The Notebooks of Lazarus Long - Robert A. Heinlein

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Enough-Love-Lazarus-Science/dp/0593437241/

I'm back into Heinlein mode.

A human being should be able to: 

1. change a diaper
2. plan an invasion
3. butcher a hog
4. conn a ship
5. design a building
6. write a sonnet
7. balance accounts
8. build a wall
9. set a bone
10. comfort the dying
11. take orders
12. give orders
13. cooperate
14. act alone
15. solve equations
16. analyze a new problem
17. pitch manure
18. program a computer
19. cook a tasty meal
20. fight efficiently
21. die gallantly.

Specialization is for insects.

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I set in italics those obligations which I am either plainly unable to do, or have no idea whether I could (I would like to not italicise numbers 20 and 21).

Where did Heinlein get this list? 

It's implicitly gendered: it says 'human being' but reads as 'man': surely his list for women would be different - indeed we know so from elsewhere. It's a combination of artisanal (hogs; wall-building) and intellectual (invasion; programming). It reflects the culture of the western frontiersman transferred in time to the mid-twentieth century. But it also speaks to deep truths in human nature: the masculine virtues of good men with useful skills courageously banding together to defend against threats to their communities.

The fact that Heinlein's list stirs the emotions witnesses to its elemental truth.

Currently disparaged and despised, the need for Heinlein's ethos will be with us again soon enough.

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Here are some more Heinlein aphorisms from (the intermissions within) the novel above.

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Note: I abandoned "Time Enough For Love" after the first of the embedded stories (David Lamb, the Laziest Man in the World which by itself is quite a good story). Heinlein's work has not aged well. His characters are simplistic, implausible and often irritating. His attitudes - particularly on sexual matters - are self-indulgent and stupid, and his endless didacticism is wearying. 

"Starship Troopers" excepted, I think Heinlein is an author to miss.