An armed society is a polite society.
Who ever came up with that insane BS anyway?
#3 | Posted by TFDNihilist
Robert Heinlein.
#4 | Posted by Zed
Heinlein is a well known fascist. Literally an apologist for war, and not some notion of a Thomas Aquinas Just War, but rather, just war. He would likely blame the victim for being unarmed in a world of people whose heads aren't screwed on tight. He lived in the world-view Joe Haldeman portrayed in the later pages of The Forever War, where Heinlein would have blamed anyone for going out in public without a bodyguard for the inevitable violence that befalls them. That's the gist behind an armed society is a polite society. It's the same gist as "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy is a gun." It's a Cowboys and Indians tough guy fantasy that makes good fiction but doesn't apply to reality, and that's why most of us grow out of it.
He's kinda like Republicans back when they still hated Russia.
Before Republicans had to start hating America because of Obama.
Answer from Kyle Jones on Stack Exchange:
As for how Heinlein reconciled the pacificist and warrior viewpoints, consider this excerpt from a speech he gave to a brigade of midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1973:
I must pause to brush off those parlor pacifists I mentioned earlier... for they contend that their actions are on this highest moral level. They want to put a stop to war; they say so. Their purpose is to save the human race from killing itself off; they say that too. Anyone who disagrees with them must be a bloodthirsty scoundrel -- and they'll tell you that to your face.
I won't waste time trying to judge their motives; my criticism is of their mental processes: Their heads aren't screwed on tight. They live in a world of fantasy.
Let me stipulate that, if the human race managed its affairs sensibly, we could do without war.
Yes -- and if pigs had wings, they could fly.