The Bugs’ society and government stands in opposition to the Terran Federation, representing the threat communism poses to democratic and individualistic societies. Starship Troopers was written during the Cold War, and its depiction of the conflict between the Pseudo-Arachnids (with their communal social organization and hive mind consciousness) and the Terran Federation (with its limited democracy and well-trained but still individual soldiers) parallels the contest between American democracy and Soviet Communism that played out in political, military, and cultural realms from the late 1940s through the early 1990s. As a philosophical and political system, communism seeks to share resources and work among the entire group of people equally; the Pseudo-Arachnids are a caricature of communism because individual Bugs are completely equivalent, indistinguishable, and replaceable. A brain Bug controls the warriors by a hive mind, so they can fight with ruthless efficiency and coordination as soon as they’re hatched, unlike human soldiers, who must first grow into adults and then undergo rigorous training. The Bugs don’t value their individuals either; while humans would start or resume a war to save just one individual, the Bugs will readily sacrifice their workers and warriors in battle and will even kill their “brains” and queens rather than allowing them to be captured. While Starship Troopers offers grudging appreciation for what total social coordination could accomplish, it maintains that it’s a totally unfit system for humans. The Bugs succeed because they’re evolutionarily adapted to “total communism.” The Bugs threaten to outcompete the Federation by sheer numbers, but the humans’ capacity for individualistic thought and action—even when working in coordinated groups—wins the day because it is what allows Zim to capture a brain bug on Planet P.
Bugs Quotes in Starship Troopers
“Try to figure where the Bugs are going to break out. And then stay away from that spot! Understand me?”
“I hear you, sir,” I said carefully. “But I do not understand.”
He sighed. “Johnnie, you’ll turn my hair gray yet. Look, son, we want them to come out, the more the better. You don’t have the firepower to handle them other than by blowing up their tunnel as they reach the surface—and that is the one thing you must not do! If they come out in force, a regiment can’t handle them. But that’s just what the General wants, and he’s got a brigade of heavy weapons in orbit, waiting for it. So you spot that breakthrough, fall back and keep it under observation. If you are lucky enough to have a major breakthrough in your area, reconnaissance will be patched through all the way to the top. So stay lucky and stay alive! Got it?”
“Yes, sir. Spot the breakthrough. Fall back and avoid contact. Observe and report.”
I did learn, eventually, why my platoon sergeant decided to go down into that Bug town. He had heard my report to Captain Blackstone that the “major breakthrough” was actually a feint, made with workers sent up to be slaughtered. When real warrior Bugs broke out where he was, he had concluded (correctly and minutes sooner than Staff reached the same conclusion) that the Bugs were making a desperation push, or they would not expend their workers simply to draw our fire.
He saw that their counterattack made from Bug town was not in sufficient force, and concluded that the enemy did not have many reserves—and decided that, at this one golden moment, one man acting alone might have a chance of raiding, finding “royalty” and capturing it. Remember, that was the whole purpose of the operation; we had plenty of force to sterilize Planet P, but our object was to capture royalty castes and learn how to go down in. So he tried it, snatched that one moment—and succeeded on both counts.
Bugs Symbol Timeline in Starship Troopers
