In a 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College, the late David Foster Wallace stated, “… 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. ...The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort ... .”
My earlier nascent resolve to limit the amount of brain power and emotional energy I expended thinking about the strife, hate, turmoil, pain and suffering in the world came about due to an overwhelming feeling of impotence. What could I do? What was I supposed to do with the information? It felt safer, easier, to simply ignore all of it. That decision didn’t last long—less than two months.
When the Egyptian uprising began, I turned to the Discovery or History channel. I wanted to be entertained not pummeled with a continual barrage of news and video concerning the revolt in Egypt, a country whose people and politics I knew almost nothing about. That decision didn’t last long—less than two days.
After reading many articles and watching the events as they unfolded, I felt much more informed. I chose to pay attention.
Using Wallace’s terminology, the meaning I constructed from this single experience is that it’s possible to be informed on an intellectual level while eschewing hateful diatribes and abominable, aggravating political posturing.
