Leftists are literal bug defenders
(media.kotakuinaction2.win)
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It's a very good book. It took a second reading of it to fully appreciate though. The first time I read it I was just looking to the source material in an effort to find more content of space marines squaring off against bugs, which the opening and closing of the book seem to provide well enough. The middle section just kind of rolled over me though.
Years later I went back again and was able to actually digest more of the philosophy. By that point I'd also spent a few years working with former military guys so the sections about basic training helped to understand some of where those guys were coming from, both in terms of experiences as well as mind set. Up until that point I'd always had a surface level understanding of boot camp that was informed by sensationalized media that made it seem that it was a whole lot of drill sergeants being mean for the sake of being mean. Now along comes this sci-fi book to lay it out that no, there's actually a reason for all of that and it makes a hell of a lot of sense.
After seeing the movie first I always interpreted the book as in line with the movie narrative. Johnny Rico is clearly beat down in boot camp and at one point admits to like routine hypnosis as part of his “battle readiness”. The dudes family is like consumed by the military industrial complex and the hypnosis is a bizarre inclusion in like a supposed utopia. Apparently Heinleins like later writings support the theory that he was being sincere with Starship Troopers, but there’s no way he believed that shit AND wrote stranger in a strange land at the same time.
This is an asinine take, the "hypnosis" is how they were given the battle plan and how they checked for mental illness.
In the opening of the book they made a guy sit out of the battle for a slight fever. Definitely the actions of hypnotized fanatics.