For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs
Encyclopedia
For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs is a science fiction
novel
by Robert A. Heinlein
, written in 1938 but published for the first time in 2003. Heinlein admirer and science fiction author Spider Robinson
entitled his introductory essay "RAH DNA", as he believes this first, unpublished novel formed the DNA
of Heinlein's philosophy.
The published version of the novel contains an afterword by Robert James, Ph.D., Heinlein Society
member and Heinlein scholar, explaining how the only known surviving typescript of this "lost" work was finally discovered in a garage.
The later 21st Century people seem strangely incurious, showing little interest in how he had come to be among them and rather take his appearance for granted and proceed to explain to him the details of the social and political set-up of their world.
The Shape of Things to Come
; the "sleeper wakes into pseudo-utopia" plot was popularized by Edward Bellamy
's best-selling Looking Backward
. The character Diana's background is clarified in a multiple-page footnote from the author. The future society has a somewhat leftist version of a Social Credit
structure—something which may come as a surprise to those who were not acquainted with Heinlein's early political leanings.
The title comes from Abraham Lincoln
's "Gettysburg Address
" and appears to have no relation to Ayn Rand
's similarly titled We the Living
(published in 1936). Earnings from the novel go to the advancement of human exploration of space. The subtitle appears to be a bow to James Branch Cabell
's 1919 novel Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice
—a writer and book that Heinlein claimed had influenced him. (Heinlein's 1984 novel Job: A Comedy of Justice
continues his homage.)
There is an autobiographical element in the protagonist being (as Heinlein himself was at the time of writing) freshly out of the US Navy and fondly recalling his days there, in numerous contexts in the course of the book commenting "In the Navy we did..."
The book does not tell precisely how the protagonist came to wake up a century and a half after being killed in a car accident, and find himself wandering in the snow in the body of a denizen of the future who had had enough of life and chose to commit suicide. It is mentioned that his last sight before crashing down and getting killed was a girl in a green bathing suit who had the same face as the Diana which he meets in the future; it turns out that her name had been Diana, too, and that to her fell the disageeable task of finding Perry's broken body and reporting the accident. There is the clear implication that the later Diana was an avatar or reincarnation of the earlier one, but this is not stated explicitly. As noted by reviewer Nancy Green, this aspect of the book gives the impression of a draft which Heinlein intended to further work on, but never did .
and the Earth of Methuselah's Children
. Other familiar elements include the "Covenant" from Coventry
, a variation on Starship Troopers
s suffrage
only through federal service, rolling roads
and a cat as a minor character.
Also appearing already in this early stage of Heinlein's career is the fanatic and dictatorial religious leader Nehemiah Scudder. However, in Heinlein's later Future History
Scudder succeeds in getting elected President and establishing a theocratic dictatorship dominating the U.S. for most of the 21st century. Conversely, in For Us, The Living, Scudder does establish for several years a de facto domination over the Mississippi Valley, and terrorizes much of the rest of the country by Ku Klux Klan
–type thugs—but he is stopped at the last moment by the counter-mobilization of libertarian
s, and despite mass voter intimidation carries only Tennessee
and Alabama
.
In fact, the new regime seen in full bloom in the book's 2086 came into being in direct reaction to Scudder's attempt to impose Puritanical mores on the entire American society—for example, the complete abolition of the nudity taboo, which is an important aspect of the book's plot.
The abolition of the taboo on public nudity would re-appear as a major issue in Heinlein's The Puppet Masters
—though under radically different circumstances to those in the present book.
A major difference between the time line of For Us, The Living and Heinlein's later Future History is the time when space exploration begins. In the Future History, Heinlein assumed that long before the end of the 20th century an extensive human exploration and colonization would take place all over the Solar System; the same assumption was made also in other works not fitting into the Future History's framework. However, in his earlier book dealt with here, Heinlein was far more cautious, placing the first circumlunar flight (not yet an actual landing) only in 2089.
Ward Carson wrote: "In For Us, The Living, space colonization waits until the end of the Twenty-First Century and Scudder is defeated; in the Future History it happens a century earlier and Scudder takes over the US. Heinlein made no explicit remark on this, but a causal connection could be made: in the Future History the bold individualistic Americans emigrated into space in the end of the Twentieth Century, and were not present in America to stop it from falling into the fanatic's hands".
, four years before). Heinlein did correctly predict that Adolf Hitler
would end up committing suicide, once his schemes of conquest collapsed.
The timeline depicted in the book does not include a war between the US and Japan. However, in the context of a later war there is a depiction of Latin American aircraft carriers launching a devastating surprise attack on New York City, which bears some similarities to the methods which the Japanese would use at Pearl Harbor
three years after the book was written. Heinlein, a former naval officer, clearly understood the strategic implications of the carriers' appearance and the revolution they would bring to naval warfare.
The recently abdicated Edward VIII of Britain
is very positively presented, his romantic image as "the King who gave up his throne for love" not yet, at the time of writing, tainted by pro-Nazi associations. In Heinlein's projected future, Edward returns to England at the outbreak of war and distinguishes himself in wartime service. After the war a European Federation is formed and Edward is made into a Constitutional Emperor of Europe, a task which he fulfills with great success. However, he dies without issue in 1970 (two years earlier than in actual history) and in the aftermath Europe is torn up in forty years of highly destructive war and is largely depopulated.
, the regime depicted in the book has a clearly Secularist inclination. All organized religious groups are defined as "sect
s", including what were considered "Churches" at the time of writing (and still are at present). Such religious themes as "the conspicuous depiction of a person suffering in great pain" (i.e. a crucifix
) or the "wild aggressive behavior of ancient barbaric tribes" (i.e. the ancient Hebrews as depicted in the Hebrew Bible
/Old Testament
) is greatly frowned upon. While religious education is not outrightly forbidden, all youths must undergo a minimum of two years at a "development center" (a kind of boarding school
) where education is completely secular. The only option for parents refusing to let their children have such an experience is to go to Coventry where they could do as they wish, and some "sects" have done exactly that, to their last member.
In this, Heinlein's vision of the future could be considered a watered-down version of that in H.G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come
where determined reformers completely suppress all organized religion for the explicit purpose of gaining a complete monopoly over education.
's New Deal
had failed due to the constant attacks by his opponents, that in the 1940 elections Roosevelt would prove unelectable, that his downfall would drag the Democratic Party to ruin and that a sharp drift to the Right would culminate in an extreme-right dictatorship in the late 1940s—which would, however, prove short-lived and after which the pendulum would swing sharply to the Left again.
Heinlein assigned to Fiorello H. La Guardia—at the time of writing a reformer Mayor of New York and outspoken supporter of Roosevelt, despite being nominally a Republican—the role of picking up FDR's torch, as a militant reforming President in the 1950s who would lead a head-on confrontation with the banking system, effectively nationalize the banks and institute the system of Social Credit
.
Several decades later, a John Delano Roosevelt is mentioned among the six highly regarded reformers who revise the US Constitution and institute the new regime seen in 2086.
.
For Us, the Living also depicts an early example of homesourcing
in fiction. The character of Diana, a nationally renowned dancer, is shown performing in her own home for a broadcast audience, which sees her dancing on sets added by the broadcasting company to her original feed. The mechanism for this homesourcing is not described in much technical detail, but it appears to be similar to a high-definition video signal interfaced with something like modern chroma key
technology.
After the transition has been completed, the social norms of the society are effectively transformed. One of the most curious and pervasive, is the distinction between "public sphere" and "private sphere". The society as a whole respects what are considered private sphere events, such as intimacy, closeness and other interpersonal relationships. As there is a great deal of information in the society, this becomes rather critical in moving the society toward a point away from information fetishism and toward a society where persons have respect for one another's privacy and work as a society for the betterment of all.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
, written in 1938 but published for the first time in 2003. Heinlein admirer and science fiction author Spider Robinson
Spider Robinson
Spider Robinson is an American-born Canadian Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction author.- Biography :Born in the Bronx, New York City, Robinson attended Catholic high school, spending his junior year in a seminary, followed by two years in a Catholic college, and five years at the State...
entitled his introductory essay "RAH DNA", as he believes this first, unpublished novel formed the DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
of Heinlein's philosophy.
The published version of the novel contains an afterword by Robert James, Ph.D., Heinlein Society
Heinlein Society
The Heinlein Society was founded by Virginia Heinlein on behalf of her husband, science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein, to "pay forward" the legacy of the writer to future generations of "Heinlein's Children."-External links:*...
member and Heinlein scholar, explaining how the only known surviving typescript of this "lost" work was finally discovered in a garage.
Plot summary
Perry Nelson, a normal 1939 engineer, is driving his automobile when he has a blowout, skids over a cliff, and wakes up in the year 2086. Though he was apparently killed in the summer, he re-appears in extremely cold snow, nearly dies again by freezing, and is saved by a fur-clad woman named Diana. The exact circumstances of his being killed and reborn after a century and half are never explained.The later 21st Century people seem strangely incurious, showing little interest in how he had come to be among them and rather take his appearance for granted and proceed to explain to him the details of the social and political set-up of their world.
Background
Spider Robinson says that the book is more a lecture series than a true novel. A number of people have remarked on its resemblance to H. G. Wells'H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
The Shape of Things to Come
The Shape of Things to Come
The Shape of Things to Come is a work of science fiction by H. G. Wells, published in 1933, which speculates on future events from 1933 until the year 2106. The book is dominated by Wells's belief in a world state as the solution to mankind's problems....
; the "sleeper wakes into pseudo-utopia" plot was popularized by Edward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy was an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward, set in the year 2000. He was a very influential writer during the Gilded Age of United States history.-Early life:...
's best-selling Looking Backward
Looking Backward
Looking Backward: 2000-1887 is a utopian science fiction novel by Edward Bellamy, a lawyer and writer from western Massachusetts; it was first published in 1887...
. The character Diana's background is clarified in a multiple-page footnote from the author. The future society has a somewhat leftist version of a Social Credit
Social Credit
Social Credit is an economic philosophy developed by C. H. Douglas , a British engineer, who wrote a book by that name in 1924. Social Credit is described by Douglas as "the policy of a philosophy"; he called his philosophy "practical Christianity"...
structure—something which may come as a surprise to those who were not acquainted with Heinlein's early political leanings.
The title comes from Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
's "Gettysburg Address
Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and is one of the most well-known speeches in United States history. It was delivered by Lincoln during the American Civil War, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery...
" and appears to have no relation to Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
's similarly titled We the Living
We the Living
We the Living is the first novel published by the Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand. It was also Rand's first statement against communism. First published in 1936, it is a story of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Rand observes in the foreword to this book that We the Living was the closest she...
(published in 1936). Earnings from the novel go to the advancement of human exploration of space. The subtitle appears to be a bow to James Branch Cabell
James Branch Cabell
James Branch Cabell, ; April 14, 1879 – May 5, 1958) was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. Cabell was well regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken and Sinclair Lewis. His works were considered escapist and fit well in the culture of the 1920s, when his...
's 1919 novel Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice
Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice
Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice is a 1919 fantasy book by James Branch Cabell – the eighth among some fifty-two books written by this author – which gained fame shortly after its publication.-The book and its reception:...
—a writer and book that Heinlein claimed had influenced him. (Heinlein's 1984 novel Job: A Comedy of Justice
Job: A Comedy of Justice
Job: A Comedy of Justice is a novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1984. The title is a reference to the biblical Book of Job and James Branch Cabell's book Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice...
continues his homage.)
There is an autobiographical element in the protagonist being (as Heinlein himself was at the time of writing) freshly out of the US Navy and fondly recalling his days there, in numerous contexts in the course of the book commenting "In the Navy we did..."
The book does not tell precisely how the protagonist came to wake up a century and a half after being killed in a car accident, and find himself wandering in the snow in the body of a denizen of the future who had had enough of life and chose to commit suicide. It is mentioned that his last sight before crashing down and getting killed was a girl in a green bathing suit who had the same face as the Diana which he meets in the future; it turns out that her name had been Diana, too, and that to her fell the disageeable task of finding Perry's broken body and reporting the accident. There is the clear implication that the later Diana was an avatar or reincarnation of the earlier one, but this is not stated explicitly. As noted by reviewer Nancy Green, this aspect of the book gives the impression of a draft which Heinlein intended to further work on, but never did .
Connections to other Heinlein works
For Us, the Living contains many foreshadowings of Heinlein's later writings. The 2086 of the book has a significant resemblance to both Beyond This HorizonBeyond This Horizon
Beyond This Horizon is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It was originally published as a two-part serial in Astounding Science Fiction and then eventually as a single volume by Fantasy Press in 1948.-Overview:The novel depicts a world where genetic selection for increased health,...
and the Earth of Methuselah's Children
Methuselah's Children
Methuselah's Children is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction in the July, August, and September 1941 issues. It was expanded into a full-length novel in 1958....
. Other familiar elements include the "Covenant" from Coventry
Coventry (short story)
"Coventry" is a science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein and part of his Future History series. It was collected into the book Revolt in 2100.-Plot summary:The protagonist, David MacKinnon, is a romantic idealist up for trial for assault...
, a variation on Starship Troopers
Starship Troopers
Starship Troopers is a military science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first published as a serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and published hardcover in December, 1959.The first-person narrative is about a young soldier from the Philippines named Juan "Johnnie" Rico and his...
s suffrage
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...
only through federal service, rolling roads
The Roads Must Roll
"The Roads Must Roll" is a 1940 science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein. In the late 1960s, it was awarded a retrospective Nebula Award by the Science Fiction Writers of America and published in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929-1964 in 1970.The story is set in the near...
and a cat as a minor character.
Also appearing already in this early stage of Heinlein's career is the fanatic and dictatorial religious leader Nehemiah Scudder. However, in Heinlein's later Future History
Future History
The Future History, by Robert A. Heinlein, describes a projected future of the human race from the middle of the 20th century through the early 23rd century. The term Future History was coined by John W. Campbell, Jr. in the February 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction...
Scudder succeeds in getting elected President and establishing a theocratic dictatorship dominating the U.S. for most of the 21st century. Conversely, in For Us, The Living, Scudder does establish for several years a de facto domination over the Mississippi Valley, and terrorizes much of the rest of the country by Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
–type thugs—but he is stopped at the last moment by the counter-mobilization of libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
s, and despite mass voter intimidation carries only Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
and Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
.
In fact, the new regime seen in full bloom in the book's 2086 came into being in direct reaction to Scudder's attempt to impose Puritanical mores on the entire American society—for example, the complete abolition of the nudity taboo, which is an important aspect of the book's plot.
The abolition of the taboo on public nudity would re-appear as a major issue in Heinlein's The Puppet Masters
The Puppet Masters
The Puppet Masters is a 1951 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein in which American secret agents battle parasitic invaders from outer space...
—though under radically different circumstances to those in the present book.
A major difference between the time line of For Us, The Living and Heinlein's later Future History is the time when space exploration begins. In the Future History, Heinlein assumed that long before the end of the 20th century an extensive human exploration and colonization would take place all over the Solar System; the same assumption was made also in other works not fitting into the Future History's framework. However, in his earlier book dealt with here, Heinlein was far more cautious, placing the first circumlunar flight (not yet an actual landing) only in 2089.
Ward Carson wrote: "In For Us, The Living, space colonization waits until the end of the Twenty-First Century and Scudder is defeated; in the Future History it happens a century earlier and Scudder takes over the US. Heinlein made no explicit remark on this, but a causal connection could be made: in the Future History the bold individualistic Americans emigrated into space in the end of the Twentieth Century, and were not present in America to stop it from falling into the fanatic's hands".
The Second World War
At the time of writing, there was already a widespread expectation of a new war breaking out in Europe in the near future, and Heinlein followed this assumption. However, in the book's timeline the US stays out of the war, and it ends due to Germany's economic collapse rather than its military defeat (similar to the scenario given in H.G.Wells' The Shape of Things to ComeThe Shape of Things to Come
The Shape of Things to Come is a work of science fiction by H. G. Wells, published in 1933, which speculates on future events from 1933 until the year 2106. The book is dominated by Wells's belief in a world state as the solution to mankind's problems....
, four years before). Heinlein did correctly predict that Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
would end up committing suicide, once his schemes of conquest collapsed.
The timeline depicted in the book does not include a war between the US and Japan. However, in the context of a later war there is a depiction of Latin American aircraft carriers launching a devastating surprise attack on New York City, which bears some similarities to the methods which the Japanese would use at Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
three years after the book was written. Heinlein, a former naval officer, clearly understood the strategic implications of the carriers' appearance and the revolution they would bring to naval warfare.
The recently abdicated Edward VIII of Britain
Cultural depictions of Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
There have been a number of depictions of King Edward VIII in popular culture, both biographical and fictional, following his abdication in 1936.-Literature:...
is very positively presented, his romantic image as "the King who gave up his throne for love" not yet, at the time of writing, tainted by pro-Nazi associations. In Heinlein's projected future, Edward returns to England at the outbreak of war and distinguishes himself in wartime service. After the war a European Federation is formed and Edward is made into a Constitutional Emperor of Europe, a task which he fulfills with great success. However, he dies without issue in 1970 (two years earlier than in actual history) and in the aftermath Europe is torn up in forty years of highly destructive war and is largely depopulated.
Secularism
As could be expected of a regime born directly of secular opposition to a religious fanatic's violent attempt to set up a TheocracyTheocracy
Theocracy is a form of organization in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided, or simply pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religious sect or religion....
, the regime depicted in the book has a clearly Secularist inclination. All organized religious groups are defined as "sect
Sect
A sect is a group with distinctive religious, political or philosophical beliefs. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in modern culture can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and...
s", including what were considered "Churches" at the time of writing (and still are at present). Such religious themes as "the conspicuous depiction of a person suffering in great pain" (i.e. a crucifix
Crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
) or the "wild aggressive behavior of ancient barbaric tribes" (i.e. the ancient Hebrews as depicted in the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
/Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
) is greatly frowned upon. While religious education is not outrightly forbidden, all youths must undergo a minimum of two years at a "development center" (a kind of boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
) where education is completely secular. The only option for parents refusing to let their children have such an experience is to go to Coventry where they could do as they wish, and some "sects" have done exactly that, to their last member.
In this, Heinlein's vision of the future could be considered a watered-down version of that in H.G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come
The Shape of Things to Come
The Shape of Things to Come is a work of science fiction by H. G. Wells, published in 1933, which speculates on future events from 1933 until the year 2106. The book is dominated by Wells's belief in a world state as the solution to mankind's problems....
where determined reformers completely suppress all organized religion for the explicit purpose of gaining a complete monopoly over education.
President Roosevelt
The book—written in the aftermath of the Democrats' heavy losses in the 1938 mid-term elections—assumes that by 1938–39 Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
's New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
had failed due to the constant attacks by his opponents, that in the 1940 elections Roosevelt would prove unelectable, that his downfall would drag the Democratic Party to ruin and that a sharp drift to the Right would culminate in an extreme-right dictatorship in the late 1940s—which would, however, prove short-lived and after which the pendulum would swing sharply to the Left again.
Heinlein assigned to Fiorello H. La Guardia—at the time of writing a reformer Mayor of New York and outspoken supporter of Roosevelt, despite being nominally a Republican—the role of picking up FDR's torch, as a militant reforming President in the 1950s who would lead a head-on confrontation with the banking system, effectively nationalize the banks and institute the system of Social Credit
Social Credit
Social Credit is an economic philosophy developed by C. H. Douglas , a British engineer, who wrote a book by that name in 1924. Social Credit is described by Douglas as "the policy of a philosophy"; he called his philosophy "practical Christianity"...
.
Several decades later, a John Delano Roosevelt is mentioned among the six highly regarded reformers who revise the US Constitution and institute the new regime seen in 2086.
Economic independence
At a number of points in For Us, the Living, Heinlein describes an environment in which individuals are able to choose whether or not to accept a job. Passing references are made to the large number of individuals who take up art or other careers that traditionally do not pay well. The book also points out the short working hours and high wages paid to employees. The book ascribes this flexible working environment to the social credit system (the "Dividend") adopted by the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
For Us, the Living also depicts an early example of homesourcing
Homesourcing
Homesourcing also known as homeshoring is "the transfer of service industry employment from offices to home-based employees with appropriate telephone and Internet facilities". Homesourcing is best thought of as a combination of outsourcing and telecommuting.Homesourcing refers to hiring employees...
in fiction. The character of Diana, a nationally renowned dancer, is shown performing in her own home for a broadcast audience, which sees her dancing on sets added by the broadcasting company to her original feed. The mechanism for this homesourcing is not described in much technical detail, but it appears to be similar to a high-definition video signal interfaced with something like modern chroma key
Chroma key
Chroma key compositing is a technique for compositing two images together. A color range in the top layer is made transparent, revealing another image behind. The chroma keying technique is commonly used in video production and post-production...
technology.
Social and governmental
For Us, the Living also depicts graphically the transition between the society that Perry left in 1939 and how it is transformed through a series of acts by the Government. Of specific note is the "War Voting Act". In this act, if the United States wished to engage in armed conflict with any other country, a national referendum was required to be held. Voting was not obligatory for all citizens, but in the event that the article was passed and the country was to go to war, those who had voted for war were the first to be enlisted in the armed forces, those who abstained were the second conscripted, and those who voted "No" were the third group. Heinlein states that in the history of the "War Voting Act", the process had been enacted twice, and both times the entire citizenry were actively engaged in very vocal debate as to the whether the conflict was warranted. Both times, he states, the measures to go to war were defeated.After the transition has been completed, the social norms of the society are effectively transformed. One of the most curious and pervasive, is the distinction between "public sphere" and "private sphere". The society as a whole respects what are considered private sphere events, such as intimacy, closeness and other interpersonal relationships. As there is a great deal of information in the society, this becomes rather critical in moving the society toward a point away from information fetishism and toward a society where persons have respect for one another's privacy and work as a society for the betterment of all.
Feminist critique
Cynthia Brown noted in her review thatEditions
- January 2004, Scribner Book Company, ISBN 5-551-28585-5
- January 2004, Scribner Book Company, ISBN 5-551-28586-3
- January 6, 2004, ScribnerCharles Scribner's SonsCharles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing a number of American authors including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, Robert A. Heinlein, Thomas Wolfe, George Santayana, John Clellon...
, hardcover, 288 pages, ISBN 0-7432-5998-X - December 1, 2004, Pocket BooksPocket BooksPocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.- History :Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry...
, paperback, 352 pages, ISBN 0-7434-9154-8