> His point, which he explains in essay form in
> Expanded Universe, was that our current "18 and alive" (for the US)
> voting rights invites stupidity, unreason, and irresonsibility, and
> while the Federal Service requirement for voting would not guarantee
> intelligence, reason or responsibility, it would assure that people
> valued the right to vote, having had to sacrifice to get it, and that
> they had at least at sometime in the past been able to put long term
> goals and/or the good of the group above their immediate personal
> comfort or safety.
Which is unfortunate, and, IMHO, utterly wrong. It's sad to think that
someone of Heinlein's intelligence and talent was so foolish...this
entire thing reminds me of something Utah Phillips says, in a school
awards ceremony, on the disc he did with Ani DiFranco: "Someone will
soon tell you that you are this nation's most valuable natural
resource. Have you *seen* what this nation does to its valuble natural
resources?" Heinlein, like most of the population of the Right, didn't
realize that power is in education, not annihilation...
End of rant. ;)
- Geoffrey
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:07:16 PDT