I'm through Chapter 7 and I'm the most interested in the characteristics of the overall society as a whole. There's a lot of hints (and I'm not asking for spoilers). Apparently those that don't complete service are second tier people, perhaps not allowed to vote at all, etc. It seems that's okay though, as Johnny's dad is a successful businessman and doesn't want his son to go into the service, so whatever is excluded to those with no service didn't change his mind on it. If anything it's hard to tell because the service seems to have a positive opinion among the young and those that are in it, but everyone else not so much.
Punishment as a training tool seems fair to be if used appropriately. They gave the guy every chance to get out of it as he was being a total turd. They also made clear at one point to make sure he acknowledged he had been made familiar with the rules. It's his own fault. I do think the accompanying bad conduct release seems a bit harsh, since it's implied that his entire life is totally ruined now. I'm not sure that punishment fits the crime. But I didn't make the rules.
Overall, I like the concept of corporal punishment, particularly for non-military crimes. Prison is stupid and a tax on society, and I'd much rather see something like this caning more prevalent in the real world. It has to be public and humiliating just as in the book. I guess the bad part is I don't want any of it in the hands of most of the current governments, as they'd be flogging so many people for wrongthink it would be a 24/7 operation.
The only other thing that stuck out to be is it seemed like they shrugged off training deaths like it was common and nothing, particularly the part about what I presume is the survival training. Could not such a technologically advanced society monitor this and not let the failures die but retrieve them and give a medical discharge? It didn't sound like they were talking accidents, but just inability to survive the conditions was part of the weeding out process. Maybe I was just reading too much into it.
it seemed like they shrugged off training deaths like it was common and nothing, particularly the part about what I presume is the survival training. Could not such a technologically advanced society monitor this and not let the failures die but retrieve them and give a medical discharge?
They do take it seriously, but accept that it's part of the package: push the men (no girls in MI in this novel!) as hard as possible. Doing that involves risks, including deaths.
Heinlein wrote this in the late 50's, so even for Sci-Fi the things we have now (GPS, heartrate & health monitors) were far fetched. They were in the battle suits of course!
I found that part odd as well. The Canadian wilderness is no place to dump a pile of recruits for what, 3-4 days without any equipment at all? It doesn't say the duration, but that they were buck-naked and had to travel 40 miles.
Johnnie killed rabbits with flaked rocks? The guy's a murder machine! (They had some training in that area, of course)
It does say earlier that they could clear 50 miles in 10 hours on the level, so they were dumped only about a day's march away for their survival training
The Rocky Mountains are far from "level". It took 3 days I think? And it gets plenty cold at night, even in summer.
It seemed 'over the top' but he didn't dwell on it, just made the points of recruits dying and MI never leaves a man behind.
I'm through Chapter 7 and I'm the most interested in the characteristics of the overall society as a whole. There's a lot of hints (and I'm not asking for spoilers). Apparently those that don't complete service are second tier people, perhaps not allowed to vote at all, etc. It seems that's okay though, as Johnny's dad is a successful businessman and doesn't want his son to go into the service, so whatever is excluded to those with no service didn't change his mind on it. If anything it's hard to tell because the service seems to have a positive opinion among the young and those that are in it, but everyone else not so much.
Punishment as a training tool seems fair to be if used appropriately. They gave the guy every chance to get out of it as he was being a total turd. They also made clear at one point to make sure he acknowledged he had been made familiar with the rules. It's his own fault. I do think the accompanying bad conduct release seems a bit harsh, since it's implied that his entire life is totally ruined now. I'm not sure that punishment fits the crime. But I didn't make the rules.
Overall, I like the concept of corporal punishment, particularly for non-military crimes. Prison is stupid and a tax on society, and I'd much rather see something like this caning more prevalent in the real world. It has to be public and humiliating just as in the book. I guess the bad part is I don't want any of it in the hands of most of the current governments, as they'd be flogging so many people for wrongthink it would be a 24/7 operation.
The only other thing that stuck out to be is it seemed like they shrugged off training deaths like it was common and nothing, particularly the part about what I presume is the survival training. Could not such a technologically advanced society monitor this and not let the failures die but retrieve them and give a medical discharge? It didn't sound like they were talking accidents, but just inability to survive the conditions was part of the weeding out process. Maybe I was just reading too much into it.
They do take it seriously, but accept that it's part of the package: push the men (no girls in MI in this novel!) as hard as possible. Doing that involves risks, including deaths.
Heinlein wrote this in the late 50's, so even for Sci-Fi the things we have now (GPS, heartrate & health monitors) were far fetched. They were in the battle suits of course!
I found that part odd as well. The Canadian wilderness is no place to dump a pile of recruits for what, 3-4 days without any equipment at all? It doesn't say the duration, but that they were buck-naked and had to travel 40 miles.
Johnnie killed rabbits with flaked rocks? The guy's a murder machine! (They had some training in that area, of course)
It does say earlier that they could clear 50 miles in 10 hours on the level, so they were dumped only about a day's march away for their survival training
The Rocky Mountains are far from "level". It took 3 days I think? And it gets plenty cold at night, even in summer.
It seemed 'over the top' but he didn't dwell on it, just made the points of recruits dying and MI never leaves a man behind.