The rational anarchist

2008-11-14T23:10:03-05:00

Welcome to the rational anarchist. As many of you will recognize, the name comes from the Robert A Heinlein novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress from when Wyoming Knot asks Professor de la Paz about his political leanings. His reply

“A rational anarchist believes that concepts such as ‘state’ and ‘society’ and ‘government’ have no existence save as physically exemplified in the acts of self-responsible individuals. He believes that it is impossible to shift blame, share blame, distribute blame…as blame, guilt, responsibility are matters taking place inside human beings singly and nowhere else. But being rational, he knows that not all individuals hold his evaluations, so he tries to live perfectly in an imperfect world…aware that effort will be less than perfect yet undismayed by self-knowledge of self-failure.”¹ That about sums me up as far as my political philosophy goes. It does not tell the why of this site.

When I was in seventh grade I was sent to a special class because I could not read. As it turned out I could read albeit not very well, testing at a fifth grade level. I simply had no interest in doing so. This is a case where a teacher can make all the difference. Miss Smith exposed me to a number of different genres finally landing on adventure stories. Amongst these were Sea Quest, Tom Swift and a host of other exciting but ultimately forgettable books, however it started me reading. From there on I became an addict, reading anything available from the school library. At the end of the class I was retested, scoring at a third year college reading level.

I can’t possibly name or even recall all the books I read during that period, however I remember that famous day and year of, well, okay, I neither remember the day or the year, but I do remember the book. Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert A Heinlein. That was a name I would come to love. All the books I had read up to that point were diverting, entertaining, amusing or even engrossing but this was the first time a book had spoken to me on such a personal level. It taught me the values I would come to incorporate as a part of myself. These were my formative years and I had found my teachers, those who would help me understand what was worthwhile in humanity. As you have no doubt noticed I used the plural, Heinlein was one man and he was my teachers. No, I am not that grammatically illiterate. Whereas a book with Heinlein’s name on it was an automatic read it was the characters on those pages who taught me. As Dr. Cargraves on that rocket ship traveling to the moon educated those young men, so he taught me.

I did not know Mr. Heinlein and to speak of what he meant by his works would be beyond silly, it would be offensive. Joy is in the ear that hears and beauty in the eye of the beholder and so on. I will however tell you what I took from these pages. It is my intent to review his works not solely as a synopsis of the stories but rather as an evaluation of the lessons I learned within.

This site is dedicated primarily to the works of Robert Heinlein; however I shall feel free to reference other authors and their works as it seems appropriate.

Sincerely yours

The rational anarchist

¹Quoted directly from The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert A Heinlein.

The Rational Anarchist

The rational anarchist