Editing Starship Troopers (section)

===Moral decline===
''Starship Troopers'' also critiques US society of the 1950s, suggesting that it led young people to be spoiled and undisciplined. These beliefs are expressed through the classroom lectures of Dubois, Rico's teacher for History and Moral Philosophy. Dubois praises [[flagellation|flogging]] and other types of [[corporal punishment]] as a means of addressing juvenile crimes. It has been suggested that Heinlein endorsed this view, although the fact that Dubois also compares raising children to training a puppy has been used to argue that Heinlein was making use of [[irony]].{{sfn|Booker|Thomas|2009|pp=215–216}} The story is strongly in favor of corporal punishment and capital punishment, as a means of correcting [[juvenile delinquent]]s, part of a trend in science fiction which examines technology and outer space in an innovative manner, but is reactionary with respect to human relationships.<ref name=EOLAIS>{{cite encyclopedia|editor-last1=Kent|editor-first1=Allen|editor-last2=Lancour|editor-first2=Harold|editor-last3=Daily|editor-first3=Jay E.|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science: Volume 29|publisher=[[Marcel Dekker]]|title=Stories|last=Daily|first=Jay E.|year=1980|isbn=9780824720292|page=151|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8WOFlMCzqEIC|access-date=February 16, 2016|archive-date=March 13, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313134031/https://books.google.com/books?id=8WOFlMCzqEIC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=JH/> As with other books by Heinlein, traditional schools are denigrated, while learning "on the spot" is extolled: Rico is able to master the things required of him in military training without undue difficulty.<ref name="Magill"/>

Dubois also ridicules the idea of [[inalienable rights]], such as "[[Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness]]", arguing that people have only the rights that they are willing to fight and die for to protect.{{sfn|Heinlein|1987|pp=145–150}}{{sfn|Slusser|1986|p=68}}{{sfn|Booker|Thomas|2009|p=216}} The novel appeals to scientific authority to justify this position; Dubois repeatedly states that his argument is mathematically demonstrable, statements which have led scholars to label the novel "[[hard science fiction]]", despite its social and political themes.{{sfn|Slusser|1986|pp=67–69}} The "moral decline" caused by this situation is depicted as having caused a global war between an alliance of the US, Britain, and Russia against the "Chinese Hegemony" in the year 1987. Despite the alliance between the US and Russia, this war has been described as demonstrating Heinlein's anti-communist beliefs, which saw "swarming hordes" of Chinese as a bigger threat. The novel draws some comparisons between the Chinese and the Arachnids, and suggests that the lessons of one war could be applied to the other.{{sfn|Booker|Thomas|2009|p=216}}