the robotic arm (Waldo - 1942 using the pseudonym Anson Macdonald) See: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=23 and the powered armoured suit now being developed by our military (Starship Troopers - 1959). See: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/798543/posts?page=32#32

Had Heinlein taken patents on his ideas, he'd have been extremely wealthy. His contributions to our society are immeasurable.

[Bender2]

Go to http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/AuthorTotalAlphaList.asp?AuNum=2 for a full listing of the many things old Bob dreamed up...

Such as...

Air Blast - the first air dryer
Coventry (1940)

Astrogation (to Astrogate) - steer to the stars
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Audio Relay - personal RFID transceiver
The Puppet Masters (1951)

Autocab
Between Planets (1951)

Automatic Light Switch
The Man Who Sold The Moon (1950)

Barrier (Force Field) - force field fence
Coventry (1940)

Bounce Tube - pneumatic tube system for people
Double Star (1956)

Broomstick Speedster
Waldo (1942)

Camden Speedster - compare this to an SUV
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

To name just a very, very, very few...

[Pablo64]

Some of my favorite Heinlein quotes come from the "Notebooks of Lazarus Long" :

"Get a shot off fast. This upsets him long enough to let you make your second shot perfect.

"A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits."

"It's amazing how much "mature wisdom" resembles being too tired."

"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity." (Maybe my personal favorite)

"This sad little lizard tol me he was a brontosaurus on his mother's side. I did not laugh; people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them. Humoring them costs nothing and adds to happiness in a world in which happiness is always in short supply."

There are many more, but these are some of my favorites.

[Bender2]

to continue with Bob Heinlein’s inventive nature from http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/AuthorTotalAlphaList.asp?AuNum=2

Capillotomer (Before you ask and are too lazy to google it, it is an automatic shaving machine...)
Beyond This Horizon (1942)

Cider Press - acceleration made bearable
Double Star (1956)

Cold-Rest - reduced temperature somnolence
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Cold-Sleep - hibernation for humans
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Cold-Sleep - hibernation between the stars
Between Planets (1951)

Control Natural
Beyond This Horizon (1942)

Copter Harness
The Star Beast (1954)

Customized Clothing - mast customization
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Cyborg - man plus machine
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966)

Desert Cabbage
Red Planet (1949)

Drafting Dan - born before CAD
The Door Into Summer (1956)

Eager Beaver - your friendly robot helper
The Door Into Summer (1956)

Eetee (E.T - extraterrestrial)
Double Star (1956)

Finger Watch - the original
The Puppet Masters (1951)

Flat Cat
The Rolling Stones (1952)

Flying Saucer - alien spacecraft
The Puppet Masters (1951)

Fold Box
Glory Road (1963)

Fresher - refreshing chamber
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Genetically Modified Food
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Grok - a Martian sees and knows
Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)

Group Ego - a kind of group mind
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Guided Missile Control Station
Between Planets (1951)

Half-Sphere Force Field - not an ordinary spherical force field
Between Planets (1951)

Hands Free Helmet - chin up
Starship Troopers (1959)

High-Frequency Oven - essence of the microwave
Space Cadet (1948)

Hired Girl - robotic floor maintenance
The Door Into Summer (1956)

Howard Families
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Hush Corner - noise reduction
Double Star (1956)

Hush Hood - privacy when you need it
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966)

Hush-a-Phone - noise suppression for telephones
The Roads Must Roll (1940)

Hybrid Mass Driver - moon bound
The Man Who Sold The Moon (1950)

Hypnotic injunction
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Joy-boat Junior - a private space yacht
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Jump Harness - rocket pack
Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)

Knockdown Cabin - portable shelter
Coventry (1940)

Living Grass Carpet - not AstroTurf
Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)

Lunar Used Spacecraft Lot - low (gravity) prices
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Lunocycle (Lunar Bicycle) - better than Bessie the mule
The Rolling Stones (1952)

Martian Perambulator
Between Planets (1951)

Mass-Driver Catapult - mass driver for the Moon
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966)

Maximum-security Booth - high security phone system
Double Star (1956)

Microwavable Food - pre-packaged ready to heat-n-eat
Space Cadet (1948)

Microwire
Between Planets (1951)

Mike (Fair Dinkum Thinkum) - artificial intelligence early on
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966)

Moon Skis - ah the lunar powder
Requiem (1939)

Moonquake-Proof Habitats - thanks to Robert Heinlein
Gentlemen, Be Seated (1948)

Movable Slideway - it comes to you
Between Planets (1951)

News Roundup - better than Tivo
Beyond This Horizon (1942)

Newsbox - better than Google news plus Tivo
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Paralysis Bomb
If This Goes On... (1940)

Parking Orbit - take the gig down
Starman Jones (1953)

Pocket Phone (or pocketphone) - invention of the cell phone
Assignment in Eternity (1953)

Portable Telephone - early reference
Space Cadet (1948)

Powered Armor (or Powered Suit) - military exoskeleton
Starship Troopers (1959)

Powered artificial exoskeleton
Between Planets (1951)

Radiant Power Receptor - broadcast power receiver
Waldo (1942)

Ramsbotham Gate - wormhole
Tunnel in the Sky (1955)

Reading Machine - read while reclining
Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)

Reading Plate - 50’s style flat panel
The Star Beast (1954)

Refreshing Chamber
Coventry (1940)

Ring Road - mag-lev old-style
Starman Jones (1953)

Robopark
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Rolling Road - public transport
The Roads Must Roll (1940)

Screensaver (Invention of) - the original idea
Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)

Security Restraint Field
Between Planets (1951)

Selector Card
The Puppet Masters (1951)

Self-Lighting Cigarette
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Shuttle Ship - early Space Shuttle
Between Planets (1951)

Sleep Surrogate
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Slideway - moving sidewalk
Beyond This Horizon (1942)

Solar Reception Screen - photovoltaics in action
The Roads Must Roll (1940)

Sound Analysis
Assignment in Eternity (1953)

Space Transfer Station
Between Planets (1951)

Speedtalk
Assignment in Eternity (1953)

Spinning Pressurized Drum
Between Planets (1951)

Stasis (Cold Sleep, Hibernation)
The Door Into Summer (1956)

Steel Tortoise - the original ATV
Coventry (1940)

Stereo Tank - 3D TV receiver
Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)

Stereovision - 3D TV tank (and first screen saver)
Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)

Storer-Gulls Wings - recreation for lunar colonists
The Menace From Earth (1957)

Sunpower Screen - photovoltaic cells power vehicle
Coventry (1940)

Tag-Along Balloon - find the space station leak
Gentlemen, Be Seated (1948)

Talking Bomb - psych warfare
Starship Troopers (1959)

Tanglefoot Field - non-lethal crowd control
The Star Beast (1954)

TANSTAAFL - and there isn’t
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966)

Teakettle - booster rocket
Double Star (1956)

Telechronometer
Blowups Happen (1940)

Tesseract House
-And He Built A Crooked House (1940)

Torch
Farmer in the Sky (1950)

Torchship - a tail of flame
Sky Lift (1953)

Traffic Control Camera
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Truth Meter - a 50’s lie detector
The Star Beast (1954)

Tumblebug - a gyro-stabilized monocycle
The Roads Must Roll (1940)

Universal Checkbook - radioactive checking
The Door Into Summer (1956)

Universal Dictionary - grandfather of the electronic dictionary
The Star Beast (1954)

Vacutubes
Double Star (1956)

Vibroblade - not messy
If This Goes On... (1940)

Waldo - the origin of telefactoring
Waldo (1942)

Waterbed (Hydraulic Bed) - a waterbed
Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)

Weather Integrator
Methuselah’s Children (1941)

Welton Cube - fine grain storage
Time Enough For Love (1973)

Wheelchair - home for the disabled in space
Waldo (1942)

Window-Willie - robot help for dirty windows
The Door Into Summer (1956)

Winged Rocket Shuttle
Between Planets (1951)

Zero-G Ashtray
Waldo (1942)

I think even Edison would be impressed, eh?

[eggman]

A very enjoyable read. I’m in the middle of it now myself.

[Pablo64]

I can’t remember which of his stories I read it in, but I remember reading about sending pages of documents over a “facsimile” machine (which is what we call it today) and I checked when the story was first published and was amazed that it was in the 1930’s, so chalk up another one for the master.

[roaddog727]

“My favourite Heinlein quote of all time:

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
- Lazarus Long, in Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein

It describes my worldview to a tee.”

As it does for me.

[Bender2]

Re: I can’t remember which of his stories I read it in, but I remember reading about sending pages of documents over a “facsimile” machine (which is what we call it today) and I checked when the story was first published and was amazed that it was in the 1930’s, so chalk up another one for the master.

I will try and reply with a much better response tomorrow as I am now on my much needed 4th beer...

Gadzooks, this taking care of ill folk is hard work!!!!

There was a fax-like machine invented in the 1800s which I can not recall the name of nor history of this moment, but when hale and sober on the morrow I hope I shall...