Higher education should be the means by which naturally self-centered humans learn to discipline their minds to become actively aware of the needs of others despite the monotony of everyday adult life.  This is the theme of David Foster Wallace’s commencement address to the graduates at Kenyon College in May 2005. The position he takes is that a liberal arts education, “…isn’t really about the capacity to think, but rather about the choice of what to think about”.(Wallace XIxi). He proposes that true freedom of thought is to look beyond oneself and see the world, and the other people living in it, for what they truly are.  Combating this default setting is a lifetime battle that a person either chooses to fight, with knowledge, or perish by settling for a lonely and selfish existence. 

Wallace references “your default setting” (Wallace XII) throughout his speech. The question is what exactly does he mean by default setting? When he talks about a human’s default setting, he is referring to the natural tendency to be self-centered in thoughts and actions rather than take the time to consider the needs and circumstance of others. Wallace justified justifies this natural tendency to be self-centered by saying “We rarely think about this sort of natural, basic self-centeredness 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 brains at birth.” (XII) He explains that while an individual’s thoughts are felt and acted on immediately, the thoughts and feelings of others must be communicated to that individual on some level. 

If a person is unable to shift their focus and put themselves in someone else’s shoes, life can become horribly frustrating and stressful. Every inconvenience becomes inexcusable: that person could not possibly have any reason to cut you off in traffic; the lady at the super market has no reason to be scanning the groceries so slowly; the lady in line in front of you will not stop yelling at her child. Wallace asserts that through education, people can gain the skills to be able to look beyond themselves and take other’s circumstances into consideration. When a person consciously chooses to consider the possible condition of his fellow man, frustration eases. They may then instead speculate that the man who cut them off might have an emergency, or the woman scanning the groceries is exhausted due to working two jobs to make ends meet, or the mother yelling at her child may be sleep deprived from caring for her husband who has terminal cancer.  Stress and frustration can be controlled if one chooses to make a conscience effort to shift the perspective in a given situation. 

Wallace states that, “a liberal arts education is not so much about filling you up with knowledge as it is about quote teaching you how to think.” (Wallace XI) The concept that a student paid $50,000+ to learn how to think can be quite infuriating. As Wallace points out, if someone managed to get into the institution, they must know how to think or they would not have been accepted. The key is what are the students learning  about while receiving their education. It can either teach them how to combat this default setting or cause them to fall deeper into it. “Probably the most dangerous thing about an academic education-least in my own case- is that it enables my tendency to over-intellectualize stuff, to get lost 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) When thinking of education, people tend to associate it with people who are focused and clear-minded. Wallace challenges this stereotype by saying that education actually clouds the mind with your own thoughts because you over-analyze everything, causing people not to live in the moment. Society seems to value those who are present and live in the moment versus those who scrutinize every little detail, which is one way this quote makes education out to be a negative thing. The other is that people getting lost within themselves and over-intellectualizing everything due to what they are being taught is a way that education is making people revert to there default setting. This is not true freedom of thought because they are so engrossed in their own selfish thoughts, ergo the default setting. There is also a positive side to people being taught how to think “the point here is that I think this is one part of what teaching me how to think is really supposed to mean. To be just a little less arrogant. To have just a little critical awareness about myself and my certainties.” (Wallace XII) This is a way that teaching people to think can break them of the default setting rather than cause them to settle into it. This quote shows that it is possible to be taught to be less self-centered. People are able to do this by learning to be more aware of there own thoughts and more aware of their surroundings. When this occurs, people do not settle on the first thought that comes to mind, are able to see the situation from other angles, and take other’s circumstances into consideration before settling on a verdict. This simple consideration makes someone less arrogant and self-centered therefore breaking away from the default setting.

Reprogramming the naturally self-centered thought process is no easy task, however, as seen in the way Wallace’s own life came to a conclusion. He committed suicide in September of 2008, at the age of 46.  People who are unable to seize the opportunity to learn how to adjust their thoughts can get stuck in the tedium of an unhappy life and may choose death, as Wallace ultimately did. Perhaps this is why he felt so strongly about stressing to the graduates that they must break this default setting because he knew what it was like to live within it.  He believed that real education gives people the power to break free of the default setting so they can have true freedom of thought. “People who can adjust their natural default setting this way are often described as being “well-adjusted”, which I suggest to you is not an accidental term.” (Wallace XII) Being well adjusted is a valuable attribute for humans to strive for. Despite the endless energy it takes to rethink circumstances and experiences, the outcome can lead to freedom from frustration and a much happier life. 

Wallace believes that freedom comes from continuously working toward the discipline of heightened awareness. Paying attention to other people around you, caring about what they are going through, and being willing to “…sacrifice for them over and over in a myriad of petty, unsexy ways everyday” (Wallace XVI).  According to Wallace, the real value of a real education is not about knowledge but rather about learning how to be aware of things, rather they be other people or experiences, that are placed right in front of us. That is the way humans can truly live a more fulfilling life. He concludes that is incredibly hard to stay acutely aware of others within the hectic and monotonous daily life of an adult, but that is the most important job anyone can do. It can be the cure for a lonely and selfish existence. 