This is Water – David Foster Wallace

This is Water commencement speech from David Foster Wallace is an unbelievable reminder of how we can all feel like we are at the centre of the universe and how it likes to work against us from time to time. He delves into how we can become slaves to negative thinking by assuming everything around us is trying to challenge us. The sense of self-importance that we can feel affects our emotions and reactions to situations without rationally allowing consideration of others circumstances or past experiences leading to the present moment.

“Here is just one example of the total wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute centre of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely think about this sort of natural, basic self-centredness because it’s so socially repulsive. But it’s pretty much the same for all of us. It is our default-setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. Think about it: there is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute centre of. The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor. And so on. Other people’s thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real.”

[Source]

Philosophers stone – selected views from the boat http://philosophers-stone.co.uk