Throughout David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech, he clearly argues three main points. His introduction begins with a brief story about a fish swimming past two others, asking “How’s the water?” (Wallace). A few minutes later, one fish asks his friend, “What the hell is water?” This sets up Wallace’s message to Kenyon College’s graduating class of 2005 on the importance of awareness. He brings up the mundane day to day interactions and processes graduates are bound to go through. These tedious tasks include having to go through a long stressful day of work, followed by annoying traffic, and then the negative environment of a packed and poorly lit grocery store. This is followed by the explanation of the default setting. It is easy for us to constantly pick out the negatives in people and our experiences when the frustrating components of adult life surface. Wallace argues that having a pessimistic view is “so easy and automatic” and “frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in.” Having awareness allows us to crack the default setting and think deeper about the things that are annoying us. 

Since Wallace is addressing soon to be college grads, he incorporates the liberal arts education cliche that college is where students are learning how to think. He challenges this motto, claiming that university actually teaches us not how to think, but instead, that we have the choice of what to think about. Wallace puts into perspective that we don’t have to despise the checkout lady who says, “‘Have a nice day’ in a voice that is the absolute voice of death.” Nor do we need to get lost in the list of small annoyances and hating life because of them. We can break this default setting if we push ourselves to think, maybe the man who just cut me off on the freeway has it worse than I do. Perhaps, I’m the one in his way. He could be rushing his sick child to the hospital. We can use another cliche and put ourselves in others shoes to make ourselves a little less miserable when possible. Not every day do we feel like putting in the effort, but it’s usually beneficial when we can look further than our default settings. We have the power to decide how we want to see things in this world. Wallace’s opinions come off very strong through his harsh words and I was a bit turned off at first. I think he offers valid points but dislike this piece as a commencement speech. I feel that the message of the power behind choosing our thoughts is important but dislike the way it’s done. His personal experiences that the audience can universally relate to are portrayed in a very pessimistic light. The suicide example felt too heavy for a moment I feel is supposed to be geared towards a balance of preparation, celebration, and inspiration. 

I agree with Wallace’s main points I discussed above, yet I do not like the way he argues them. Yes, I feel that college is a combination of teaching us how to think for ourselves and that we have the choice and freedom of our thoughts. I also agree that it’s important to try to feel for others when we can. When we consider others and their lives, we are looking at a broader picture that helps us understand why people act the way they do. In the long run, we benefit from being less pessimistic and bothered by the annoyances that pile up throughout adulthood. It is essential to be aware of what I call autopilot and Wallace calls the default setting. We need to be careful and draw ourselves back through awareness when we see that we are just going through the motions and judging others. Wallace has evidence to back up these points but I strongly dislike his examples. More often than not, his word choice rubs me the wrong way and angers me. We all have bad days of course, but to voice to young graduating adults thoughts of “the ugliest, most inconsiderate and aggressive drivers” or “how stupid and cow-like and dead-eyed and nonhuman” people seem at the end of long days is extremely rude. Additionally, his other point that we are the center of our worlds and every experience is an understandable argument but I can’t fully wrap my head around it. The way he explains this idea does not track with how I view myself as a person. It feels too selfish when I am almost always thinking of others before myself. 

I don’t believe Wallace is referring to empathy. I can’t place my finger on a term, but he’s getting at something different. I believe that empathy is the ability to feel for others because we want to and have “moral good” within us. Empathy is something we naturally do. On the other hand, Wallace is saying that we should think twice about other people for our own benefit. This feels a little backhanded and reminds me of when people will apologize because they want to feel better about their wrongs and the uncomfortable situation. Their secondary focus is the fact that they feel bad and are owning up to their poor actions. 

“And look at how repulsive most of them are, and how stupid and cow-like and dead-eyed and nonhuman they seem in the checkout line…” 

This quote simply pissed me off. Commencement speeches are given to students who have just successfully completed college. They should warn students of the challenges of the outside world and the mundane day to day tasks but they should ultimately be a congratulations with positive words of wisdom for the future. Wallace is being very rude and putting this image into young adults’ heads. I know this isn’t his motive and we all have these thoughts from time to time, but who is he to bring this up and judge others? He’s speaking of doing the opposite and being mindful, yet keeps listing more and more situations through vulgar language. I’d like to have challenged Wallace to make this argument without these harsh examples because he offers valid points. 

Wallace and Bloom’s points interact together interestingly. These pieces both get at the importance of thinking of others. While Wallace focuses on the ways that looking deeper into others’ lives is beneficial to increase our awareness, Bloom argues that empathy is dangerously biased and negative. “This is Water” explains why we need to focus on the little things that are forgotten about. These small things contribute to why we hate or love our lives through the default setting. Bloom is pretty much arguing the opposite. He explains that far too often, we care for others on a small scale and empathize with those who are similar to ourselves. This bias gets in the way of those who really need help and are struggling on a much larger scale. At the end of the day, Wallace really only cares about himself being the center of everything. To be the best version of himself and not so miserable from day to day life, he makes up scenarios to try to feel for others. This is really just his way of escaping the consequences of self centeredness and the default setting. Bloom argues that empathy compares to prejudice in the way that we bias who we care for. His point is that our energy is too often put into the wrong places so we should focus on rationality and kindness instead.