Do animals in a zoo know they are locked up in cages for people to look at? Do humans constantly think about the air they breathe? Do birds know that they are flying in the sky while everyone else commutes by walking? David Wallace asks if fish know that they live and breathe water. When things surround us all the time it’s hard to notice that they are there. This metaphor relates whether humans notice other things around them. “blind certainty: a close-mindedness that amounts to an imprisonment so total that the prisoner doesn’t even know he’s locked up,” (Wallace XII). Wallace wrote “This is Water,” to explain that many people lack awareness. He does this by explaining that people are stubborn, they are selfish, he explains what a default setting is, that people need a better education, and that people need to be more open minded. This change will allow people to gain awareness. 

In David Wallace’s “This is Water,” Wallace explains that people who lack awareness are arrogant and tend to always believe what they think. People believe that they are always correct and that they never need help. This stubbornness leads to people being narrow-minded and thinking that they never need help. “Because a huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, is turns out, totally wrong and deluded,” (Wallace XII). Lack of awareness may lead someone down a wrong path. Awareness is what opens our eyes to the real issues and not just believing what we want. To have true knowledge and intellect can express awareness, and people have to realize that they are usually the wrong and stubborn ones and others are right. “learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience,” (Wallace XIII). Asking for help does not show weakness and if people realize that everyone needs help with things then they could understand that help is a simple thing to receive. Wallace uses honesty through explanation of what could be an easy way to become aware and gain intelligence. He explains that everyone makes mistakes, including him, to signify that no one is perfect but through awareness we can all gain knowledge and lose arrogance. 

Wallace also says that people lack awareness because they are caught up in their own universe. “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 (Wallace XII),” meaning that you are the center of YOUR universe. That you are only aware of what is in your universe. Your universe is limited to your own experiences and thoughts, but if people can learn to open their mind to more ideas then they can gain awareness of what’s around them. “We rarely think about this sort of natural, basic self-centeredness because it’s so socially repulsive,” (Wallace XII). Wallace is saying that we do not accept that we are self-centered because it is just socially repulsive, because this is just everyone’s default setting. People want to think that they are not selfish but in reality, everyone is as selfish as everyone else. Since everything we experience is in our own life, we believe that we are the center of everything. If we could gain awareness in our lives and realize that we aren’t just living in our own worlds, but of others around us too, then we could be more open to things around us. 

When we are born we are automatically in control, we are automatically the center of everything around us. When we are born we already have the thought of self-centeredness. “It is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth” (Wallace XII). Wallace repeatedly uses “default setting,” to explain how humans naturally think. Our default setting is how we live and what we think of everything else around us. Many people have a default setting of thinking the world revolves around them and they are the center of the universe. Wallace also says that people who can adjust their default setting are also know as “well-adjusted,” meaning they can change their viewpoints and can be more understanding. Do we become well-adjusted just from learning and knowledge or do we gain it from personal experience? Or do we just gain it from awareness? How adjusted someone is, is judged based on what their peers say. Wallace would think that this measurement is flawed because our peers are not an accurate judge of what a well-adjusted person is. We all listen to criticisms of our peers and usually take it, but that’s the problem with our intelligence. People cannot believe their peers because their peers are just as unaware and narrow-minded as they are. Awareness would allow us to be more understanding of what is going on around us, or being well-adjusted. Wallace references having a “default setting” repeatedly to help you recognize what he means and what it means to be able to change it or have awareness of it. 

Can an education or having knowledge of how and what you think actually help you gain more awareness? Or would it make you overthink or even not think at all about issues around you? Having an education can make people over analyze situations. It can also make people completely unaware of what other people are going through around them because they are so caught up in only things they have knowledge about. “Probably the most dangerous thing about an academic education- least in my own case- is that is enables my tendency to over-intellectualize stuff, to get lose in abstract argument inside my head, instead of simply paying attention to what is going on right in front of me, paying attention to what is going on inside of me,” (Wallace XII). Having awareness of education or gaining knowledge about things in the real world would allow a person to understand how to control what and how they think. A person that is able to control what they think would allow them to have more awareness of what’s in their brain, allowing them to have more understanding that they are not the center of the universe. 

People always have an idea in their mind that they have everything worse than everyone else. Their day was worse, their family has more issues, or their job is more stressful. While people may think this all the time, it is not always the case. Most of the time others around us have more problems than we do. “Or that the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe being driven by a father whose little child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him, and he’s trying to get this kid to the hospital, and he’s in a bigger, more legitimate hurry than I am: it is actually I who am in HIS way,” (Wallace XV). Wallace uses this example that people may be really bad drivers but they could also be driving their kid to the hospital and while you’re thinking he’s a horrible driver, you’re actually the one in his way. Or you may think that they’re driving that enormous SUV just to pollute the environment, but they could be driving it because they were in a really bad car accident and they cannot drive in lower cars. Sometimes these excuses aren’t true but if you walk around thinking that you have it worse than everyone else, you would be completely unaware and not well adjusted. Wallace refers back to the natural default setting to explain that people will automatically think this. He gives us these examples of thinking selfish because we can all relate so it makes it easier for us to understand. 

Fish probably don’t think about the fact that they are swimming and breathing water. Just like we don’t about being selfish or about others around us. David Wallace wrote “This is Water,” to show that many people don’t have awareness in their day to day lives. Wallace uses an example of walking through a grocery store to show that many people around you probably have it worse, those people may have many problems you do not know about. He also says that driving on a highway with SUVs and crazy drivers opens up the ideas that people are selfish because how fast or how bad their car is for the environment. Wallace stresses that you should be the person that is aware and well-adjusted by being open-minded and educated. He does this by explaining that people are stubborn, they are selfish, he explains what a default setting is, that people need a better education, and that people need to be more open minded.


 