Robert A. Heinlein’s novel, Stranger in a Strange Land, is one of science fiction's most heralded stories. Printed in the early 1960’s, Heinlein's novel deals with new concepts on our culture's views of sexuality, government and religion. These new philosophical and religious ideas resonated with the decade’s counterculture and are cited as a major influence in the free love movement. Its impact was so large that groups of people attempted to practice new ways of living and even created a new religion. My first experience with this novel came over 40 years after it was printed. It also had a large impact on me but not in the same way as it did with 1960’s counterculture. Many in the 60’s believed the ideology of Stranger in a Strange Land gives us new concepts on how to live. I believe its main purpose is that it serves as a polar opposite to current ideological systems so that we may have a source on which to measure how inefficient and ridiculous current systems can become. In the rest of this essay I will show how this ideology acts as a mirror to our society and how the novel exaggerates current social systems to further resonate this paradox. Before we analyze Smith's ideologies, we will look at how the novel portrays the subjects of government and religion in our current culture. For anyone not familiar with the story, a summery can be found here:
In the novel, the world is ran by a worldwide democratic government called the Federation with capitalism as its economic engine. Although different in some ways it is very similar to the United States and the United Nations government design. Instead of the novel focusing on the positive aspects of the Democratic and capitalist systems, it focuses on the negative aspects of these systems. The main examples are the greed driven nature of capitalism and the inefficiency of too many bureaucratic channels in a democracy. This is further emphasized by the fact that most of the respectable characters in the story are anti government. Jubal even says, “that government is three fourths parasitic and the rest is stupid fumbling.” We also see how Secretary Douglas is manipulated by greed to go from wanting to murder Michael Smith to working for him. Also, telling is how Secretary Douglas is controlled by his wife, Agnes Douglas, in making the most important political decisions. In turn, Agnes Douglas is influenced by the astrologer, Alexandria Vesant, who is heavily influenced by stock market decisions. We can see how a cycle of inefficiency continues to influence policies. Also, the explanation of the flapper system shows the inefficiency of having too many layers of bureaucracy. “The flapper system and no person of importance listened or spoke without help of a flapper, without the consent of a flapper it was impossible to converse with anyone in the government. Flappers were known as executive assistance, private secretaries, secretaries to private secretaries, press secretaries, appointment clerks etc. but all were flappers. Each flapper held veto over communication from the outside.” Besides the official flappers, there was also a web of unofficial flappers. It became as hard to talk to an official flapper as it did to get in touch with the original person of importance.
Next, we will discuss religion in the novel. The religion most focused on is the Fosterite Church which is led by Reverend Doctor Daniel Digby who happens to be a murderer. The church was a combination of Protestant meets Las Vegas. The church combined the gambling in show business aspect of Vegas with spiritual worship. This combination of sin and holiness is put together to paint a ridiculous picture of religion. Service is being led by former football stars and hymns with corporate sponsors. They also have slot machines that give you prayers. In true Vegas tradition they even have strippers. We can see this makes a complete mockery of current religious institutions.
Now let's look at the ideologies that Valentine Michael Smith comes to practice. I believe that Smith's ideas on religion and social structures exist to serve as the antithesis to our own. I believe this because his ideology is unquestionable and protected by scapegoats. The first scapegoat, which we will call the religious scapegoat, is that he has cosmic knowledge given to him by a language that is made up and involves concepts unknowable by real humanity. It is great to have an impregnable concept to use as a plot device with a story involving a battle of ideologies but it is useless to create a real religion based on a language that doesn't exist. All the novel truly did is take Christianity in its purest and simplest form and compare it to Christianity in its most bloated and excessive form.
The second scapegoat, which we will call the infinite money scapegoat, is because of Smith's unique birth situation; he's one of the richest people on the planet. Smith having a tribalistic society within a capitalist society is possible, but it requires great control of all resources and finances of its members. The financial responsibility of each member along with the systems in how these finances are distributed is a big part of governing tribalistic society. The novel bypasses these issues and responsibilities by giving the participants in Smith's tribe infinite resources. Again, we can see that this is a great fix to keep the story moving along but not a realistic way to govern a group in the real world.
The third and final scapegoat we will call the superpower scapegoat. Besides having access to infinite funds and superior philosophical concepts, when Smith or the people in his group are confronted with something that finances and wisdom can’t fix they can always rely on their superpowers. Having these distinct advantages makes it easy to want to be a part of these ideologies as opposed to our current ones.
In conclusion, the concepts in Stranger in a Strange Land lead me to believe that the true message of the novel is to focus on our own structures of religion in government and to look at how dysfunctional they could become without intervention. While I understand the excitement generated by this novel when it first came out and peoples need to emulate it, I do not believe it is the novel's purpose. The truth is that it is extremely difficult to create positive social change. While it is nice to imagine having the tools of unlimited funds, telekinesis and cosmic wisdom, it takes away the true struggle of social change and is better left to fiction.
Heinlein, Robert A.. Stranger in a Strange Land. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 1968.
No comments:
Post a Comment