Non-economic Perusals

It seems that we've been to much discussing uncool stuff like general election or the US economy. It's time to chill out a bit and talk about literature.

Critics are going gaga over Roberto Bolano's 2666. After The Savage Detectives, that I never finished, this 900 something pages has just been posthumously published. I've just checked it out from the library. Of course, god knows when I will have time to read that, but from first several pages, I'd say it'll be better than the Detectives, albeit its length.

The last novel that I just finished is The Taqwacores --a recent underground hit. Think of JD Salinger plus Hunter Thompson plus Salman Rushdie, all blend into this radically blasphemous small book. So bad that it's good, so wrong that it's honest, so hopeless that it's hopeful. A genius work of Orwellian controlled insanity at maximum level.

Two strong conditions for readers: be very, I mean very, open minded and willing to dig and read between the lines. Otherwise I bet you will be excruciatingly mad, feel grossly offended, and probably want to hang the author. The smallest possibility this book may have is to be legally published in Indonesia.

Yes, the first derivative of utility function with respect to that thing you consume is positive and the second one is negative

From Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase.

She nodded. She put the letters in her bag, which she fastened with a snap of the clasp. I lit up a second cigarette and ordered another whiskey. The second whiskey is always my favorite. From the third on, it no longer has any taste. It's just something to pour into your stomach.

In other words, du/dw = u' > 0 and u" < 0. The law of diminishing marginal utility, q.e.d.

Summer Reading List

Dede of Diskusi Ekonomi once told me that according to the late Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, an Indonesian prominent economist and ex political rebel, intellectuals should speak French.

Who doesn't want to be seen as intellectual? With that spirit, I start to read Andre Malraux's Le Condition Humaine. But since I am at best a fake intellectual, I can only read its English translation.

Moreover, to justify my three percent of irrationality --and to avoid being labeled as narrow minded immoral psychology illiterate (ha!)--, I have Daniel Gilbert's Stumbling on Happiness and Marc Hauser's Moral Minds on my desk now. I've just finished Thaler and Sunstein's Nudge that proposes some measures of libertarian paternalism to improve your life (yeah, right)

After learning some introduction to behavioral economics (and the role of psychology in economics), I must admit that I think I suffer from confirmation bias: instead of weakening my rational choice approach, those conflicting information makes me feel the other way around.

I like the readings though, and so far I find the best short summary on the topic is Matthew Rabin's Psychology and Economics, JEL, vol (36) 1, 1998.

On top of my pile of books, there is a promising novel by Jiang Rong, Wolf Totem. The first half of first paragraph reads:

As Chen Zhen looked through the telescope from his hiding place in the snow cave, he saw the steely gaze of a Mongolian grassland wolf. The fine hairs on his body rose up like porcupine quills, virtually pulling his shirt away from his skin.

I've never seen a Mongolian wolf, but those words captivate me.

At least that's the plan for summer. But as usual, it's always subject to (very likely) change. How do you call this irrationality, by the way?

Walking Westward

Today, Kompas published an op-ed from the poet Sapardi Djoko Damono commemorating 100 years anniversary of Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana. Takdir was one of the Indonesian intellectuals who in 1949 wrote an essay on his idea of being Indonesia. Inspired, apparently, by the European Renaissance, modernism, and industrial revolution, he defined progress as to follow the western path.

But in his time, when post-war nationalism was at its heydays, when as a young nation the problem of identity was very much troubling, his idea of progress as by looking up western standard was anything but hard to accept by many who argued for something called particular Indonesian values and way of living. For them, defining our own identity was seen as more critical than any attempt for inclusiveness toward universal values (even if by that myths needs to be invented --and then taught to school children in my generation as Indonesian history.)

This is the paradox, however. The idea of Indonesia as a nation was born from people who were inspired by the very European ideals, that is, the young intellectuals in the early 20th century. Pramoedya Ananta Toer's This Earth of Mankind describes beautifully the tension, amazement, and restlessness that arose from the meeting between old values and the new (European) values as seen from narrative of its protagonist Minke.

Fast forward to 2008, the tension remains. But this time thing is more complicated because the idea of "western" is now becoming more and more difficult to comprehend. In philosophy, various writings under the rubric of postmodernism deconstruct the notion of western modernism. In practice, these days, the virtue of western civilization can not be easily observed by watching MTV or seeking explanation why democracy can appoint George W Bush lead to Iraq war.

We live in the situation of neither horizon nor ready answers of all queries. By that, one may look inward, mutter "I told you so" while arguing the supremacy of being Indonesia --whatever it may mean. But I think Soedjatmoko, another Indonesian great thinker made a point as early as 1967

"The jump from the a-historical Weltanschauung of traditional agrarian society, with its chiliastic yearnings for the perfect society, to the closed and self-contained system of thought and the vision of the perfect state of Marxism is apparently a smaller one than the jump to the concept of an open future and the acceptance of the Imperfect State as part of the human condition. It is much more difficult to feel attracted to the insecurity of freedom than to the historical inevitability of a perfect world order from which comfort and strength can be drawn" (Australian Outlook, December 1967:288-89)"
--Hanna Papanek and Goenawan Mohamad, Obituary: Soedjatmoko (1922-1989). Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 49, No. 2. (May, 1990), pp. 449-451

Ladies and gentlemen, as you may be familiar with the old saying "there is no such thing as a free lunch", please welcome the price tag of freedom: the insecurity. Rock on.

Law 239

With this kind of reading list, how could you not to think to at least try to sit in the class? And Tyler gives you no exam.