GT
12-22-2009, 03:31 AM
'For Us, the Living' also depicts graphically the transition between the society that Perry left in 1939 and how it is transformed through a series of acts by the Government. Of specific note is the 'War Voting Act'. In this act, if the United States wished to engage in armed conflict with any other country, a national referendum was required to be held. Voting was not obligatory for all citizens, but in the event that the article was passed and the country was to go to war, those who had voted for war were the first to be enlisted in the armed forces, those who abstained were the second conscripted, and those who voted 'No' were the third group. Heinlein states that in the history of the 'War Voting Act', the process had been enacted twice, and both times the entire citizenry were actively engaged in very vocal debate as to the whether the conflict was warranted. Both times, he states, the measures to go to war were defeated.