This is Chapter 12 of The Universal Good Deal, you may want to start at the beginning or go back to Chapter 11.

In order that you may penetrate the motivations of the ensuing catastrophes, I must explain a little more fully who this Flinders was. Within his forty years of life, Flinders discovered a very large area of what is now accepted advertising practice; he participated in stirring Martian events which are memorable even now; and he was the victim of circumstances which, however stated, were peculiarly unfortunate, and must evoke the sympathy of everyone who takes the trouble to understand them.¹

He was born a Lummi, one of the ancient Martian tribes—although most Martians at the time chose to organize themselves by nation (an arbitrary category which relied on pretend lines), there were still those who saw their place in the world as a product of their relationships with rocks, ferns, crows, and things like that. Out of a desultory attempt to respect the wishes of such people, some Martian governments created what were called reservations. These were undesirable or unprofitable lands where those who were members of such tribes might live, although it seems that the wider society thought of them as parks where gambling was allowed.

Flinders' family had been settled on the same reservation for many generations.² He was raised in a small brick house painted a dingy white. As a child, he did not take to school, being too practically minded. He recognized at an early age the importance of the relative over the absolute,³ something entirely neglected in the curricula of that era. Flinders preferred, instead, the company of his uncle, who was a criminal.

During Flinders' youth, the district grew large quantities of a plant called marijuana, principally for illegal sale.⁴ As I will discuss in detail later, Martian societies of this period had come to the odd conclusion that there were certain substances and comestibles that were harmful by their very nature, and they banned them and promised harsh penalties to violators of the ban. Of course this had the effect of creating a very profitable market, which attracted a great number of people who were willing to break the law. As I have said, Flinders' uncle was one of these, although not particularly successful. Many historians believe that it was this uncle who was responsible for Flinders' arrest and imprisonment.

Whatever the case, there are records that Flinders was put in prison for racketeering when he was just fifteen years old. It was apparently quite common to imprison children in Martian society; so much so, that they had passed laws against the practice. These laws were neatly circumvented by still more laws that made it permissible to pretend a child was an adult for the purpose of punishing them.

Here Flinders was detained and lingered out an imprisonment six years and a half.⁵ In prison, Flinders grew into a large, bony man. He groomed himself neatly, keeping his head and beard trimmed very short. It was also in prison that he read Robinson Crusoe.⁶