by Josh Wachtel

Behind-the-scenes RFE-er Alexei Panshin has just posted the first of five parts of an essay titled "Sympathy for the Devil," about a Robert Heinlein story called "Solution Unsatisfactory" written in 1941 before the U.S. entered World War II, and prophesying that the war would be put to an end in 1945 by a radiological weapon that could destroy entire cities.

The story is tricky, though, and in untangling it, Alexei has a lot to say about contemporary politics and how we might solve one of the major problems of the world we live in today: With the power available to destroy ourselves and our environment, how can humans survive?

Part 1 is here. Parts 2, 3, 4 and 5 will be published every other day until the whole is available on-line.