I Chose Liberty - Ludwig von Mises Institute

326 I Chose Liberty: Autobiographies of Contemporary Libertarians
stone? So I asked Debby Saito to participate in a little fantasy radio dialogue: “As you may
recall, we last left Jonathan Gullible on a remote Pacific island after his boat was blown about
by a terrific storm. One day . . .” And The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible (JG) was born.
The station didn’t much care whether we did commentary or drama, but the audience
sure did! Instantly, listener response picked up all over town. I then followed Debby back
up to Alaska for a year where she started the Libertarian Party of Sitka and I produced a
dramatic radio series from the JG episodes.
Later I spent a couple years teaching in Japan where I met the foremost Japanese Austrian
economist, Toshio Murata, translator of Mises’s Human Action. I rekindled an old friendship
with a political ally from my college years, Bruce Hobbs. He too had discovered this libertarian
movement. When I returned to Hawaii I was fired up for politics, always in “three’s.” I
ran three times for the U.S. Congress and served three years as chair of the local party. I
learned the talents, the value, and the futility of libertarian political action.
In Hawaii I was fortunate to learn most from the wit and wisdom of a whole new set
of students: Marie Gryphon, Misho Ognanovich, Mike Jensen, Graham Thompson, Jon
Graham, Winston Posegate, Stuart Hayashi, Geo Olsson, Nicki Moss, and others. I really
should have paid them tuition!
Writing was the best way for my philosophy to mature. It required in-depth study of
free-market literature, constant application to current issues, and feedback to keep me
disciplined. My best critic over the years was Lane Yoder, a math professor, racquetball
partner, and Go master. Some of the most searching, intellectual correspondence and
libertarian discussions were with Mats Hinze, Nicolai Heering, and, still, my Mom. And
my greatest promoter was Sam Slom, who published the JG episodes as an economics
education project of Small Business Hawaii. The book quickly found its way into economics
classes and won several awards.
By this time I read about the work of Vince Miller, Jim Elwood, and Bruce Evoy at
the International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL) and later joined their Board. ISIL
was dedicated to translating free-market literature and networking globally in order to
spread free market ideas. Their mission was perfectly timed with the fall of the Iron Curtain
and the opening of so much of the world that had formerly prohibited free-market ideas. I
was determined to be a part of that introduction.
JG has now been published in nearly 30 languages and has found its way into radio,
television, and the Internet. Close friends, Hubert Jongen, Virgis Daukas, Kerry Pearson,
Mary Ruwart, and hundreds of others in ISIL, collaborated to bring this about. My most
memorable moment came when my dear friend Geo Olsson, introduced JG to Milton
Friedman, my single greatest inspiration.
In reading through this, I would have to say that the books and films were all great.
But the friends and family were by far the greatest influences on my personal libertarian
odyssey.
Ken Schoolland is associate professor of economics and political science at Hawaii Pacific University,
Honolulu, Hawaii.