Posted on 02/10/2017 1:51:53 PM PST by nickcarraway
“An armed society is a polite society”
“TANSTAAFL”
Robert Heinlein
Harrison Bergeron is the classic in this group of worthy literature. It is written in a way that it actually speaks to kids, even now.
That’s the test.
Absolute classic, and its succinct, which you have to be in a society with near zero attention span.
Nothing by NicknamedBob? Is outrage!
LOVE love love Harrison Bergeron. It seems so apt in this age of “privilege.”
If these others are on the same par as that one, I’m gonna have some reading to do. :)
If Hall of Fame means fame, “Harrison Bergeron” is the only one I ever see cited.
Heinlein doesn’t fit well with libertarianism after Ayn Rand.
Vonnegut said later that his satire was more against right-wing views of left-wing egalitarianism than about communism or socialism.
That could simply be the older Vonnegut covering himself from criticism from his left-wing peers, but it is possible.
Heinlein.
And starship troopers. Not the sarcastic take on the book, that movie, but the real novel.
And most people never got the satire of Strangers in a Strange Land. The hippie bible that was completely misread by them.
I also read, I believe, all of the Lazarus Long novels.
Lazarus Long, Time enough for love. great novel
I have seen Vonnegut criticize everything right of center. I did enjoy much of his stuff though.
I nominate Joshua of the book of Joshua and the founder of the libertarian state of Israel. His founding words were thus:
Choose you this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
All libertarianism since then has been built on that statement.
+1.
L
Perhaps there is another who deserves mention and credit, to wit, John W Campbell Jr., the editor of Astounding SF -> Analog SF&F from 1937 to 1971, since he published 4 of these six nominees!
His editorials were required reading and led me to my libertarian views today. His influence on the “Golden Age” of Science Fiction is measured by the authors he helped. The paper he used may have been pulp, but the writing and editing shone like gold.
A friend of mine worked at a NPR radio station. He was left of center but still rational. He sent me a tape of a Vonneget interview shortly before Vonneget died. My friend had not aired it because it was obvious that Vonneget had dementia. He went on an incoherent rant about how he was thankful that he had a pasty complexion because George Bush wanted to kill everyone paler than himself. He’d obviously lost it but of course NPR thought it was great stuff.
Can’t disagree but I’d wager that Harrison Bergeron may have never been written if not for Heinlein’s works that preceded it.
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