How can we know whether or not we are free? Do we, like innocent children in Sunday school, sing, "I have freedom yes I know, for my politicians tell me so?" Or do we use the great computer great nature has loaned to us to figure it our for ourselves?

Believe it or not, the debate over the nature and merits of freedom is far from concluded. America's forefathers, while wise in many respects, were overly optimistic when they declared, "We hold these truths to be self-evident." The "right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" was never evident throughout the thousands of years preceding the American revolution, and today they are not evident throughout most of the world.

While I still thing that The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one of Heinlein's greatest works, his Starship Troopers is a close second.

The "right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" soliloquy in Starship Troopers is one of the best in my mind. (It's late in the book - don't have it handy, sorry.) But the quotation rips apart the concept that Man has any natural rights at all.

Right to life? He asks who has the right to life if they've gone overboard in the ocean - adrift. If people are facing starvation, and cannablism is the only way out, who's right to life is applied?

Liberty? Liberty isn't free - it's purchased by the blood of patriots.

Happiness - yes, you can be happy, but it's not a right. Stick someone in a cell and they can be happy as they can be counting hairs on a mouse (if they so choose).

But I still think The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Brass Cannon) is a better novel - if for no other reason that it attempts to define the responsibilities (imo) are of a patriot to the state and what the patriot should expect from said state.

The key question : What is moral for a group to do that is not moral for an individual to do?

Of course, I also like Heinlein's definition of a rational anarchist better, but that's just me.