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A week or so ago, I finished reading Tramp Royale<\/em> by Robert Heinlein. It is a travelogue documenting an around-the-world trip Heinlein and his wife took in 1953-54 by ship, rail, and airplane. Mostly, the book is a light-hearted description of their travels with his wife (Ginny, aka “Ticky” in the book) humorously cast as his troublemaker companion. She published the book in 1992, after her husband’s death.<\/p>\n This is not a book review. It is the book’s concluding passage, extensively quoted below, that struck me as applicable today as it was over 60 years ago. Heinlein speaks of America’s many enemies and few friends abroad but so much of what he wrote applies to today’s domestic situation as well. There is hostility to the American Experiment from all sides.<\/p>\n I came back to the United States convinced that it was an even better country than I had thought it was. This our land is not perfect, but it looks perfect from even a short distance away. It is immeasurably a better place to live than anywhere else I have seen.<\/p>\n But I came back, too, convinced that our peril was very great and our friends very few. The extent and the viciousness of the propaganda campaign against us must be heard to be believed. … Envy and hate are the inevitable concomitants of wealth and power<\/strong>; we have been uneasily aware of this and have tried to curry favor wherever we could. But it is not possible; we are hated not for our behavior but for what we are \u2014 and they are not.<\/strong> [emphasis added]<\/em><\/p>\n …<\/p>\n So far as we can count on it, for all practical purposes, we already stand alone. … We are not liked, we have few friends; therefore we should quit being afraid, stand up and assert ourselves.<\/strong> The only friends we will lose thereby are those we never had. [emphasis added]<\/em><\/p>\n We might even gain a few. Courage is respected and admired where timidity is scorned.<\/p>\n If we are to die as a nation, let us die proudly, with neither head in sand nor led around by the nose, but calmly aware of our peril and fighting it with our utmost. There can be no safe course for us, but, if we deserve to win, we are more likely to win.<\/p>\n But let us not be afraid, even of our friends.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Aside from this passage, the book is a fine read as a snapshot of the state of the world in the 1950s. Lots of funny anecdotes too.<\/p>\n A week or so ago, I finished reading Tramp Royale<\/em> by Robert Heinlein. It is a travelogue documenting an around-the-world trip Heinlein and his wife took in 1953-54 by ship, rail, and airplane. Mostly, the book is a light-hearted description of their travels with his wife (Ginny, aka “Ticky” in the book) humorously cast as his troublemaker companion. She published the book in 1992, after her husband’s death.<\/p>\n This is not a book review. It is the book’s concluding passage, extensively quoted below, that struck me as applicable today as it was over 60 years ago. Heinlein speaks of America’s many enemies and few friends abroad … Continue reading \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/i>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/span>\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n <\/i>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/span>\r\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n