The Wisdom of Lt Col Dubois Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

In the book, the class Mr. Dubois teaches has to be audited but not passed. As a result, some students feel free to argue with the teacher. The opinion that 'violence never solves anything' was expressed by a student, and Mr. Dubois disagreed.
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"Anyone who clings to the historically untrue - and thoroughly immoral - doctrine that 'violence never settles anything' I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon."

Answer: Yes

"Starship Troopers" has been the subject of some controversy. Much of it is because of the political system described, where only veterans can vote, but I suspect some is due to the book's descriptions of morality.
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'"The difference," I answered carefully, "lies in the field of civic virtue. A soldier accepts personal responsibility for the safety of the body politic of which he is a member, defending it, if need be, with his life. The civilian does not."

"The exact words of the book," he said scornfully. "But do you understand it? Do you believe it?"'

Answer: The Star Spangled Banner

The fourth stanza of the Star Spangled Banner begins:

"O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation."
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Rico learns from the letter's signature that Mr. Dubois was actually a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Mobile Infantry ... the very branch that Rico was assigned to. From this point on, the quiz will use his military rank, and refer to him as Lt Col Dubois.

Answer: People thought they could get what they wanted without working for it.

"This was the tragic fallacy which brought on the decadence and collapse of the democracies of the twentieth century; those noble experiments failed because the people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted . . . and get it, without toil, without sweat, without tears."

Answer: "Magnificent poetry"

"The results should have been predictable, since a human being has no natural rights of any nature."

Mr. Dubois had paused. Somebody took the bait. "Sir? How about 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'?"

"Ah, yes, the 'unalienable rights.' Each year someone quotes that magnificent poetry."
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Of course, a work of poetry is implied to have little practical value.

Answer: No

"What 'right' to life has a man who is drowning in the Pacific? The ocean will not hearken to his cries. What 'right' to life has a man who must die if he is to save his children? If he chooses to save his own life, does he do so as a matter of 'right'? If two men are starving and cannibalism is the only alternative to death, which man's right is 'unalienable'? And is it 'right'?"
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Lt Col Dubois has a much more pragmatic approach to moral philosophy than was the case for Thomas Jefferson.

Answer: No

"Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes. Of all the so-called natural human rights that have ever been invented, liberty is least likely to be cheap and is never free of cost."
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If liberty were unalienable, it would be something that just happened, without any effort on the part of anyone. At least, that is Lt Col Dubois's position. Others might argue that saying something is unalienable is another way of saying that it must be fought for, either to retain or to regain, should it ever be threatened, that humans have an innate need for liberty.

Answer: No

"The third 'right'? - the 'pursuit of happiness'? It is indeed unalienable but it is not a right; it is simply a universal condition which tyrants cannot take away nor patriots restore. Cast me into a dungeon, burn me at the stake, crown me king of kings, I can 'pursue happiness' as long as my brain lives - but neither gods nor saints, wise men nor subtle drugs, can insure that I will catch it."
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It seems that Lt Col Dubois sees "rights" as coming from governments rather than being natural, in that if they were natural they wouldn't be so easy to be taken away.

Answer: A contradiction in terms

"I told you that 'juvenile delinquent' is a contradiction in terms. 'Delinquent' means 'failing in duty.' But duty is an adult virtue - indeed a juvenile becomes an adult when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge of duty and embraces it as dearer than the self-love he was born with. There never was, there cannot be, a 'juvenile delinquent.' But for every juvenile criminal there are always one or more adult delinquents - people of mature years who either do not know their duty, or who, knowing it, fail."
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He holds a high standard for acknowledging adulthood.

Answer: Dubois had written to the commandant at Officers' Candidate School.

Lt Col Dubois must have seen something in Rico during the latter's high school years; he not only kept track of Rico's career, but he asked that Rico be allowed to wear the same temporary officer's insignia that Dubois himself had work.
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'Then he [the Commandant] said, "Mr. Rico, I have a letter from one of your high school teachers, a retired officer, requesting that you be issued the pips he wore as a third lieutenant. I am sorry to say that I must tell him 'No.'"

"Sir?" I was delighted to hear that Colonel Dubois was still keeping track of me-and very disappointed, too.

"Because I can't. I issued those pips two years ago-and they never came back. Real estate deal." '