Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.”
Starship Troopers, Page 27 | Robert A. Heinlein
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Introduction
When most people hear the name “Starship Troopers”, they think of the 1997 blockbuster action-comedy science-fiction film that was an over-the-top parody about a militarized society where citizenship was earned through military service. No military experience, no voting. In the film, military service was never a requirement, only a choice one could make if called to it.
In the movie, humanity is at war with a sentient race of insect-aliens known as the arachnids. In typical warfare fashion, to dehumanize the enemy, they called them bugs. To fight in the war was a great honor, and service came with citizenship, but the cost is high as we observe many veterans who returned from the Great Bug War missing limbs and other injuries. Many did not return.
The mobile infantry didn’t know why they were attempting to exterminate a sentient race of insects, nor did they even think to wonder why. They weren’t aware that the insects had emotions or thoughts. There was no philosophy or intelligent thought in the movie. Even divisions that specialize in intelligence were incapable of thinking freely, seeing themselves as exterminators against a foe that had no mind for rationality.
The movie ends with the capture of a “brain bug” that military psychologists determine, is afraid of humanity. This shows that the bugs can feel fear, leading humanity to further pursue war with the species since they can feel fear. The enemies’ fear justified continuing the war.
The movie is completely different than the book. The movie contains no philosophy. It is parody entertainment. The book and the movie are both good. They are different entities.
Robert Heinlein wrote Starship Troopers in 1958 in response to the Cold War.
Heinlein knew war distinctly, having been a naval officer in World War II. The book, unlike the movie, is not a parody of war and military culture, but a novel full of philosophy relating to virtue, service, duty, and so much more.
One passage from the book explains how the term “juvenile delinquent” is an incorrect misnomer.
Adult delinquents
Mr. Dubois then turned to me. “I told you that ‘juvenile delinquent’ is a contradiction in terms. ‘Delinquent’ means ‘failing in duty.’ But duty is an adult virtue—indeed a juvenile becomes an adult when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge of duty and embraces it as dearer than the self-love he was born with. There never was, there cannot be, a ‘juvenile delinquent.’ But for every juvenile criminal there are always one or more adult delinquents—people of mature years who either do not know their duty, or who, knowing it, fail. “And that was the soft spot which destroyed what was in many ways an admirable culture. The junior hoodlums who roamed their streets were symptoms of a greater sickness; their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of ‘rights’ . . . and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure.”
Starship Troopers, Page 126 | Robert A. Heinlein
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Most children are not capable of duty, nor should duty be expected of young children. Children learn about the world through play and pleasure(P&P) because they are not developed enough to embrace duty or to embrace mastery, because they do not understand themselves or the world.
To pursue mastery is to understand, at least somewhat, the spirit of the individual. Pursuing mastery in body and mind nourishes the spirit, where pursuing pleasure sickens the spirit.
A child may be able to eat a diet of sugar and calorie dense, nutrient light food and feel fine while looking fine on the outside–possibly inside, too. An adult body cannot do this. Play and Pleasure(P&P) is a mechanism to learn about the world for children, and a respite from duty and the path for adults.
Adults who pursue Play and Pleasure like children are delinquents.
Delinquents are dangerous.
An adult who does not understand themself has not pursued mastery over the self, forsaking the duty placed upon all members of humanity.
An adult can be a lost delinquent, where a child can only be lost; both can be shown the way, but it is the responsibility of the individual to embrace duty.
A child can adopt duty while still being a child. This makes the transition into adulthood much easier. The Andreia Philosophy Code rites of passage is the adoption of duty to a path to mastery. Parents should encourage duty in childhood so their children may transition into fulfilled and successful adults.
Individuals must self-impose duty by pursuing mastery in Body, Mind, and Spirit(BMS). By embracing mastery, you embrace duty, and you live a fulfilled life. Walking the path to mastery is the duty of all adults.
Upholding duty = living fulfilled
The child graduates from the pursuit of pleasure to the pursuit of fulfillment through mastery. Many adults are children who never grew up.
Duty will no doubt be imposed upon you by outside forces, and this duty can be virtuous, or not. Self-imposed duty allows the individual to choose virtue if they desire it.
If you do not self-impose virtue, another may conscript you for their pursuit of fulfillment which may not be virtuous. Walking on the path of another is not a bad thing unless that path goes in a direction that does not serve you. If their path direction serves you, you can go farther together. Understand that all paths diverge, and then converge because all wanderers are fated to meet death and proceed to the next adventure.
The absence of duty is the pursuit of pleasure. This is acceptable for a child, and reprehensible for an adult.
Adults who pursue pleasure are delinquents who tax society and damage culture. Those who embrace duty must carry the weight of adult delinquents who forsake duty. The virtuous can only carry so much burden before their backs break under the pressure, and society and culture collapse.
Campaigning against virtue is campaigning against society. Fighting against virtue may benefit the individual, but it burdens society. If society has enough burden, it collapses, and all individuals suffer.
If a delinquent adult is looking for a way out, help them. If a delinquent adult is embracing the pursuit of pleasure with no regard for duty, avoid them.
Those who do not embrace duty pursue pleasure.
The pursuit of pleasure is a sickness that cannot be fulfilled.
