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名人演讲:This is Water 这就是水[大卫·福斯特·华莱士]

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2018年04月23日

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This is Water 这就是水
——David Foster Wallace 大卫·福斯特·华莱士

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[00:04.16]Greetings, thanks
[00:05.30]and congratulations
[00:06.05]to Kenyon's graduating class of 2005.
[00:11.03]There are these two young fish
[00:12.28]swimming along
[00:13.76]and they happen to meet an older fish
[00:15.42]swimming the other way,
[00:16.69]who nods at them and says
[00:17.67]Morning, boys. How's the water
[00:20.99]And the two young fish
[00:21.85]swim on for a bit,
[00:23.07]and then eventually
[00:24.28]one of them looks over
[00:25.17]at the other and goes
[00:26.21]What the hell is water
[00:29.95]This is a standard requirement
[00:31.47]of US commencement speeches,
[00:32.86]the deployment of didactic
[00:34.75]little parable-ish stories.
[00:37.56]The story thing turns out to be
[00:38.71]one of the better,
[00:39.78]less bullshitty conventions of the genre,
[00:42.59]but if you're worried
[00:43.18]that I plan to present myself here
[00:44.33]as the wise,
[00:45.23]older fish explaining
[00:46.59]what water is to you younger fish,
[00:49.09]please don't be.
[00:50.54]I am not the wise old fish.
[00:53.30]The point of the fish story
[00:54.35]is merely that the most obvious,
[00:55.83]important realities
[00:56.88]are often the ones
[00:57.78]that are hardest to see
[00:58.96]and talk about.
[01:00.49]Stated as an English sentence,
[01:02.07]of course,
[01:02.79]this is just a banal platitude,
[01:05.30]but the fact is that
[01:06.08]in the day to day trenches
[01:07.73]of adult existence,
[01:08.91]banal platitudes
[01:09.89]can have a life or death importance,
[01:12.33]or so I wish to suggest to you
[01:13.95]on this dry and lovely morning.
[01:17.07]Of course
[01:17.56]the main requirement
[01:18.40]of speeches like this is
[01:19.46]that I'm supposed
[01:20.52]to talk about your liberal
[01:22.04]arts education's meaning,
[01:23.81]to try to explain
[01:24.81]why the degree you are
[01:25.80]about to receive
[01:26.58]has actual human value
[01:28.40]instead of just a material payoff.
[01:31.98]So let's talk about
[01:32.72]the single most pervasive cliché
[01:34.27]in the commencement speech genre,
[01:36.43]which is that a liberal arts education
[01:38.36]is not so much about
[01:39.54]filling you up with knowledge
[01:40.97]As It Is about
[01:42.71]"teaching you how to think".
[01:45.61]If you're like me as a student,
[01:47.30]you've never liked hearing this,
[01:49.12]and you tend to feel a bit insulted
[01:50.72]by the claim that you needed
[01:52.02]anybody to teach you
[01:52.78]how to think,
[01:53.91]since the fact that you even
[01:54.88]got admitted to a college this good
[01:56.48]seems like proof that
[01:57.50]you already know how to think.
[02:01.89]But I'm going to posit to you
[02:03.00]that the liberal arts cliché
[02:04.25]turns out not to
[02:05.17]be insulting at all,
[02:06.71]because the really
[02:07.56]significant education
[02:08.51]in thinking that we're supposed
[02:09.88]to get in a place like this
[02:11.09]isn't really about
[02:12.42]the capacity to think,
[02:14.25]but rather about the choice
[02:15.49]of what to think about.
[02:17.83]If your total freedom
[02:18.64]of choice regarding
[02:19.62]what to think about seems
[02:20.64]too obvious to waste time discussing,
[02:22.90]I'd ask you to think
[02:23.96]about fish and water,
[02:25.41]and to bracket for just
[02:26.65]a few minutes your skepticism
[02:28.47]about the value of the totally obvious.
[02:33.09]Here's another didactic little story.
[02:35.25]There are these two guys
[02:36.14]sitting together in a bar
[02:37.33]in the remote Alaskan wilderness.
[02:39.35]One of the guys is religious,
[02:40.86]the other is an atheist,
[02:42.62]and the two are arguing
[02:43.89]about the existence of God
[02:45.20]with that special intensity
[02:46.54]that comes after about the fourth beer.
[02:49.62]And the atheist says:
[02:50.69]Look, it's not like
[02:51.50]I don't have actual reasons
[02:52.94]for not believing in God.
[02:54.56]It's not like
[02:55.44]I haven't ever experimented
[02:56.52]with the whole God
[02:57.51]and prayer thing.
[02:58.68]Just last month
[02:59.74]I got caught away from the camp
[03:01.14]in that terrible blizzard,
[03:02.71]and I was totally lost
[03:04.02]and I couldn't see a thing,
[03:05.39]and it was 50 below,
[03:06.88]and so I tried it
[03:08.13]I fell to my knees in the snow
[03:09.48]and CRIed out
[03:10.22]Oh, God, if there is a God,
[03:11.85]I'm lost in this blizzard,
[03:13.18]and I'm gonna die
[03:13.99]if you don't help me.
[03:15.98]And now,
[03:16.56]in the bar,
[03:17.41]the religious guy looks at the atheist
[03:18.99]all puzzled.
[03:20.42]Well then you must believe now,
[03:21.81]he says,
[03:22.67]After all, here you are, alive.
[03:25.78]The atheist just rolls his eyes.
[03:27.84]No, man,
[03:28.64]all that was a couple Eskimos
[03:30.37]happened to come wandering by
[03:31.64]and showed me the way back to camp.
[03:35.02]It's easy to run this story
[03:36.34]through kind of
[03:36.97]a standard liberal arts analysis
[03:39.43]the exact same experience
[03:40.76]can mean two totally different things
[03:42.58]to two different people,
[03:44.00]given those people's two different belief
[03:45.72]templates and two different ways
[03:47.32]of constructing meaning
[03:48.52]from experience.
[03:50.35]Because we prize tolerance
[03:51.90]and diversity of belief,
[03:53.84]nowhere in our liberal arts analysis
[03:55.97]do we want to claim
[03:56.53]that one guy's interpretation
[03:57.75]is true and the other guy's is false or bad.
[04:02.13]Which is fine,
[04:03.04]except we also never end up
[04:04.30]talking about just
[04:05.72]where these individual templates
[04:06.90]and beliefs come from.
[04:08.42]Meaning, where they come from
[04:09.60]INSIDE the two guys.
[04:11.58]As if a person's most basic orientation
[04:14.14]toward the world,
[04:15.17]and the meaning of his experience
[04:16.74]were somehow just hard-wired,
[04:18.53]like height or shoe-size;
[04:20.44]or automatically absorbed
[04:22.12]from the culture,
[04:23.09]like language.
[04:24.76]As if how we construct meaning
[04:26.15]were not actually a matter of personal,
[04:28.07]intentional choice.
[04:36.61]Plus, there's the whole matter
[04:37.65]of arrogance.
[04:38.75]The nonreligious guy
[04:39.74]is so totally certain
[04:41.33]in his dismissal of the possibility
[04:43.05]that the passing Eskimos
[04:44.27]had anything to do
[04:45.56]with his prayer for help.
[04:47.76]True, there are plenty of religious people
[04:49.77]who seem arrogant
[04:50.64]and certain of their own interpretations too.
[04:53.30]They're probably even
[04:54.88]more repulsive than atheists,
[04:56.70]at least to most of us.
[04:59.12]But religious dogmatists' problem
[05:00.64]is exactly the same
[05:01.83]as the story's unbeliever
[05:03.60]blind certainty,
[05:05.54]a close-mindedness
[05:06.63]that amounts to an imprisonment
[05:07.95]so total that the prisoner
[05:09.31]doesn't even know he's locked up.
[05:12.47]The point here is that
[05:13.79]I think this is one part
[05:15.05]of what teaching me
[05:16.34]how to think is really
[05:17.67]supposed to mean.
[05:19.05]To be just a little less arrogant.
[05:21.33]To have just a little CRItical awareness
[05:23.67]about myself
[05:24.28]and my certainties.
[05:25.85]Because a huge percentage
[05:27.09]of the stuff that I tend
[05:28.52]to be automatically certain of is,
[05:29.82]it turns out,
[05:31.35]totally wrong and deluded.
[05:34.53]I have learned this the hard way,
[05:36.64]as I predict you graduates will, too.
[05:39.54]Here is just one example
[05:40.63]of the total wrongness
[05:41.91]of something I tend
[05:42.76]to be automatically sure of
[05:44.86]everything in my own immediate experience
[05:47.23]supports my deep belief
[05:48.52]that I am the absolute centre
[05:50.30]of the universe;
[05:52.81]the realest, most vivid
[05:54.24]and important person in existence.
[05:56.81]We rarely talk about
[05:58.15]this sort of natural,
[05:59.13]basic self-centeredness
[06:00.50]because it's so socially repulsive.
[06:02.88]But it's pretty much the same
[06:03.87]for all of us.
[06:05.61]It is our default setting,
[06:07.59]hard-wired into our boards at birth.
[06:09.82]Think about it:
[06:11.85]there is no experience
[06:13.02]you have had
[06:14.25]that you are not the absolute centre of.
[06:16.50]The world as you experience
[06:18.59]it is there in front of YOU
[06:20.29]or behind YOU,
[06:21.61]to the left or right of YOU,
[06:23.49]on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor.
[06:26.16]And so on.
[06:27.57]Other people's thoughts
[06:28.50]and feelings have to be communicated
[06:30.07]to you somehow,
[06:31.24]but your own are so immediate, urgent, real.
[06:35.79]Please don't worry that
[06:37.51]I'm getting ready
[06:38.29]to lecture you
[06:39.11]about compassion
[06:39.66]or other-directedness
[06:40.81]or all the so-called virtues.
[06:42.89]This is not a matter of virtue.
[06:44.53]It's a matter of my choosing
[06:46.24]to do the work of somehow
[06:47.84]altering or getting free of my natural,
[06:50.15]hard-wired default setting
[06:52.07]which is to be deeply
[06:53.11]and literally self-centered
[06:55.38]and to see and interpret everything
[06:57.20]through this lens of self.
[07:00.23]People who can adjust
[07:01.34]their natural default setting this way
[07:02.50]are often desCRIbed as being
[07:04.10]well-adjusted
[07:05.92]which I suggest to you
[07:06.95]is not an accidental term.
[07:09.18]Given the triumphant
[07:11.09]academic setting here
[07:12.56]an obvious question is
[07:14.18]how much of this work
[07:15.04]of adjusting our default setting involves
[07:16.90]actual knowledge or intellect.
[07:19.23]This question gets very tricky.
[07:22.15]Probably the most dangerous thing
[07:23.41]about an academic education
[07:24.73]at least in my own case
[07:26.90]is that it enables my tendency
[07:28.48]to over-intellectualise stuff,
[07:30.94]to get lost in abstract argument
[07:32.82]inside my head,
[07:34.21]instead of simply paying attention
[07:35.58]to what is going on right
[07:36.95]in front of me,
[07:38.26]paying attention to
[07:39.68]what is going on inside me.
[07:41.98]As I'm sure
[07:43.15]you guys know by now,
[07:44.51]it is extremely difficult
[07:45.79]to stay alert and attentive,
[07:47.87]instead of getting hypnotised
[07:49.25]by the constant monologue
[07:50.57]inside your own head
[07:52.17](may be happening right now).
[07:54.48]Twenty years after my own graduation,
[07:56.62]I have come gradually
[07:57.58]to understand
[07:58.41]that the liberal arts cliché
[07:59.68]about teaching you
[08:00.87]how to think is actually shorthand
[08:02.81]for a much deeper,
[08:03.98]more serious idea:
[08:05.91]learning how to think really
[08:07.47]means learning how to exercise
[08:08.89]some control over how
[08:10.44]and what you think.
[08:12.54]It means being conscious
[08:13.81]and aware enough to choose
[08:15.33]what you pay attention to
[08:16.66]and to choose how you construct meaning
[08:18.99]from experience.
[08:20.97]Because if you cannot exercise
[08:22.69]this kind of choice in adult life,
[08:24.39]you will be totally hosed.
[08:27.08]Think of the old cliché
[08:28.52]about "the mind being an excellent servant
[08:31.46]but a terrible master".
[08:33.25]This, like many clichés,
[08:35.35]so lame and unexciting
[08:37.47]on the surface,
[08:38.23]actually expresses a great
[08:39.65]and terrible truth.
[08:41.77]It is not the least bit coincidental
[08:43.49]that adults who commit suicide
[08:45.14]with firearms almost always
[08:46.72]shoot themselves in the head.
[08:50.31]They shoot the terrible master.
[08:53.11]And the truth is that most of
[08:54.38]these suicides are actually dead
[08:55.88]long before they pull the trigger.
[08:58.33]And I submit that this is
[08:59.93]what the real,
[09:01.03]no bullshit value of your liberal arts
[09:02.19]education is supposed to be about
[09:05.24]how to keep from going
[09:06.51]through your comfortable,
[09:07.62]prosperous,
[09:08.27]respectable adult life dead,
[09:11.53]unconscious,
[09:13.13]a slave to your head
[09:14.50]and to your natural default setting
[09:16.25]of being uniquely,
[09:17.39]completely,
[09:18.47]imperially alone
[09:20.65]day in and day out.
[09:24.77]That may sound like hyperbole,
[09:26.29]or abstract nonsense.
[09:28.84]Let's get concrete.
[09:30.26]The plain fact
[09:31.25]is that you graduating seniors
[09:32.62]do not yet have any clue what
[09:33.89]"day in day out" really means.
[09:38.82]There happen to be whole,
[09:39.66]large parts of adult American life
[09:41.46]that nobody talks about
[09:42.53]in commencement speeches.
[09:45.55]One such part involves boredom,
[09:47.30]routine and petty frustration.
[09:51.04]The parents and older folks here
[09:52.58]will know all too well
[09:53.39]what I'm talking about.
[09:55.29]By way of example,
[09:56.38]let's say it's an average adult day,
[09:58.47]and you get up in the morning,
[09:59.85]go to your challenging,
[10:00.77]white-collar,
[10:01.37]college-graduate job,
[10:03.11]and you work hard for eight
[10:04.34]or ten hours,
[10:05.24]and at the end of the day
[10:05.95]you're tired and somewhat stressed
[10:07.99]and all you want is to go home
[10:09.26]and have a good supper
[10:10.36]and maybe unwind for an hour,
[10:11.36]and then hit the sack early because,
[10:13.08]of course,
[10:14.22]you have to get up the next day
[10:14.86]and do it all again.
[10:16.33]But then you remember
[10:16.99]there's no food at home.
[10:18.67]You haven't had time
[10:19.49]to shop this week
[10:20.50]because of your challenging job,
[10:22.47]and so now after work
[10:23.99]you have to get in your car
[10:25.21]and drive to the supermarket.
[10:26.82]It's the end of the work day
[10:28.55]and the traffic is apt to be
[10:29.94]very bad.
[10:31.45]So getting to the store
[10:32.48]takes way longer than it should,
[10:33.89]and when you finally get there,
[10:36.38]the supermarket is very crowded,
[10:37.40]because of course
[10:38.34]it's the time of day
[10:39.20]when all the other people
[10:40.37]with jobs also try
[10:41.23]to squeeze in some grocery shopping.
[10:43.48]And the store is hideously lit
[10:45.35]and infused with soul-killing muzak
[10:49.06]or corporate pop
[10:51.04]and it's pretty much the last place
[10:52.46]you want to be
[10:53.50]but you can't just get in
[10:54.55]and quickly out;
[10:55.83]you have to wander all over the huge,
[10:57.40]over-lit store's confusing aisles
[10:59.44]to find the stuff you want
[11:01.31]and you have to manoeuvre your junky
[11:02.68]cart through all these other tired,
[11:04.35]hurried people with carts
[11:07.34]et cetera, et cetera,
[11:08.41]cutting stuff out
[11:09.19]because this is a long ceremony
[11:10.14]and eventually
[11:12.60]you get all your supper supplies,
[11:14.12]except now it turns out
[11:15.17]there aren't enough
[11:15.96]check-out lanes open
[11:16.81]even though
[11:17.75]it's the end-of-the-day rush.
[11:19.04]So the checkout line is incredibly long,
[11:20.98]which is stupid and infuriating.
[11:22.97]But you can't take your frustration out
[11:25.55]on the frantic lady working the register,
[11:27.37]who is overworked
[11:28.88]at a job whose daily tedium
[11:30.33]and meaninglessness surpasses the imagination
[11:32.38]of any of us here at a prestigious college.
[11:35.32]But anyway,
[11:36.54]you finally get to
[11:37.40]the checkout line's front,
[11:38.26]and you pay for your food,
[11:39.99]and you get told to
[11:41.37]Have a nice day
[11:42.84]in a voice that is
[11:43.71]the absolute voice of death.
[11:46.61]Then you have to take your creepy,
[11:47.84]flimsy, plastic bags of groceries
[11:49.37]in your cart with the one crazy wheel
[11:51.75]that pulls maddeningly to the left,
[11:53.39]all the way out through the crowded,
[11:55.69]bumpy, littery parking lot,
[11:57.57]and then you have to drive
[11:58.76]all the way home through
[11:59.82]slow, heavy, SUV-intensive,
[12:01.35]rush-hour traffic,
[12:02.82]et cetera et cetera.
[12:05.08]Everyone here has done this,
[12:06.28]of course.
[12:07.25]But it hasn't yet been part
[12:08.22]of you graduates' actual life routine,
[12:10.66]day after week after month after year.
[12:14.36]But it will be.
[12:16.97]And many more dreary,
[12:18.12]annoying, seemingly
[12:19.40]meaningless routines besides.
[12:22.26]But that is not the point.
[12:23.59]The point is that petty,
[12:24.57]frustrating crap
[12:25.73]like this is exactly
[12:26.85]where the work of choosing
[12:28.62]is gonna come in.
[12:30.29]Because the traffic jams
[12:31.42]and crowded aisles
[12:32.59]and long checkout lines
[12:33.95]give me time to think,
[12:35.87]and if I don't make a conscious decision
[12:37.54]about how to think
[12:38.66]and what to pay attention to,
[12:40.14]I'm gonna be pissed
[12:41.26]and miserable every time
[12:42.82]I have to shop.
[12:44.39]Because my natural default setting
[12:46.07]is the certainty that situations
[12:47.68]like this are really all about me.
[12:50.47]About MY hungriness
[12:51.53]and MY fatigue
[12:52.74]and MY desire to just get home,
[12:54.87]and it's going to seem
[12:55.83]for all the world
[12:56.85]like everybody else is just
[12:58.28]in my way.
[13:00.25]And who are all these people
[13:01.59]in my way?
[13:02.52]And look at how repulsive most
[13:03.99]of them are,
[13:04.97]and how stupid
[13:05.73]and cow-like and dead-eyed
[13:06.81]and nonhuman they seem in the checkout line,
[13:09.39]or at how annoying
[13:10.29]and rude it is that people
[13:11.43]are talking loudly on cell phones
[13:12.89]in the middle of the line.
[13:14.50]And look at how deeply
[13:15.47]and personally unfair this is.
[13:19.50]Or, of course,
[13:20.17]if I'm in a more socially conscious
[13:21.89]liberal arts form
[13:22.95]of my default setting,
[13:24.02]I can spend time
[13:25.24]in the end-of-the-day traffic
[13:26.42]being disgusted about all the huge,
[13:28.71]stupid,
[13:29.24]lane-blocking SUV's
[13:30.43]and Hummers
[13:31.34]and V-12 pickup trucks,
[13:33.24]burning their wasteful,
[13:34.32]selfish, 40-gallon tanks of gas,
[13:37.31]and I can dwell on the fact
[13:38.43]that the patriotic
[13:39.65]or religious bumper-stickers
[13:40.71]always seem to be on the biggest,
[13:42.13]most disgustingly selfish vehicles,
[13:44.56]driven by the ugliest
[13:52.25]this is an example
[13:52.91]of how NOT to think,
[13:55.85]though most disgustingly selfish vehicles,
[13:57.72]driven by the ugliest,
[13:58.91]most inconsiderate
[14:00.05]and aggressive drivers.
[14:01.62]And I can think about
[14:02.32]how our children's children
[14:03.51]will despise us for wasting
[14:04.82]all the future's fuel,
[14:06.30]and probably screwing up the climate,
[14:07.86]and how spoiled and stupid
[14:09.24]and selfish and disgusting we all are,
[14:11.38]and how modern consumer society
[14:14.06]just sucks, and so on and so forth.
[14:16.92]You get the idea.
[14:17.95]If I choose to think this way
[14:19.49]in a store and on the freeway,
[14:21.03]fine. Lots of us do.
[14:24.97]Except thinking this way
[14:26.18]tends to be so easy
[14:27.30]and automatic that it doesn't
[14:28.47]have to be a choice.
[14:30.16]It is my natural default setting.
[14:32.60]It's the automatic way
[14:33.87]that I experience the boring,
[14:35.34]frustrating, crowded parts
[14:37.38]of adult life when I'm operating
[14:39.43]on the automatic,
[14:40.49]unconscious belief
[14:41.75]that I am the centre of the world,
[14:43.21]and that my immediate needs
[14:44.89]and feelings are
[14:45.86]what should determine the world's priorities.
[14:48.03]The thing is that,
[14:48.91]of course,
[14:49.57]there are totally different ways
[14:50.53]to think about these kinds of situations.
[14:53.22]In this traffic,
[14:54.44]all these vehicles stopped
[14:55.96]and idling in my way,
[14:57.68]it's not impossible
[14:59.09]that some of these people
[15:00.26]in SUV's have been
[15:01.43]in horrible auto accidents
[15:02.44]in the past,
[15:03.41]and now find driving
[15:04.47]so terrifying that their therapist
[15:06.00]has all but ordered them
[15:07.42]to get a huge, heavy SUV
[15:09.10]so they can feel safe enough to drive.
[15:12.19]Or that the Hummer
[15:12.90]that just cut me off is
[15:14.02]maybe being driven
[15:15.10]by a father whose
[15:16.03]little child is hurt or sick
[15:17.55]in the seat next to him,
[15:19.06]and he's trying to get this kid
[15:20.13]to the hospital,
[15:21.26]and he's in a way bigger,
[15:22.33]more legitimate hurry
[15:23.49]than I am
[15:24.62]it is actually I who am in HIS way.
[15:28.32]Or I can choose to force myself
[15:29.79]to consider the likelihood
[15:31.05]that everyone else
[15:31.86]in the supermarket's checkout line
[15:33.09]is just as bored
[15:34.37]and frustrated as I am,
[15:36.47]and that some of these people
[15:37.54]probably have harder,
[15:38.61]more tedious and painful lives than I do.
[15:42.87]Again, please don't think
[15:44.44]that I'm giving you moral advice,
[15:46.26]or that I'm saying you are supposed
[15:47.43]to think this way,
[15:48.24]or that anyone expects you
[15:49.24]to just automatically do it.
[15:51.07]Because it's hard.
[15:52.71]It takes will and effort,
[15:54.69]and if you are like me,
[15:55.89]some days you won't be able to do it,
[15:58.23]or you just flat out won't want to.
[16:00.76]But most days,
[16:01.99]if you're aware enough
[16:03.10]to give yourself a choice,
[16:04.26]you can choose
[16:05.44]to look differently at this fat,
[16:07.06]dead-eyed, over-made-up lady
[16:08.33]who just screamed at her kid
[16:10.24]in the checkout line.
[16:12.17]Maybe she's not usually like this.
[16:14.11]Maybe she's been up
[16:15.18]three straight nights
[16:16.29]holding the hand of a husband
[16:17.51]who is dying of bone cancer.
[16:19.54]Or maybe this very lady is
[16:20.91]the low-wage clerk
[16:22.08]at the motor vehicle department,
[16:23.32]who just yesterday
[16:24.65]helped your spouse resolve a horrific,
[16:26.43]infuriating, red-tape problem
[16:28.60]through some small act
[16:30.03]of bureaucratic kindness.
[16:32.26]Of course,
[16:32.77]none of this is likely,
[16:33.77]but it's also not impossible.
[16:36.21]It just depends
[16:37.17]what you want to consider.
[16:39.03]If you're automatically sure
[16:40.66]that you know what reality is,
[16:43.03]and who and what is really important,
[16:45.32]if you wanna operating
[16:46.33]on your default setting,
[16:47.49]then you, like me,
[16:49.27]probably won't consider possibilities
[16:51.08]that aren't annoying and miserable.
[16:54.01]But if you really learn
[16:54.77]how to think,
[16:56.75]how to pay attention,
[16:58.27]then you will know
[16:59.61]you have other options.
[17:01.17]It will actually be within your power
[17:03.26]to experience a crowded,
[17:04.98]hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation
[17:09.02]as not only meaningful,
[17:10.40]but sacred, on fire with the same force
[17:13.69]that made the stars
[17:15.07]love, fellowship,
[17:16.99]the mystical oneness
[17:18.46]of all things deep down.
[17:21.46]Not that that mystical stuff
[17:22.68]is necessarily true.
[17:23.95]The only thing
[17:24.66]that's capital-T True
[17:25.82]is that you get to decide
[17:27.80]how you're gonna try to see it.
[17:30.13]This, I submit,
[17:31.16]is the freedom
[17:32.33]of a real education,
[17:33.77]of learning how to be well-adjusted.
[17:36.19]You get to consciously decide
[17:37.51]what has meaning
[17:38.67]and what doesn't.
[17:40.49]You get to decide what to worship.
[17:43.83]Because here's something else
[17:45.80]that's weird but true
[17:47.69]in the day-to-day trenches
[17:48.95]of adult life,
[17:49.95]there is actually no such thing
[17:51.58]as atheism.
[17:53.14]There is no such thing
[17:54.15]as not worshipping.
[17:55.62]Everybody worships.
[17:57.74]The only choice we get
[17:58.85]is what to worship.
[18:01.03]And the compelling reason
[18:02.30]for maybe choosing some sort
[18:03.92]of god or spiritual-type thing
[18:05.73]to worship
[18:07.14]be it JC or Allah,
[18:08.57]be it YHWH
[18:09.65]or the Wiccan Mother Goddess,
[18:11.11]or the Four Noble Truths,
[18:12.28]or some inviolable set of ethical principles
[18:15.11]is that pretty much anything else
[18:16.48]you worship will eat you alive.
[18:19.51]If you worship money and things,
[18:21.70]if they are where you tap
[18:22.91]real meaning in life,
[18:24.54]then you will never have enough,
[18:26.45]never feel you have enough.
[18:28.45]It's the truth.
[18:30.07]Worship your own body
[18:31.13]and beauty and sexual allure
[18:32.81]and you will always feel ugly.
[18:35.04]And when time and age start showing,
[18:36.88]you will die a million deaths
[18:38.66]before they finally grieve you.
[18:41.09]On one level,
[18:42.05]we all know this stuff already.
[18:43.37]It's been codified as myths,
[18:45.25]proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables;
[18:49.41]the skeleton of every great story.
[18:52.69]The whole trick is keeping
[18:54.26]the truth up front in daily consciousness.
[18:57.55]Worship power,
[18:58.81]you will end up feeling weak
[19:00.29]and afraid,
[19:01.50]and you will need
[19:02.26]ever more power
[19:02.91]over others to numb you
[19:04.39]to your own fear.
[19:06.00]Worship your intellect,
[19:07.47]being seen as smart,
[19:08.63]you will end up feeling stupid,
[19:10.76]a fraud, always on the verge
[19:12.95]of being found out.
[19:15.81]Look the insidious thing
[19:16.87]about these forms of worship
[19:17.88]is not that they're evil or sinful,
[19:19.75]it's that they're unconscious.
[19:22.14]They are default settings.
[19:24.28]They're the kind of worship you
[19:25.28]just gradually slip into,
[19:27.06]day after day,
[19:28.17]getting more and more selective
[19:29.58]about what you see
[19:30.64]and how you measure value
[19:31.95]without ever being fully aware
[19:33.37]that that's what you're doing.
[19:35.65]And the so-called real world
[19:37.21]will not discourage you
[19:38.58]from operating on your default settings,
[19:40.52]because the so-called real world
[19:42.48]of men and money
[19:44.15]and power hums merrily
[19:45.93]along on feel of fear
[19:47.80]and anger and frustration
[19:49.06]and craving and worship of self.
[19:51.93]Our own present culture has harnessed
[19:53.66]these forces in ways
[19:54.87]that have yielded extraordinary
[19:56.14]wealth and comfort
[19:57.55]and personal freedom.
[19:59.93]The freedom all to be lords
[20:01.25]of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms,
[20:03.82]alone at the centre of all creation.
[20:06.55]This kind of freedom
[20:08.18]has much to recommend it.
[20:10.40]But of course there are
[20:11.41]all different kinds of freedom,
[20:13.23]and the kind that is most precious
[20:14.66]you will not hear much talk about
[20:16.32]much in the great outside world
[20:18.10]of wanting and achieving and displaying.
[20:21.58]The really important kind
[20:22.64]of freedom involves attention
[20:25.07]and awareness and discipline,
[20:28.00]and being able truly
[20:29.07]to care about other people
[20:30.29]and to sacrifice for them
[20:31.95]over and over in myriad petty,
[20:34.53]unsexy ways every day.
[20:37.57]That is real freedom.
[20:39.44]That is being educated,
[20:41.46]and understanding how to think.
[20:44.14]The alternative is unconsciousness,
[20:46.46]the default setting,
[20:47.83]the rat race,
[20:49.25]the constant gnawing sense
[20:51.04]of having had,
[20:52.05]and lost,
[20:53.06]some infinite thing.
[20:56.19]I know that this stuff
[20:57.01]probably doesn't sound fun
[20:58.07]and breezy or grandly inspirational
[21:00.14]the way a commencement speech
[21:01.46]is supposed to sound.
[21:03.13]What it is,
[21:03.95]as far as I can see,
[21:05.06]is the capital-T Truth,
[21:06.52]with a whole lot
[21:07.89]of rhetorical niceties stripped away.
[21:09.82]You are, of course,
[21:10.98]free to think of it whatever you wish.
[21:14.21]But please don't just dismiss it
[21:15.79]as just some finger-wagging
[21:17.05]Dr Laura sermon.
[21:18.42]None of this stuff is really
[21:20.29]about morality or religion
[21:22.42]or dogma or big fancy questions
[21:24.85]of life after death.
[21:26.57]The capital-T Truth
[21:27.48]is about life BEFORE death.
[21:30.97]It is about the real value
[21:32.13]of a real education,
[21:33.90]which has almost nothing
[21:35.07]to do with knowledge,
[21:36.13]and everything to do with simple awareness
[21:40.12]awareness of what is so real and essential,
[21:42.55]so hidden in plain sight
[21:44.53]all around us,
[21:45.49]all the time,
[21:46.60]that we have to keep reminding ourselves
[21:48.22]over and over:
[21:49.83]This is water.
[21:51.87]This is water.
[21:55.25]It is unimaginably hard
[21:56.68]to do this,
[21:57.89]to stay conscious
[21:58.80]and alive in the adult world
[22:00.63]day in and day out.
[22:02.77]Which means yet another grand cliché
[22:04.90]turns out to be true
[22:06.36]your education really
[22:07.57]IS the job of a lifetime.
[22:10.10]And it commences: now.
[22:13.29]I wish you way more than luck.

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名人演讲:This is Water 这就是水[大卫·福斯特·华莱士]

This is Water 这就是水 ——David Foster Wallace 大卫·福斯特·华莱士

This is Water 这就是水
——David Foster Wallace 大卫·福斯特·华莱士