Heinlein’s moon colony (part 2)

In my last post on this topic, I discussed the practicality of the food-producing moon colony from Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. This time, I would like to talk about the cultural and societal aspects of the novel.

In the novel, the moon colony’s society is ultra-capitalist, dependent on technology, multi-cultural and polygamous. The society in general is portrayed as being utopian, or at least close to it. However, I suspect that Heinlein is employing a technique he has used in other novels, such as Starship Troopers. He will often write novels from a first-person perspective, and the main character will proceed to describe the society as ideal. (In the case of Starship Troopers, as fascist and militaristic society.) However, Heinlein himself does not agree with what he is writing about, and he often drops hints to the reader that the society he is describing is not as perfect as it seems.

Many credulous readers probably believe that the society in Moon is Heinlein’s idea of a utopia, though, since it is very close to his political philosophy. However, I am not entirely convinced, and I would like to examine the novel further.

Firstly, I would like to talk about the multiculturalism Heinlein describes in Moon. Though the main character repeatedly emphasizes how the Lunar colony is a melting pot and haven of multiculturalism, this is clearly not the case. The society is influenced mostly by Russian culture—most of the cities described have Russian names, everyone speaks with a Russian accent, and Russian words are prevalent in the novel. Chinese and Indian culture are briefly mentioned as being somewhat of an influence, but European, African, Middle Eastern, or Latin American culture is not mentioned at all. The last is particularly important to note because in his other works Heinlein often describes Latin culture as becoming more prominent in the future. In fact, the only South American character in the book, Professor Bernardo de la Paz, displays no signs of being Latin American at all, besides speaking Spanish—he exhibits no Latin American culture whatsoever. Because of this, I think Heinlein is describing a farce of multiculturalism, and he is showing us how difficult to achieve the “melting pot” really is. 

Next, I would like to discuss the ultra-capitalism found in Moon. The people of the moon colony—the “Loonies”—are laissez-faire to a fault; their motto is TANSTAAFL (an acronym for “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch”, a word Heinlein made up), and they are vehemently against the concept of taxation or anything socialized. They even are against the idea of free air! This overdone capitalist spirit, I think, is the most quixotic aspect of Moon’s society, and Heinlein is certainly sending a message here. Though Heinlein eventually became must more right-wing as he got older, Moon was written in the 60’s—recall that only a few years earlier he was a leftist, and in his youth he was a socialist! Though I am no expert on Heinlein by any means, I don’t believe he would write a pro-capitalist work at this time—it seems out of place in terms of the other novels he was writing in the 60’s. Regardless, some of the flaws of this kind of system are clearly mentioned in the novel, whether intentional or not.

Also, I think it is necessary to examine a theme that often goes overlooked, the idea of too much reliance on technology. In his later years, Heinlein began to distrust computers and artificial intelligence (and excoriate them in his works), and I think he is making his message quite clear in Moon. In the novel, the self-aware computer Mike is essential to the lunar revolution—too essential. He can listen in on anyone by wiretapping them, assassinate someone by cutting off their air supply, and hurl large rocks at Earth. He funds the entire venture by printing fiat money (albeit in small amounts and using a series of ruses to allay suspicion). At the end of the novel, after Mike’s “death,” the other characters have difficulty doing anything without his advice. Clearly, Heinlein is pointing out the dangers of having a centralized computer in charge of everything. On this point I believe be may be correct—if such a computer were to be perfidious or malicious, the results would be disastrous.

Lastly, I would like to talk about the polygamy found in the novel. The group marriage system in the lunar colony in Moon is described as very successful, and it manages to keep the society stable despite an imbalance in the ratio of males to females. Here I believe Heinlein is being sincere—he has often lauded group marriage in many of his works, and I think he truly believes, as I do, that it has great potential. In many of his novels he acknowledges that it currently possesses as huge social stigma, but he hopes that in the future people will come to adapt it.

To conclude—the system Heinlein is describing should be examined with a grain of salt. In some cases he is actually pointing out the flaws in a certain aspect of it, as he does in Starship Troopers. However, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress remains my favorite novel despite this somewhat pessimistic technique.