re: #81 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

You are referring to Starship Troopers, a very misunderstood work.

Heinlein is describing a possible future of humanity after WW3 (“The War of the Chinese Hegemony”), which ended with both sides simply being unable to continue: public order collapsed, soldiers and POW’s were left stranded wherever they were.

The soldiers did not seize power in any coup, they were simply the only organized bodies that were in a position to maintain any sort of order.

That led to the notion that only those who voluntarily offer to risk their lives & health for the greater good would be allowed to exercise full Federation citizenship, as the concept of nation-states also pretty much ended as well.

An interesting exercise in thought, but again, just speculative future-history fiction.

Yes, exactly. I always assumed the book, which I’ve read once ages ago, was a send-up of fascist ideology. The movie certainly is.