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So... Like Heinlein? Post-WWII Cold War sentiment of that type was not uncommon. I/We (old people) looked at "big government" as something that collectivists (n
by ci5er 9y ago
So... Like Heinlein? Post-WWII Cold War sentiment of that type was not uncommon. I/We (old people) looked at "big government" as something that collectivists (national socialists (nazis), fascists, international socialists (communists), socialists) did ... and without going all John Birch, even ignoring the air-raid sirens making you (uselessly) hide under your desks, it made one cynical about systems related to people pointing their nukes (back) at you...
- Pxtl 9y agoMaybe their goals were similar, but I always found Heinlein's poltical writing so much more positive that I enjoyed it, even though I didn't like his politics. Heinlein wrote stories about heroic Libertarians and happy soldiers. Pournelle wrote stories about incompetent and deluded liberal professors and conniving politicians. Think about the scene with the kid in Moon is a Harsh Mistress where an entitled Earth boy gets handsy with a woman and they hold an impromptu court for him. In the book, he learns from his mistake and is a "convert" to Heinlein's way of thinking. Pournelle's political writing was much more Manichean - the boy would be an entitled villain to his death.
- ci5er 9y agoMaybe so. I do remember that I found Heinlein a lot "lighter" in his approach to any dialectic. It's been more than a couple of decades since I have read either. It seems that I need a refresher!
- ci5er 9y agoHere you mean "Manichean" to mean 'redemptive' in the moral-dualism sense? If not, what do you mean? (I want to make sure I am reading you as you intend)
- Pxtl 9y agoI just mean that the "bad" characters are unsympathetically evil. The simplistic good/evil concept aligned to his politics.