Having worked for Kawasaki and Honda and also Carl Zeiss, that was a book that served me well. Dick's other books might not go over well with some Objectivists because in his universe, reality was not firm, or at least, firm as it was, discovering it by getting past the perceptual, was the key. I always enjoyed Philip K. Dick books for their unusual perspectives on the ordinary.

Ayn Rand made it very clear that she rejected the "anarcho-capitalists" and why when they very publicly insisted that it was the 'true' version of her own philosophy.

Almost any fiction projects some sense of life and at least an implicit philosophy. Heinleins's was not anything like Ayn Rand's and is no philosophical basis for a free society. A lot of people, including fans of Ayn Rand, read it in almost hungry desperation for good fiction portraying steadfast support of political freedom.

Again, it is not property ownership, but paying taxes that was the requirement. Moreover, as a renter, I assure you, my property-owning landlord does not pay the taxes here: I do.

Back then, merchants could deal in millions of dollars of inventory and not own any of it. The founders were not in favor of restricting the vote to landowners. They wanted the franchise extended to taxpayers.

The merchants did not want to go to war. New England almost seceded from the union over it. The Hartford Convention failed only because war was declared. Very few people, if anyone, had what we would call a consistent philosophy. Manufacturing was the future, but the supporters of that were the Federalists with their national bank and all that. The Jeffersonians were all for freedom, but never got off the farm. Tractors are not built on farms.

That's the Marine Corps. In the army, if you are a truck driver, that is what you do: you drive a truck. In the Marine Corps, everyone is light infantry first, then you have another job. I learned that on an accounting software project for the DoD. One of our liaisons was a Marine Corps major. In the middle of the project, he went off to spend two weeks in the Arctic on a drill.

It is interesting, though, that Heinlein graduated from Annapolis. Do you think that he held that view about officers despite or because of that?

It was not about "serving the people." In Starship Troopers (both the book and the movie) the teacher was quite clear: When you vote, you call upon the full power of the state to do your bidding. No one should do that who does not understand what that means. He meant the prices that other people would be paying to engage your choice.

Everyone thinks of Starship Troopers and that's fine, but the story that really sold the military way of doing things was "The Roads Must Roll." The reason that I joined the Texas State Guard was to work in emergency management. There's lots of ways to do it, from community response teams, to the Red Cross and Salvation Army, but the TXSG has a philosophy, structure, and implementation that works because it is designed to serve when everything else fails. The National Guard all rally to one place to get deployed together, supported with food, clothing, shelter, and materiel. They need a week to show up. The Texas State Guard arrives as individuals to the point of need within six hours and we support ourselves for 72 hours until more help arrives.

Obviously, I like him, too. I have not quite read "all" of his books, I stopped with Friday and never read Time Enough for Love for instance. But I did get through about a dozen, including the so-called juveniles.

He taught me to be a professional writer. I took his advice: I seldom re-work an article; I just keep sending it out until it sells.

Robert Heinlein's goal was to explore the application of ideas. While he was a "libertarian" he was also a "militarist" and a "self-helper" and a "survivalist" and lot of other things people like to label him. He was beyond all of that. He took an interesting idea - like the waldo - to see where it could go.

Different writers have different goals. Portraying the ideal man is not the only reason to write. And for that matter, Isaac Asimov's perfectly altruistic robots are an example of his ideal person.

And no one said that Rand was an anarcho-capitalist.

The local school system was an okay idea in its time when it was invented. It has long since outlived its usefulness. It might have a place, like the local parks, but you do not want all of our outdoor activities relegated there.

I just judged our regional science fair. Yes, some schools excelled. Mostly, no local school system out-shown any others. While charter schools also have problems - including embezzlement and fraud - overall, charters and home schools are just as competitive as the best of all possible public schools. And apart from all of them are the private schools. Again, not all 100%, but overall, private schools are at the level of the best of all possible public schools.

Rather than fixing local public schools - though that would be fine - the winning strategy is to shunt the flow into more productive channels.

Tattered because so many people read it. Same with Rand. And do not confuse "the school" with the librarian. Librarians are a secret cult of knowledge-worshippers. Remember what Jefferson said about newspapers and governments? My degrees are in criminology and criminal justice. If I had to choose whom to protect my freedoms, I would choose the librarians. The pen is mightier than the sword.

No, they should not be required. And I am surprised at the suggestion. Are you here because your school required you to read Atlas Shrugged?

Actually MIAHM is not about anarcho-capitalism. They discuss it, as they discussed much, but they adopted a constitution.

Also, requiring it as reading would not do much. Back in 1969, as I recall, in the days of the campus protests and Prague Spring, one of the black radical comedians got in a line on Ed Sullivan: "You want to get kids into church? Put tanks in front of them and order people to stay away."

It is better to let kids find these on their own.

Actually, no. Many of the founders were merchants. Merchants do not own land. They do not even own the goods in their warehouses. Voting was not restricted to landowners. It was restricted to taxpayers.

That was what put Thoreau in jail: he voted without paying his taxes because he was protesting the war against Mexico.

Later, in the 19th century, those landowners united with the socialists to restrict the rising business class. Those landowners still hold up their noses when they detect "new money."

A fount of knowledge on Rand. Thanks for posting, ewv.

I agree! I do have gret affection for Isaac Asimov as both a Sciece Fiction and Science writer for the non-science readers.
I learned about "number systems" many years ago from a public library book that had a story about a group of earth space explorers who returned to find the earth's population gone and two possible culprit alien species. I do not remeber the Author's name or the Title. I have researche Science Fiction listngs and anthologies with no results. The detective work of the explorers regarding the number system of the 'Avian' species (Base 6), and the numbering system of the Saurian race led to which was the culprit.
I read this when I was in the 8th grade, and fully understood number base concepts from the book. It has helped me immensely in my life since. I believe our schools should provide this oncept to all students at grade school levels. (Mine was in 1955) I would love to learn the title and author.

I agree completely with the idea that "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress"and "Atlas Shrugged" should be required reading in all high schools and collges. I would also add Ayn Rand's "Capitalism, The Unknown Ideal" and "Philosophy, Who Needs It" to the required list.

We need more moral messages like these conveyed in books, movies and video games if we are to reach people. The ant's position in the grasshopper and the ant, never appeals to the grasshopper without some sugar coating.

With all the hyper shrill squealing over having to show a valid picture ID to vote, imagine how crazy the complaining about requiring property ownership would be.

of all the science fiction which I read as a kid --
all that the knoxville public library contained,
dozens of books -- Heinlein was the best. . hands down. -- j
.

Bryan Singer is tackling an adaptation of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, based on the classic sci-fi book by Robert A. Heinlein. Twentieth Century Fox recently picked up the movie rights.

Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim will adapt the book for the project, which will be titled Uprising..
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat...

Isaac Asimov is not only one of the genre titans, he is also probably the most prolific writer of all of them.

One of his series that I really enjoyed was the Black Widowers short stories.

yes. I thought i had it wrong. Thank you.

Ayn Rand was not a science fiction writer and her fiction was not "painting analogies". For her philosophy of fiction see her anthology The Romantic Manifesto https://estore.aynrand.org/p/253/the-... and the lectures https://estore.aynrand.org/p/44/the-a... and book https://estore.aynrand.org/p/4/the-ar... on which it was based, The Art of Fiction.

Unlike many, he wrote some books specifically for the youth audience. That depth of work, appealing to youth and adults alike is part of why he was always so popular.

For example:

The Star Beast
The Rolling Stones
Tunnel in the Sky
(Others too)