We're just remixing it. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos? D. D. Harriman. Nehemiah Scudder? Take your pick; there are plenty of candidates.
And wouldn't you rather live in Heinlein's future than William L. Shirer's past?
Update
6 days ago
15 comments:
Indeed.
Problem is it feels like we are getting a good dose of the crazy years too...
Shouldn't that be William L Shirer?
I think that would depend on when and where we live in Heinlein's future.
Some of his young adult futures would be great, but others are best read about, and not experienced.
Jerry: yes. Yes it would.
John: Harriman and Scudder should be a clue.
Just remember, in Heinlein's future, "Words have consequences", as in deadly force. Hmmmm, maybe that ain't so bad after all.
I always like Hienlien's worlds. I could live in most of them.
The trouble is, Elon Musk is no DD Harriman. Harriman never got a government subsidy, if he'd built cars they would have rolled off the assembly line on schedule, and he never had an idea as fundamentally unrealistic as the Hyperloop.
But there are plenty of people who would be Scudder - only their religion is leftism.
Yeah, going to the Moon is a totally realistic commercial goal?
And here I was thinking more Ayn Rand when I heard about California passing a law that DICTATES the makeup of Board of Directors of private corporations...
(If a board has X number of members, then Y number of them MUST BY LAW be female)
Racking my brain trying to come up with one tent-revival preacher deploying squads of bully-boys in the streets. I can point you to plenty of Marxists and commies, if that helps.
Does anyone have a nomination for the role of Nehemiah Scudder? I'm willing to be convinced.
They don't *start* with their own gangs of thugs, Monty. Conversely, socialism has always struck me as essentially a religion.
Sad part is, younger folks won't even know who you are referring to when you mention Shirer. I have an old copy of "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" which I reread every few years, but also have a beat-up paperback copy of "The Collapse of the Third Republic". The first book educated me, but the second sent a chill down my spine since it detailed the disintegration of a democracy nearly as old as this one (if you ignore Napoleon, the restoration of the monarchy, the Paris Commune, ect....).
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