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from the Pay-it-Forward-/-Grok-/-TANSTAAFL dept.
The Joplin Globe reports that Missouri lawmakers have inducted science fiction writer Robert Heinlein to the Hall of Famous Missourians to a cheering crowd of fans who call themselves "Heinlein's children."
State Rep. T.J. Berry says Heinlein encouraged others to "strive for the stars, for the moon" and "for what's next." Donors to the Heinlein Society and the Heinlein Prize Trust paid for a bronze bust of Heinlein, which will be displayed in the House Chamber at the Capitol where it will join 45 other Missourians honored with busts in the hall including Mark Twain, Dred Scott and Ginger Rogers, as well as more controversial Missourians such as Rush Limbaugh.
"Our devotion to this man must seem odd to those outside of the science fiction field, with spaceships and ray guns and bug-eyed monsters," Heinlein Society President Keith Kato said. "But to Heinlein's children, the writing was only the beginning of doing."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Thursday August 25 2016, @02:23PM
I read everything he wrote, too. He was a strange mix of hippie free love (Stranger in a Strange Land, Number of the Beast), rigid militarism (Starship Troopers), and capitalist cheerleading (The Man Who Sold the Moon). Many of his ideas from stories like Friday and Methuselah's Children I carry to this day. His politics were complex and contradictory and didn't really suit me per se, but the key takeaway was his constant insistence on critical, independent thinking, of standing up to every kind of tyranny from the formal, government kind to the mundane, everyday, conventional wisdom kind. Above all he was a real American and not a set of walking talking points, the way so many voices in today's society have become. We could really use him now to pierce the Bullshit and cut the self-aggrandizing down to size.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 25 2016, @05:02PM
...the key takeaway was his constant insistence on critical, independent thinking...
Very evident in, "Tramp Royale", the story of their round the world trip. They take their time, sample many different places and cultures, and conclude that there's no place like home (at that time--might be different now?)
I got the impression that they were well mannered tourists and did not fall into the "ugly American" stereotype.