qui tacet consentire videtur

Word is that Gainax is remaking Evangelion, which has always interested me in its representation of a world of pure individuality i.e. the ‘human instrumentality project’ singularity of the final episode, where Ikari Shinji ponders his existence. My interpretation of it is that he rejects the singularity even though it means the end of loneliness and insecurity, and rejoins the world, by simply choosing to love himself and be self-sufficient. Contra Rand, individuality is only defined relative to others yet is required (in the form of self-sufficiency) in order to be meaningful. I don’t really get it. If you haven’t seen it before, check out the Youtube link below and also see the other clips from episode 26, and let me know what you think is really going on.

Yet there is no singularity for libertarians to escape to save the one we build for ourselves. How then shall I live? Stop giving a damn and be happy through sheer willpower ala Shinji. Or, to be content with all my achievements and those yet to come.

I won third place, and the essay can be found here. I don’t think I did that great a job personally, certaintly not as much effort as the libertarian-paternalism essay, so I wonder what were the differentiating factors that made my essay better than the others.

I am presently trying to sort out how I can facilitate payment of my award since I do not yet possess an SSN. My present course of action is to secure a campus job immediately - I had been delaying this since I was waiting for an opening for a research assistant position in the economics department (in line with my strengths and interests) instead of say, card-swiping at the dining hall… but in view of the circumstances I may have to take up something menial. Hopefully I can minimize the difficulty of finding a job by accepting one with minimal remuneration, and also minimize the workload. The policy of only awarding SSN to foreign students who have secured employment creates perverse incentives: incentivizing working at the least, and not the greatest, of one’s ability. This is clearly not an optimal outcome.

After getting to the semifinalist round for the iLiberty.org Essay Contest, I did not make it through the second shortlist, which I am very curious about since I consider libertarian theory to be one of my core competencies and I had invested a few weeks into the essay. I look forward to seeing the quality of the winning entries - I don’t think it is a quality issue or raising the right talking points or desired ’style’. I have attached my essay below the fold.

Update: In terms of content the winning essays took a broader approach to the topic instead of going straight to the specific point of contention in academic debate, which I suppose is what is to be expected for a student essay contest. I bet wrongly that playing on the currency (just last year) of the libertarian-paternalism debate would be an advantage - I guess it was too ivory tower. I should have written it as a policy paper and compensate for rhetoric (which I think was the main differentiating factor for the winning essays which tended to deal with the same material), which is subjective and hard to control outcomes for, with empirical analysis - you can’t argue with regressions.

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Apparently I am one of the three runners-up for the World Youth Movement for Democracy essay contest, though as far as I can tell there is no prize. I wrote the essay late last year just after returning from Seoul, when I had plenty of free time and low opportunity cost for writing, and I had just read the Zakaria book which had come into the military library.

What really bothers me is that the first place went to another person from SG, one Charles Tan affiliated with the Singapore Democratic Party. Not simply because I wrote a much better essay but because our political positions are completely at odds, which makes me wonder whether the YMD had fully understood my essay… One could interpret their inconsistency as neutrality but I doubt that is the case. As far as I know, the SDP platform is a contradictory mix of civil liberties and far-left socialism, and I’m sure you can tell what my position is from the books in the header graphic above. It is very disturbing to be named on the same page as an organization for which I feel at best pity (they have admittedly been treated quite terribly) and at worst contempt (for bad populist policy positions).

The essay is not particularly original, the ideas are mostly classical liberal, though as far as I know the critique of modern youth/democracy movements is mine, which makes my winning particularly odd since the criticism applies largely to the one that sponsored the essay contest itself. I am writing this off as a result of low competition due to poor outreach. However, I hope my friends will enjoy the essay, which I will reproduce here below the cut.

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I made this into a 1400×1050 wallpaper for my thinkpad so I will see it all the time. Hopefully it will remind me of the things I keep forgetting. These days I think #3 has been really helpful (instead of saying to myself it’s not going to happen I can instead pretend it doesn’t matter), otherwise envy, that green-eyed beast, would consume me with bitterness, and the last one #11 is supposed to help with my bitterness. It goes without saying that #1 is the most important. I don’t want my future self to be a failure that regrets what his past self, ie the present me, did or didn’t do. #2 and 4 emphasize individual responsibility. #5 and 6 are to try to make me less selfish and disinterested in other people. #7 and 8 are to inoculate me against the status games of prestige/tournament things like private equity and strategy consulting.

1 Don’t fail the future you.
2 Be the person you’d like to be with.
3 You don’t have time for girls.
4 It’s up to you to make it happen.
5 Everyone has one interesting life story.
6 Don’t be superficial.
7 The best things in life are free.
8 Don’t take life too seriously.
9 Smile even when you’re tired.
10 Apologize even when you’re right.
11 Life is not a competition.
12 Things will work out. Be optimistic.

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