{"id":6297,"date":"2023-10-21T00:09:14","date_gmt":"2023-10-21T05:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=6297"},"modified":"2023-09-16T21:08:04","modified_gmt":"2023-09-17T02:08:04","slug":"how-and-why-to-fight-for-freedom-an-appreciation-of-heinleins-free-men-the-2023-prometheus-hall-of-fame-winner-for-best-classic-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/how-and-why-to-fight-for-freedom-an-appreciation-of-heinleins-free-men-the-2023-prometheus-hall-of-fame-winner-for-best-classic-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"How and Why to Fight For Freedom: An Appreciation of Heinlein\u2019s \u201cFree Men,\u201d the 2023 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner for Best Classic Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nAs part of the LFS’ ongoing Appreciation series of review-essays explaining how each Prometheus Award-winner fits the distinctive libertarian and anti-authoritarian focus of the sf\/fantasy award and why it deserved to win, here is an Appreciation by author Karl K. Gallagher (a frequent Best Novel finalist himself) of Robert Heinlein’s story “Free Men,” the 2023 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner for Best Classic Fiction.<\/p>\n

By Karl K. Gallagher<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many writers have \u201ctrunk stories\u201d\u2014pieces rejected so many times that the writer shoves them into a trunk and stops sending them out again. \u201cFree Men\u201d seems to have been one of Heinlein\u2019s trunk stories.<\/p>\n

The Expanded Universe\u00a0<\/em>foreword says he wrote it in 1947, just a year after Churchill\u2019s Iron Curtain speech. The story wasn\u2019t published until 1966, in the Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein <\/em>single-author collection.<\/p>\n

I can understand why editors didn\u2019t want it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a grim story, with the protagonist left bleeding out as his followers flee to a new hiding place.<\/p>\n

The premise is a USA occupied after losing WWIII, by an enemy willing to nuke towns as reprisals against guerillas. The kind of story that makes readers put the terms \u201cunpatriotic,\u201d \u201cdefeatist,\u201d or \u201cadvocating \u2018better red than dead\u2019\u201d in the letters cancelling their subscriptions.<\/p>\n

So why did Heinlein write it? And why do some readers love it?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Robert Heinlein (Photo courtesy of the Heinlein Trust)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s a tale of heroism.<\/p>\n

Not the dramatic, medal-winning heroism of charging forward to smash the enemy. But the unsung, dirty, necessary heroism of refusing to give up, making the enemy bleed, and preserving the ember of freedom.<\/p>\n

As RAH wrote in the foreword, \u201cIt is any\u00a0<\/em>conquered nation in any\u00a0<\/em>century.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s inspirational.<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019ve been defeated. Maybe you\u2019ve been crushed. Maybe all the institutions you depended on to fight for you are gone. But you can keep fighting. You can make the conqueror pay for his wins. You can be an example for others who\u2019ve given up and inspire them to start fighting again.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s practical.<\/p>\n

Do you fear being on the losing end of a war? As a teenager watching my country face off against the pre-Gorbachev Soviet Union, thousands of nukes being detonated was something that could have happened at any time. Even if we \u2018won\u2019 the war, we faced being devastated. But losing was also something we feared.<\/p>\n

Reading \u201cFree Men\u201d in that time and place was an education on how to be a resistance fighter. Every trick used by the Barclay Free Company was one I could remember, and put to use in case that worst-case scenario came to pass.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The revolution in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress\u00a0<\/em>was more entertaining, but not useable advice unless you had an artificial intelligence or un-tappable phone system. Dead drops, graffiti, hand carried messages, slang as code, double agents \u2014 those are practical methods.<\/p>\n

The story also teaches the importance of politics on the large and small scale.<\/p>\n

Captain Morgan leads the company because he was elected. That gives him democratic legitimacy to support the orders he gives \u2014 orders which send men to their deaths \u2014 but only for his company.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Albert Brockman declared himself \u2018provisional president\u2019 as the senior living heir to the elected president of the USA. How much authority does that give him? Will guerillas obey his orders? And can the country come back together if there isn\u2019t someone to coordinate all the scattered guerillas?<\/p>\n

(As much as I love decentralized management and spontaneous order, the history of warfare hasn\u2019t shown them to be more effective than a campaign under a skillful leader.)<\/p>\n

The Soviet Union has gone away. But the principles illustrated in \u201cFree Men\u201d still apply.<\/p>\n

Perhaps a future war will see the USA occupied. But even without war, people find themselves losing elections and losing \u2018culture wars.\u2019<\/p>\n

This story drives home that defeat isn\u2019t the end.<\/p>\n

Keep working.<\/p>\n

Keep fighting.<\/p>\n

Organize your friends.<\/p>\n

Build something. And win the struggle in the long run.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Karl Gallagher in his library with Heinlein anthologies (Photo courtesy of author)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For more information about Karl H. Gallagher\u2019s current and upcoming novels, visit\u00a0Kelt Haven Press\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Author Karl Gallagher reads Heinlein at his home (Photo courtesy of author)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Read the Prometheus Blog interview with Gallagher, posted in February 2023 in three parts: Part One<\/a>, Part Two<\/a> and Part Three.<\/a><\/p>\n

Read the Prometheus Blog review<\/a> of Karl Gallagher\u2019s\u00a0Seize What\u2019s Held Dear\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0Storm Between the Stars,\u00a0<\/i>both selected by LFS members as 2022 Best Novel finalists and both sequels in his ongoing Fall of the Censors series.<\/p>\n

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/strong>For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 for the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to the full set of published appreciation-reviews of past winners.<\/p>\n

* Read\u00a0\u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/em>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Watch\u00a0 <\/strong>videos <\/strong>of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>*\u00a0Join us<\/strong>! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards,\u00a0join\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

Libertarian futurists believe that culture matters! We understand that the arts and literature can be vital, and in some ways even more powerful than politics in the long run, by sparking innovation, better ideas, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other\u2019s rights, individuality and human dignity.<\/p>\n

Through recognizing the literature of liberty and the many different but complementary visions of a free future via the Prometheus Awards, the LFS hopes to help spread better visions of the future that help humanity overcome tyranny, end slavery, drastically reduce war, limit other abuses of coercive power and achieve universal liberty, respect for human rights and a better world (perhaps eventually, worlds) for all.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of the LFS’ ongoing Appreciation series of review-essays explaining how each Prometheus Award-winner fits the distinctive libertarian and anti-authoritarian focus of the sf\/fantasy award and why it deserved to win, here is an Appreciation by author Karl K. Gallagher (a frequent Best Novel finalist himself) of Robert Heinlein’s story “Free Men,” the 2023 … Continue reading How and Why to Fight For Freedom: An Appreciation of Heinlein\u2019s \u201cFree Men,\u201d the 2023 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner for Best Classic Fiction<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[43,160],"tags":[1700,2059,1006,268,21,2072],"class_list":["post-6297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-hall-of-fame","tag-free-men","tag-expanded-universe","tag-karl-k-gallagher","tag-prometheus-hall-of-fame","tag-robert-heinlein","tag-the-worlds-of-robert-heinlein"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-1Dz","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6297"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6478,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6297\/revisions\/6478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}