Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from the highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort. - Lazarus Long
Heinlein frequently used recognizable character types in his stories, but none stands out more noticeably than the "Old Man" - an archetypal "surly curmudgeon." He's the character who is the voice of reason and always knows how to boil a situation down to its essential elements. His logic is almost always flawless and the extent of his knowledge is seemingly endless. He is the patriarch of a family or close-knit group of professionals and has had a colorful and varied past (at which he occasionally hints but seldom elaborates upon.) As with all of Heinlein's protagonists, he is a rugged individualist.

Lazarus Long, Heinlein's most well-known character, is the perfect example of the Old Man (quite literally, since he lives to be thousands of years old.) Also notable are Jubal Harshaw (Stranger In a Strange Land), "The Boss" (Friday), and Ira Johnson (To Sail Beyond the Sunset).

Equally present in Heinlein's work is the "Man Who Does" - supremely capable, but given to hot-headedness. He is the mover and shaker - Lazarus Long (in Methuselah's Children), "Sam" (The Puppet Masters), Manuel O'Kelly (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress), and Col. Colin Campbell (The Cat Who Walks Through Walls) are a few of the many examples. But there is also a female counterpart to RAH's supremely capable male protagonist - Wyoming Knott (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress), Friday (Friday), and Hazel Stone (The Cat Who Walks Through Walls) are representative. These women are beautiful, feminine - and six kinds of death when crossed.

Heinlein's women are superior to their male counterparts, although they "never tell a man anything he doesn't need to know." In the words of Lazarus Long:

Whenever women have insisted on absolute equality with men, they have invariably wound up with the dirty end of the stick. What they are and what they can do makes them superior to men, and their proper tactic is to demand special privileges, all the traffic will bear. They should never settle merely for equality. For women, "equality" is a disaster.


Stranger In a Strange Land
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