The Novum presented in Starship Troopers is the rule of the veterans and the resulting primacy of the military. This Novum presents the novel as a flattering utopia to a readership of which the author himself is a member. This is a normative science fiction construct. Starship Troopers deviates from the fact that the true target readership is the young male who has not yet had the chance to engage. He is supposed to gain a favorable understanding of the soldier by sharing his dream. The dream – the created world – is then the means of persuasion. Heinlein begins by claiming the historical inevitability of his Novum. Once our decadent civilization fell, veterans; as the faction best equipped to counter anarchy, it will simply assume the functions of police and then government. Additionally, "these [early] veterans, feeling it was necessary to hang some veterans, decided that, if they had to do it, they were not going to let 'bleeding...unprintable' civilians have their say on this subject. .” (198). That is to say, the distinction between soldier and civilian was built on the soldier's resentment towards his task. This implies that the soldiers blame the collapse of society on the decadence of civilians. This is partially countered when it is stated that veterans are just as likely to commit crime as non-veterans (199), but more fully reaffirmed when it is stated that "[democracy] has failed because people were led to believe that they could simply vote for what they wanted” (76). Regardless, this is where Heinlein introduces his franchise system, and this is also conceptualized as an organic and obvious development. These two classes are essential because the book is a bildungsroman and its action is of comparison between middle of paper ......the appeal of the soldier's life and even the validity of his Novum as a form of government (he explicitly refers to Technocracy, its closest equivalent (199)). I find the argument compelling, but perhaps not as much for the young reader. The best benefits of military service presented are acquiescence and contentment, in short, the death drive – the desire to live less – a desire which I hope is not well formed in the young reader. The arguments in favor of the superiority of the military are less convincing because they are based on a rather problematic altruism based on the survival of the species over the individual, but they are useful and no one debates with someone who wants to fight anyway. sacrifice. Overall, if the capitalist game of meritocracy seems a little too rigged and the death drive kicks in a little early, military service turns out to be a good option..