Starship Troopers indicative of a philosophical motiff?

Cafe Society
41

Sure, you could end up being a doctor, or a ditchdigger, but there’s such a thing as a military doctor, and historically, various armies have always been the world’s number one employer of ditchdiggers. The catepillar thing is obviously a joke. Logistics/intelligence is also a military role, and we’re never told what sort of research Carlos was doing, are we? I’m still not convinced. Like I said, there’s plenty of non-combat jobs, but non-combat does not mean non-military.

If Heinlein ever did complain about people not getting the book, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t in Expanded Universe. So far as I know, I’ve never read any specific comments by RAH on the matter.

42

Hmmm, I seem to remember a conversation about the whole idea of volunteering when Rico was undergoing the physical. He asked about failing the physical-- to which he found you couldn’t. The physical was just to find out what sort of job you qualified for. If you had no arms, no legs, and were blind in three eyes they’d still find a job for you.

I’ll see if I can dig it up…