I WAS GULLIBLE FROM THE OTHER SIDE

By Nodar Chinchaladze, May 21, 2022

When I was a child, my country was part of the Soviet Union. Throughout my childhood I was taught this: “How good is the Soviet country and how bad it is in the West! We are happy that we live in a socialist country and so tragic that so many poor people live in evil capitalist countries…”

I trusted this idea until they began to teach me Marx’s theories. I was surprised and wondered “How could this Marxist system work?” or “How could such a system be moral at all?” I couldn’t find answers to these questions.

I wanted to find out how the economy of ‘evil capitalist’ countries could work, but such information was illegal when I accessed it at first. Some people were even sent to prison for distributing such materials, whether published or just handwritten messages. It was an interesting period.

Soon I understood that my questions about Marxist theory were very adequate. I came to realize that socialism was evil—and not capitalism. I came to understand that the Soviet propaganda pushed on us was anti-freedom. There were lies upon lies upon lies. So, this gullible boy became anti-Marxist for the time since school.

After I read, thought, and discussed ideas in order to find truth, I was nearly there. I knew why freedom is important for each individual in society, but this wasn’t enough. It has to be communicated to others.

I found that it is very hard to explain to anyone what seems so clear in one’s own mind. So, I began to think of better and better ways of communicating. I tried discussing and explaining why socialism is immoral and why socialism leads to poverty. I compared different countries like South and North Korea, like West and East Germany, and so on. At last, I began to write dialogues about different subjects to make it easy for readers to understand. Still, I felt it wasn’t enough and something more was needed.

While visiting the office of my friends at the New Economic School of Georgia (nes-g.org ) I found a small book in their library, the Georgian translation of The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible, A Free Market Odyssey (jonathangullible.com/Georgian). As soon as I opened it, I understood that this book was the one I had been searching for. I read the book and began to think of how to use it for spreading ideas in society.

At first, I put each chapter on Facebook (facebook.com/nodari.ch/posts/5846425008708324) to inspire discussion. Then I began to record discussions and put them in my YouTube channel. The discussions are in Georgian, but one of them ( twentieth ) so far have added English subtitles: youtube.com/watch?v=jxKawUm6yPk&list=PLMHHmKkYu8IHY9B7NHh0_h1sm7GNjQk2E&index=20 .

And anyway, I feel it’s still not enough. We all who stand for freedom need to do some more activity to defend our liberty.