I think the book had a total of two and a half chapters of action (though one of those could easily have made three chapters) out of 14. From what I've read of Heinlen he very much prefers to write character and idea driven stories, with 'action' only included as necessary.
One particular aspect of Johnny's growth that I liked (and would have loved to see more of) is his growth from unproven replacement in Rasczaks Roughnecks to leader of Rico's Roughnecks. This is one area where I think the movie conveys the emotion of the situation a bit better (as it takes a bit longer between the introduction of Rasczak (who is combined with Mr. Dubois in the movie) and the Roughnecks, Rasczak's death, and Rico assuming command.) Another action chapter showing how Rasczak ran the Roughnecks in combat, and some time showing him interacting with the troops would have gone a long way toward helping the reader empathize with Johnny and he comrades (though perhaps Heinlen intended to show an aloof yet still beloved leader, as opposed to the more personally invested ones we see elsewhere in the book.)
Looking at their system of government, and then our (the US) military, I'm not certain implementing such a system here would result in a society anywhere near as utopian as The Federation, but I also admit that our military doesn't operate the same way theirs does (notably, their training and operations seem to be much more... pragmatic than ours, and they don't allow civilians to become commissioned officers directly.) I generally support restricting the right to vote/hold office to those with some 'stake' in the system, and I think using some sort of (virtually unrestricted) volunteer service as the 'stake' is an elegant way of getting around the tendency to create an underclass that will never obtain full citizenship, but I'm concerned that implementing such a system with our current military/government would simply accelerate our slide into totalitarianism. I don't see any easy way to save Western society, just a long hard slog through the culture (if that's even possible at this point) or a brutal overthrow of the current system (which could easily give us a worse system afterward. In fact, I think that's what happened following most violent conflicts in the western world since at least the 1800s.)
I know I said in the last thread that I didn't have much more I wanted to cover, but you definitely prompted a couple more (or more complete) thoughts out of me with this (and I've not been getting enough opportunity to discuss political theory/philosophy lately.) I'm looking forward to the next book, whatever is chosen.
I think the book had a total of two and a half chapters of action (though one of those could easily have made three chapters) out of 14. From what I've read of Heinlen he very much prefers to write character and idea driven stories, with 'action' only included as necessary.
One particular aspect of Johnny's growth that I liked (and would have loved to see more of) is his growth from unproven replacement in Rasczaks Roughnecks to leader of Rico's Roughnecks. This is one area where I think the movie conveys the emotion of the situation a bit better (as it takes a bit longer between the introduction of Rasczak (who is combined with Mr. Dubois in the movie) and the Roughnecks, Rasczak's death, and Rico assuming command.) Another action chapter showing how Rasczak ran the Roughnecks in combat, and some time showing him interacting with the troops would have gone a long way toward helping the reader empathize with Johnny and he comrades (though perhaps Heinlen intended to show an aloof yet still beloved leader, as opposed to the more personally invested ones we see elsewhere in the book.)
Looking at their system of government, and then our (the US) military, I'm not certain implementing such a system here would result in a society anywhere near as utopian as The Federation, but I also admit that our military doesn't operate the same way theirs does (notably, their training and operations seem to be much more... pragmatic than ours, and they don't allow civilians to become commissioned officers directly.) I generally support restricting the right to vote/hold office to those with some 'stake' in the system, and I think using some sort of (virtually unrestricted) volunteer service as the 'stake' is an elegant way of getting around the tendency to create an underclass that will never obtain full citizenship, but I'm concerned that implementing such a system with our current military/government would simply accelerate our slide into totalitarianism. I don't see any easy way to save Western society, just a long hard slog through the culture (if that's even possible at this point) or a brutal overthrow of the current system (which could easily give us a worse system afterward. In fact, I think that's what happened following most violent conflicts in the western world since at least the 1800s.)
I know I said in the last thread that I didn't have much more I wanted to cover, but you definitely prompted a couple more (or more complete) thoughts out of me with this (and I've not been getting enough opportunity to discuss political theory/philosophy lately.) I'm looking forward to the next book, whatever is chosen.