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Originally Posted by radius
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Its possible that I am mis-remembering the book, but I believe that in Starship Troopers, any government service was enough to qualify someone for citizenship. It didn't need to be military service. Juan and his friends enlisted in the military, but there were other options. In fact, if you were unfit for service, the government was not allowed to refuse you the opportunity enter public service and would find some other kind of difficult job for you.
I think you could definitely argue that RAH felt you should participate in society in order to be allowed a say in it (was it RAH or Jerry Pournelle that wrote a story where Taxpayer was a separate class from Citizen?) but that is different from saying that only the military should be allowed a voice in government.
Actually, in Starship Troopers, the fact that the vote expanded from vets only to public service in general might show that RAH recognized you can't have government ruled only by military veterans.
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Somewhere in the book they discuss the hypothetical example of a blind wheelchair-bound person who happens to have exactly zero useful skills but who wishes to perform government service in order to qualify for the franchise. The summary was that the gov't would either (a) teach that person some useful skill and then have them use it for the duration of their service (clearly stated as the preferred option), or (b) invent some possibly-useless task that was within the person's capabilities and have them perform
that task for their service period. The example I remember was "counting the fuzz on caterpillars by touch" (or something like that).
The point is that the government service thing was an absolute right for
anyone who chose to exercise it -- regardless of skills, abilities, income, etc. At the same time, you had no choice about
what you would do, only that you could quit at any time (and, by quitting, give up the possibility of becoming a voter).
The system in Starship Troopers was certainly not limited to military service. On the other hand, it's interesting to note that military service was the only useful thing that the protagonist was suited for -- he'd failed to prepare for anything else.
Xenophon