Fictional works that shed financial wisdom

This video may not do as well on YouTube as the others. Still, I have to do it because I feel strongly about recent revelations about how MP Ng Chee Meng treated trainee teachers, which came to light during his stint as Education Minister.

As I did not have a robust humanities education in the 1980s, being turned off by how humanities like History and English Literature were taught by teachers of that era, a large part of my personal development came from playing RPGS and reading fictional works, with many books from the fantasy genre. I would say that even today, when most of my reads are "serious" in nature, I continue to appreciate comics, manga and even cosy Korean literature.    

I suspect that this continuous exposure to fiction kept my mind open and sharp to survive my SMU JD program, which is still dominated by humanities and the artsy types. It's also consequential when I was building my public speaking skills as an undergraduate. 

As such, I'm upset at the hectoring trainee teachers received from the ex-General. 

Why is there a dichotomy between fictional works and serious works? 

Why should people be shamed for the literature they consume in their spare time? 

One way to position this is that Ng Chee Meng is an electrical engineering major like me, which is true ( but this makes me boil too). I've attended a sociology class in NUS with my fellow electrical engineers, and my peers were reductionist as hell, not to mention endlessly entertaining.  But based on my experience, I've never met an engineer or IT professional who gets shamed for the fiction they read - it's a blessing that some people even read. Still, I've witnessed many senior legal associates disrespected for the "low-class" books they read or the K-pop concerts they attended. An old, grizzled veteran lawyer in his 60s even admitted that he would judge an associate on whether they attended anything made by Andrew Lloyd Weber. 

The fact is that if we understand what sociologists like Pierre Bourdieu have been saying, culture is a tool to distinguish people of different social classes. So even if fiction does not seem practical in finance policy making, it can be a great source of cultural capital, something members of the government need to understand. In this case, Singaporeans have suffered as Jack Neo seems to be our only cultural export, whereas China is levelling up to Nezha 2. 

As a finance guy, I must defend the reading of fiction. Three pieces of fiction say important things about money and finance.

I remain a diehard PAP supporter, but I think it's up to us to clean house to keep our government viable. 

Enjoy!