Guerilla Strategy in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Previously I’ve talked about strategy in 9-11 conspiracy theories, human behavior in the information war and strategy of cooperation versus competition. For this Sunday’s strategic discussion, I wanted to present a scenario from one of my favorite science fiction books: The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. The book is a great study of a small colony in a unique situation working to establish independence from their rulers. They have no military weapons and little in the way of resources, but they have an artificial intelligence that is sympathetic to their cause.

The strategic lessons in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress are applicable to any guerilla scenario, and indeed are recognizable by anyone who follows guerilla tactics. All of these tactics are being used by people in Iraq to combat the U.S. Perhaps the next Sunday discussion should involve a discussion of tactics from the point of view of the occupier.

The Scenario

Colonists of the moon, all prisoners or descendants of prisoners, are ruled by the Authority which is appointed by Earth. They are trying to overthrow the Authority and install a severely limited government (remember when there was a political party that advocated limited government powers?). The colony is essentially an anarchy. Few rules are enforced by the Authority except those that generate revenues for the Authority (and hence for Earth). The colony industry revolves around mining, and women are a very small minority.

The important points are:

• The colonists have no weapons.
• If they overthrow the authority, Earth can attack them and there are no weapons on the moon.
• They have access to a friendly AI who controls all computers on the colony.
• There are other colonies on the moon that they must either coordinate with or act alone.
• Earth is dependent on minerals and ore from the moon, which are shipped to earth regularly via a giant gravity catapult.
• Women are a severe minority and are treated with great respect.

The Analysis

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is written from the strategic perspective of the colonists trying to overthrow rule from Earth. Anyone who has read the book will know the strategy the colonists use, but we can extrapolate some of the key points here.

• Use the environment to your advantage. There are two ways that the colonists use their environment to their advantage. One is that they use the urban structure of the moon colony to merge with the public and become undetectable. The other is that the moon has a gravitational advantage over the earth. This gives them their only real weapon, which is launching gigantic rocks at Earth. Because of Earth’s gravity, they need only a small amount of fuel to get the rocks falling to earth. It’s a classic example of turning weaknesses into strength by thinking outside the box.
• Exploit cultural differences. The soldiers of the Authority are from Earth, and their treatment of women is significantly different. Moon colonists react violently to the way the soldiers treat women. Creating a lot of opportunities for soldiers to be rude to the female colonists creates animosity.
• Emphasize strengths. The main strength of the colonists is their friendly AI “Mike”. Mike serves as a coordinating center to which different cells of colonists report. In this way no more than one cell can ever be compromised.
• Avoid weaknesses. The colonists are severely underarmed. Direct confrontation with soldiers would be suicidal. Like any guerilla group, the colonists fight small skirmishes and fade into the populace when reinforcements arrive.
• Conserve resources. A major problem on the moon is a lack of resources. Every time the moon sends minerals to Earth, their value decreases. The situation is made worse by the lack of organic material. One of the first goals of the colonists is to institute mineral trading on a mass-exchange basis. Every ton of minerals shipped to Earth must be replaced by a ton of material from Earth.

I’m sure there are intricacies and ideas I’m missing here. As with all posts, I welcome your thoughts and comments. As with all Sunday strategic discussions, I will post a summary of your points in next Sunday’s post.

-zot