Heinlein's Double Star

There are times when you read or hear the works of another and at that moment you can't help but look in awe. Like watching the majesty of the sunrise over the ocean, the view of a mountain, or the sight of the stars in a clear, cloudless night. Some ideas resonate with us through the ages and bear retelling no matter how poor the storyteller. And perhaps it is the fact that we no longer are willing to be the storyteller ourselves but rather hear another's words recorded as they are through out the ages in the technologies we have.

So it is as I read Heinlein's novel, Double Star. The story is one of an actor who ends up taking on the role of playing double to a famous man. A linchpin in the political world. A man who stands with  moral certitude and with an unclouded vision of what humanity could be. Unfortunately one who is also brought low by his enemies and this actor comes to know him but also to ultimately be him.

Yet in the actor's eyes and ears we can see this mirror of the other man and his views are given out to us. Views that humanity does not like change, but will adapt to it. Views that if humanity is to go to the stars, it must accept the 'other' as equal. That we must not accept slavery in any form, must not forget the value of freedom in exchange for other elements.

In this day and age the words resonate so with me. It must be a bit of the times for I find that truth all about me. That idea that the other, the alien, the machine, the muslim, whoever it is should be feared. But in fearing them, in choosing to treat them differently we give up our right to freedom, our certainty in our own ability to strive and succeed. In giving in on that we give up on ourselves.

Not only in Heinlein's novel do we hear the value of trusting the other, in making them our equal but all in our history and our fiction. Captain Picard gives voice to the same words, speaking about Data, "And the decision you reach here today will determine how will we regard this creation of our genius. It will reveal the kind of people we are, what he is destined to be.... It could significantly redefine the boundaries of personal liberty and freedom, expanding them for some, savagely curtailing them for others..." Is that not ultimately the decision we face today as we talk of immigration, as we talk of "The United States First"? I don't know whether or not we would be safer if we kept the others out, but I do know that I believe that every one of us would be less free as a result of that. We would be trading on our freedom and giving it up. Not simply some freedoms but everything our founders stood for, the very freedoms of choice.

I do not believe that we can separate the decisions of choice from the actions that people take. But I can stand up for the actions that I believe in, and that is to give people choices, to give all people choices. The American Dream shouldn't be one only for those lucky enough to be born in America. It has stood for a dream that all people were created equal. Not only those born here. That all people deserved a chance for happiness.

We should take a page from fiction and remember that and think to ourselves what will future people make of our decisions. Perhaps we have already made some bad ones in trading 'liberty for security'. I'm not so sure of that but I do know that refusing the poor, the unwanted, the abused, and possibly even the criminal will be trading our liberty away. Liberty isn't about being observed or not, it is about being able to make decisions to make choices. And when we take choices away from others and the consequences of those choices as well we reduce all of our liberty.

If you haven't read it, read Heinlein's Double Star, and perhaps take some time to watch some Star Trek:TNG. I know it reminded me of things I believed in, and gave a voice to that inner truth that equality does truly mean equal with all.