An Armed Society
James Rummel of Hell in a Handbasket answers a reader’s question about the source of the old saw that “an armed society is a polite society.” James also links to the Quotable Heinlein web page. That site correctly identifies the work—Beyond This Horizon—in which the phrase appears, but attributes it to the wrong character.
In the book, Heinlein posits a future society with several curious aspects. One of these is that citizens always go armed in public—because citizens meet perceived rudeness with deadly force. The famous quote appears in a discussion between the protagonist, Hamilton Felix, and his wise old friend Mordan Claude. Felix is expressing his doubts about the custom of going armed, and Mordan explains why it is a good one:
“Well, in the first place an armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization. That’s a personal evaluation only. But gunfighting has a strong biological use. We do not have enough things to kill off the weak and stupid these days. But to stay alive as an armed citizen a man has to be either quick with wits or with his hands, preferably both. It’s a good thing.”
…
“Maybe so,” Felix answered slowly, “but it does seem like there ought to be a better way to do it. This way is pretty sloppy. Sometimes the bystanders get burned.”“The alert ones don’t,” Mordan pointed out. “But don’t expect human institutions to be efficient. They never have been; it is a mistake to think they can be made so…[b]ecause we are sloppy, individually—and therefore collectively.”
There’s a lot to think about there, and—as is typical of Heinlein—a lot to get people riled up about. In my opinion, the notion that “an armed society is a polite society” sounds nice, but I don’t know how much evidence there is either to support it or refute it.
Of course, my favorite quote comes earlier in the book, when another character, Monroe-Alpha Clifford, is approached by a scientist named Thorgsen. Monroe-Alpha works for the government, and Thorgsen asks him what the odds are of getting government funding for his pet research project. Monroe-Alpha, after hearing the details of the project, replies:
“[I]t’s very expensive, it will run on for years, and it doesn’t show any prospect of being economically productive. I would say it was tailor-made for subsidy.”
Sounds like the future is going to look a lot like today.
