Six Selections on Self-Defense - by Andrew Wu
Self-defense,1 as described here, refers to holding onto your dreams and cares.2 It refers to not losing certain parts of you that make you, you. It refers to not letting your desires be superseded by other people’s and other institutions’ desires.3 It refers to a preservation of the self, some sort of mental and emotional resistance, against powerful memes. Think effective altruism, rationality,4 startup culture, various religions and political groups—but there are more examples.5 Self-defense is a nebulous concept; it falls into the bucket of “when you see it, you know it” ideas. I have written below six selections on self-defense. Some are solely sermons; some are moreso memoirs. Between none and all of them may be relevant to any individual person. If you don’t think or feel a section applies to you, it might not, and in fact, following the exact opposite of what I write may be correct, for some people.6 When I was younger—high school through the first half of college—I thought mys
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