One of my favorite books, Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers, is perhaps the worst story-telling he ever did. It's more preaching than story-telling, really. But the book has never been out of print since he first published it in 1959. It's one of his most controversial, and one of his most popular.
The premise of the book is that to give rights, or privileges, without imposing equal responsibilities, always ends up badly.
In Starship Troopers the only people who are allowed to be citizens, to vote, or to hold office, are veterans. There is no draft in this society, and they discourage you from enlisting. When you go to sign up, they have a man in uniform there to meet you, a man with a couple of limbs missing, a "horror show", he calls it, to demonstrate what you can be signing up for. "If you're lucky," he says. Many of his colleagues "bought the farm".
There is no maximum age for service in this world. And no one is turned down. If you sign up, the government is required to accept you, and to find some service you can perform, something uncomfortable, preferably potentially life-threatening, for the two years of your term, so that you will know know that your franchise is worth something! They have the right to vote because they have earned that right by placing their lives on the line for the country. Authority only to those who take responsibility.
The greatest power we have is the vote, and it costs most of us absolutely nothing. All we American citizens have to do to qualify for this enormous power, is simply to live to be 18. It costs us nothing to vote, and we are relatively immune, in the short run at least, from the consequences of how we vote. Edmond Gibbon, in his huge Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, noted that the Empire's collapse began when the plebes discovered they could vote themselves bread and circuses. Sounds a lot like us today, don't you think?
Why is the captian of the ship the only one who can give command orders in the ship? Is the captain the best sailor on the ship? Does the captain know more than anyone else? Is the captain right every time? The answer to each of these questions is, "Not necessarily." Only the captain can give command orders because only the captain bears responsibility for the whole ship!
Does it make sense to give just anybody who reaches a certain age the authority of the vote without expecting them to be responsible for anything?
Everybody who ever joins the military (I never did--one of my greatest regrets) in effect signs a blank check saying that they will pay any price, up to and including their lives, for the sake of their country. THAT is responsibility!
Sometimes I think only veterans should be allowed to vote or hold office. Yes, that would let me out, and people who know me know I never miss a chance to vote. But it makes sense. Balance authority with responsibility!
My dad came home from World War II with a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, and a less-well-known one called "The Order of the Caterpillar"--a little patch given to everyone who ever had to "hit the silks", parachute jump, in order not to die. Daddy was a patriot, and I was determined he be buried with full military honors. That certificate of thanks I got from President Bush after Daddy died is one of the proudest things I own.
Daddy enlisted on December 8, 1941, the day after the Pearl Harbor attack. He was 17.
He and I disagreed violently on things political, social, economic, theological, just about everything. He was as extreme in his opinions as I am in mine. So why should I give up my vote to him? Because he earned it and I never did.
One of the reasons I can vote is an awful lot of people, like my dad, risked, even gave, their lives so I could. How much do I appreciate it? Well, quite a lot, actually. But would I appreciate it more if I had earned it myself? Maybe. Maybe not.
I have had relatives who were career military who thought this was a terrible idea. And, like Heinlein, I'm not sure this would fix things.
But I am sure what we've got going is broken. I think this national obsession with rights and no talk of duty is a serious part of the brokenness.
What do you think?
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1 comment:
heading to the polls is treated like a main event in boxing, or the super bowl etc. people i interact with on a daily basis are varied in their opinions. there are those who proudly where their "i voted today" stickers for days and those who complain constantly about how their vote doesnt REALLY matter so they dont get up and exercise that right. personally, i think that voting is a big responsibility and we all earn it in our own ways. i would prefer having some sort of citizenship common knowledge testing about how our society works . we should test every 2 years and be issued a "voter i.d. card" to be presented at the polls when we vote. we would eliminate a lot of voter fraud and it would be trackable, although it should not be public knowledge what our voting record is. i don't know, i tend to be extreme in my beliefs, no matter the arena. but, you know that.
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