However, the director's feelings on the source material (which i've come to share) was that it lacked any kind of depth, sense of irony or self awareness. A civilization built on propaganda and institutionalized violence would over time believe it's own nonsense. The Starship Troopers of the film was the director's vision of how the militarist future of the book would actually play out; a ridiculous farce that crushed common sense beneath a relentless administration of violence.
I could say you both missed the point of the book, but I suppose that's a very subjective judgement so I'll say I got something much different out of the book than you did.
In my opinion, the book was never meant to present a realistic or even recommended method of government. It was a framework in order for the author to address issues of responsibility, both to oneself and to society. All of the flash backs to Juan's citizenship classes (in the book) were about this very issue.
People refer to the government in SST as "militaristic" but the fact was
in the book people
in the military had no say in government whatsoever. It was only
after they successfully completed their term of service that people became "citizens" and could participate in the political process. True, the book itself could be considered "militaristic" but the main character
was a soldier and the story took place during a galaxy wide total war so that's kind of hard to avoid. The author was also a veteran himself and it was written at a time when military service was still generally considered in a positive personal choice and an honorable career.
The core idea of the book was not that the military should run the government, but that
responsible people should run the government. So-called "federal service" (which was not
always military service, although that was the largest branch of federal service) was the differentiators used. It allowed anyone to become a citizen, but they had to volunteer for dangerous, arduous or at the very least tedious service to qualify based on the idea that people don't value things that are given to them for free. Maybe it would not work in real life, but its an interesting idea.
But what do I know? ;)
