Artful Dodger: Actually, Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" is a very political book. It was published in 1960 and in some ways foreshadowed the '60s counterculture movement. This is especially interesting considering Heinlein himself was a political conservation. But he was also a genuine explorer of the social condition. The main character (Valentine Michael Smith) eventually is murdered by a mob won't suffer the social taboos he is breaking in America. So you can see Heinlein's libertarianism shining through in this: that most people are too close-minded to let others be, i.e., they don't really pay more than lip service to the idea of Liberty. That speaks volumes about today's political climate.