Starship Troopers and Independence

One of my favorite books, Starship Troopers, has a single world government on Earth. There are two classes of citizens of Earth. There are veterans, who get to actively vote in the choices the government makes. And then there's everyone else who just lives their life and doesn't get to vote. The idea is that only the veterans have earned the right to guide humanity because they've put something before themselves. Whether they were a soldier or a bookkeeper or whatever - they took some of their finite lifetime and spent it trying to improve or protect humanity. Now, it's important to understand that as far as you can tell in the book the only difference between these two classes of citizens is the ability to participate in the democratic government...but of course people (incorrectly) whine that Starship Troopers features a fascist government. There's even a whole (epic) movie that leans into this flagrantly incorrect reading.

Anyways. I sometimes feel like we've arrived at a point in America where there's de facto "work" involved in finding out what's true before forming political opinions.