Re: [OT] Plausible Sci-fi?

On Fri, 6 Nov 1998, Magnus Alexandersson wrote:
> I read the Starship Troopers and according to me, it was alot of
facistic
> propaganda in it. The movie was accused for facism, but it isn't at
all
> like the book.

the film was very clearly taking the mickey - those adverts that played
a
lot were about as convincing as the ww2 tom and jerry episodes. i
thought
it was cleverly done and funny. the book does indeed have some
strongly-held ideas on citizenship and governance, which makes my effete
english liberalism turn pale. a lot of heinlein has some fairly
pro-fascist ideas, but a lot is really anti-authority - If This Goes On
and the post-Covenant stories. i am a firm believer in the Two Heinleins
theory. in (iirc) 'time enough for love' he has two bon mots -
"democracy
is based on the idea that everyone knows how to run the country; how can
that be true?" and "dictatorship is based on the idea that one man knows
how to run the country; how can that be true?". like i said, Two 
Heinleins.

> And then I got to think and alot of games I've played during the years
can
> be drawn back to this book.... Scary!

these games all feature at least two sides - you can always play the
non-fascists. think about it - the bug civilisation is a perfect
socialist utopia ...

Tom
who is nonetheless ideologically opposed to ants