> Starship Troopers makes a core argument that service should be core to citizenship.
Maybe it's time for me to read the Heinlein; I'm only familiar with the Verhoeven film version. My impression from the film (since I cannot speak about the book) was that the argument in favor of military service had been totally corrupted by a warmonger mentality that prevented most from seeing it clearly. Then there's the strangely vulgar visual satire on masculinity in how the film depicts the Queen Bug as ... you know ...
By coincidence, https://www.thepsmiths.com/p/review-anabasis-by-xenophon yesterday published another lens on masculinity and war. I realize it's about time I read Xenophon, too. The perspectives you've shared from Kipling sound very familiar to the usual liberal discourse I'm familiar with. Xenophon sounds as about wild as Johnny Rico, and the background politics equally deceptive.
Yes. Heinlein drew up voluntary service as the only way to reach full citizenship. I saw the Smith’s piece. It was very good. Xenophon is an interesting writer, but I don’t think that as you dig in to the Greek views of war they become closer to that same liberal ideal that Kipling underpins.
Right, I didn’t mean to imply they do become closer — my comment probably was sloppy in its argument. I mean Kipling seems closer to us than any of the Greeks could ever be. Which, I guess, is kind of obvious and silly of me to say? It’s just that, the way the Greeks have been taught you might expect them to be much more similar in belief system than they are… when they’re really very strange…
> Starship Troopers makes a core argument that service should be core to citizenship.
Maybe it's time for me to read the Heinlein; I'm only familiar with the Verhoeven film version. My impression from the film (since I cannot speak about the book) was that the argument in favor of military service had been totally corrupted by a warmonger mentality that prevented most from seeing it clearly. Then there's the strangely vulgar visual satire on masculinity in how the film depicts the Queen Bug as ... you know ...
By coincidence, https://www.thepsmiths.com/p/review-anabasis-by-xenophon yesterday published another lens on masculinity and war. I realize it's about time I read Xenophon, too. The perspectives you've shared from Kipling sound very familiar to the usual liberal discourse I'm familiar with. Xenophon sounds as about wild as Johnny Rico, and the background politics equally deceptive.
Yes. Heinlein drew up voluntary service as the only way to reach full citizenship. I saw the Smith’s piece. It was very good. Xenophon is an interesting writer, but I don’t think that as you dig in to the Greek views of war they become closer to that same liberal ideal that Kipling underpins.
Right, I didn’t mean to imply they do become closer — my comment probably was sloppy in its argument. I mean Kipling seems closer to us than any of the Greeks could ever be. Which, I guess, is kind of obvious and silly of me to say? It’s just that, the way the Greeks have been taught you might expect them to be much more similar in belief system than they are… when they’re really very strange…
Thanks for indulging my ramble :)