From Free Life, Issue 26, December 1996
ISSN: 0260 5112

This has been kicking around for quite some time now: apparently the basic text for this book is some fifteen years old and the first "proper" edition was published in 1988. Nonetheless, anyone concerned about the constant diet of statist propaganda that often passes for education in all its forms cannot but be encouraged that this book, which is specifically aimed at teenagers, has been revised and reissued and can be easily purchased from Advocates for Self-Government in the United States.

Jonathan Gullible chronicles the adventures of the eponymous hero after his boat is washed ashore on the island of Corrumpo. The book is broken up into bite-sized chapters of rarely more than two pages, each chapter recounting Jonathan's meetings with various personages and situations as he wanders the island trying to find his way home.

Corrumpo is a nightmare island where can be found every statist, authoritarian or bureaucratic idiocy one can think of. Each of the chapters deals with one of these issues and exposes both the ethical wrong-doing and the consequential damage involved. Topics covered include: trade protectionism, state subsidies to industry, occupational licensing, government-awarded monopolies, the similarity of the robber to the tax-collector, drug prohibition, prostitution (and perhaps most controversially its equation with marriage), zoning restrictions, the lure of security over freedom, the ethics of a welfare system which makes people pay for the folly of others, the tyranny of majoritarianism, the wholesale bribery and corruption employed by politicians to acquire and retain power, and many others.

I cannot do justice in a short review to Mr Schoolland's abilities as a story-teller. Not only are the various abstract principles involved clearly expounded, he also manages to engage the emotions of the reader. I found myself getting angry at some of the situations that Jonathan and the wretched inhabitants of Corrumpo find themselves in, largely because, no matter how exaggerated some of them are, they are all-too recognisable right here, right now.

As noted by its discussion of drugs and prostitution, Mr Schoolland has not essayed a sanitised-for-the-children (and thus dishonest) libertarianism: this is not Janet & John Go To The (Free) Market but a sophisticated and effective tool that could be of real use in the battle for the hearts and minds of youngsters. Parenthetically, any adults interested in an easy-to-read introduction to libertarianism could do a lot worse than read this book.

My only question concerns how, under anything like our present state-worshipping education system, the poor sods will ever get to read it! In other words we have a Catch-22 situation where excellent books like this are only needed because of the active promotion of statism and/or active suppression of libertarianism by most professional educators (sic) who would make damn sure this book never gets inside a class-room!

Nigel C. Meek

The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey by Ken Schoolland, available from Advocates For Self-Government 269 Market Place Boulevard, #106 Cartersville, GA 30120 USA

Nigel C. Meek worked in the private, public and voluntary sectors before recently graduating with a BSc in Psychology. He is currently studying part-time for an MA in Applied Social and Market Research.