The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible - Bastiat Institute

Chapter 34 • Vice Versa 205
such contracts provide legitimate means for improving social status
and security.”
The policeman fi nished making his notes and reached into a bag.
He pulled out a stoneonastick and some nails. “Mind giving me a
hand over here?”
“Sure,” said Jonathan uncomfortably. He tried to reconcile these
strange moral standards.
Offi cer Stuart turned and walked to a store nearby. He took
hold of some loose boards piled on the sidewalk and motioned to
Jonathan. “Here, hold this end up. I need to board up the windows
of this shop.”
“Why are you boarding up this shop?”
“The shop is closed,” he said in a voice muffl ed from holding the
nails in his mouth. “The owner was found guilty of selling obscene
pictures and got sent to the zoo.”
“What’s an obscene picture?” asked Jonathan, naively.
“Well, an obscene picture is of some foul and disgusting
activity.”
“Was the shopkeeper doing this ‘disgusting’ activity?”
“No, he was just selling the pictures.”
Jonathan thought about this carefully as the man fi nished nailing
the top board across the door. “So selling pictures of an obscene act
makes one guilty of the act?”
Now it was the policeman’s turn to stop and deliberate. “Well,
in a way, yes. People who sell such pictures are guilty of promoting
the activity. Consumers are easily infl uenced, you know.”
Jonathan struck his palm against his forehead. “I get it! This
must have been the newspaper offi ce. You have arrested the news
photographers for taking pictures of warfare and killing! But are
your newspapers guilty of promoting warfare and killing just
because they print and sell the pictures?”
“No, no. Ouch!” exclaimed the offi cer, shaking his thumb in pain
and letting fl y a string of violent curses. He had missed a nail and
struck his thumb by mistake. Offi cer Stuart glanced around selfconsciously
to see who might have heard him swearing. Picking
up his tools, he started again. “Obscenity is sexual activity – only