APPLE PIE AND PARANOIA:

When replying to a comment made by Hammer, Heinlein's short story, Blowups Happen, came to mind and I started searching the web and I found the following site:

APPLE PIE AND PARANOIA:
Atomic Anxiety and American Values in Selected Works by Robert A. Heinlein
THE DECLINE OF CIVILIZATION

The Rugged Individual Patriot: Squelched by "The Man"?

Another brutal reality evident in Starship Troopers is the value of the ardent patriot, the man willing to die for his country but also for his freedom. Heinlein had his doubts about universal democracy (see THE AFTERMATH), but believed strongly in the power of freedom. "It has been proved time and again," he writes in How to be a Survivor in the Atomic Age, "by the Fighting French, the recalcitrant Irish and the deathless Poles, yes and by our own Apache and Yaqui Indians, that you cannot conquer a free man; you can only kill him" (EU, 173). Patrick Henry's patriotic words, "Give me liberty or give me death" echo in the pages of Heinlein's stories. In his short story Free Men, America has been conquered by atomic force, with Americans pushed into ghettoes, every move controlled by the Invaders. Heinlein glorifies the scrappy resistance movement of "free Americans." The rebel leader, on his deathbed, reiterates Heinlein's feeling on freedom. "You can't enslave a free man. Only person that can do that to a man is himself …The most you can do is kill him" (EU, 236). Despite these noble assertions, Heinlein recognized that such radical patriotism had fallen out of favor with the comfortable middle class. The power of corporate and state bureaucracy was certainly killing free men, if only by degrees.

Heinlein reveals his perspective on the corruption of the free market in the U.S. in Life-Line, his first published story. Dr. Hugo Pinero develops a machine that can predict the date and even hour of a man's death. Naturally, this invention throws the big life insurance companies into a tizzy, and they haul Pinero into court, suing him for the damage to their industry. The judge throws the case out, reasoning that:

"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest" (EU, 21).

This idea of corporations placing the success of their business above the public welfare is nowhere more obvious than in Blowups Happen (the story that Heinlein claims finally paid off his mortgage). The power of the atomic bomb has been harnessed into the most productive power plant ever made, but the danger of a massive atomic explosion is always imminent, either by random chance or sabotage by any of the power plant engineers, who tend to crack under the heavy responsibility of their task. The superintendent of the plant confirms, with the help of two other leading scientists, that the explosion of the power plant is not only inevitable, but also of a magnitude that could destroy at least half of the planet. When he and his fellow scientists recommend that the power plant be put into orbit where it could still produce power for earth without the risk of explosion, the company that owns the plant balks, claiming that their faulty research indicates no such danger. The chairman is especially curt:

"'We try to conduct the affairs of the company with reasonable wisdom and in the public interest. But we have other responsibilities, too. There are hundreds of thousands of little stockholders who expect us to show a reasonable return on their investment, You must not expect us to jettison a billion-dollar corporation just because you've taken up astrology! Moon theory!' He sniffed" (EU, 75).

The site was created and is maintained by Jessica Fox Garrison who writes about Heinlein's foresight and attempt to reach America- to get them to understand where it was headed. Many today discount or spurn Heinlein and will also say, "See he was wrong! We have not had ATOMIC WAR!"

Unfortunately, his prophetic words and writings fell upon so many a deaf ear that we have nearly played out his words. The internal rot is great in the Republic, the quest for one World government is very close and assisted by traitorous power mad cowards in the Swamp and that there have been "...erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance." Moreover, each of the States, Corporations, and nearly every public and private institutions of learning, both lower and higher, have their own petty traitors who work to destroy what our Founding Fathers bequeathed us.

What I say here is nothing new, some will say preaching to the choir and that this is nothing more than the ramblings of a paranoid, but this is EXACTLY why I founded this blog; just as so many others across the web, who are linked here, sent folks to my posts, or are not even listed have done- we see it, and so do you.

Go read the rest of her essay on this and I have nothing to offer but simply a thank you to the young lady.

WP