I've heard this speech over and over again. In different classrooms, from different instructors. It is an excellent first time read. Really inspiring stuff, and for a couple of days after you hold your head up high and think, "I can be patient and understanding now. I'm more enlightened." I get why instructors pass it on to their students.
But I'm beginning to hate it.
What Wallace has to say is really fine, I mean, "A huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded." What an honest line! I completely support the notion that all individuals, myself included, learn and be frequently reminded to be more self aware.
But after too many listens, this speech begins to sound like a rap on the knuckles. "Be a better human." There must be other writers who have articulated this notion in a way that I haven't heard yet. Keeping this notion inspiring and fresh with different anecdotes might trick my brain into not thinking selfishly for longer.
Dunbar's Number is the theoretical limit of how many people we can be genuinely empathetic for. It's around 150. Anyone outside of that circle (sometimes referred to as the monkey sphere) is subconsciously organized as a non-human. While human beings are sentient and we are aware that all human beings are as complicated, intricate, and delicate as ourselves our biology really works against that. I think that the speech is important to hear, but I know what you mean about it having only temporary effects. I feel like it's impossible to really evolve beyond our inherent racism, sexism, xenophobia, and distrust of others and to just "be a better person". We as a species simply aren't smart/open-minded/understanding enough to exist effortlessly in a mindset without assumptions.
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