Critical Thinking: Commencement Speech of David Foster

Critical Thinking
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Critical Thinking
The commencement speech that David Foster Wallace gave with “What is water?” being the main subject helps one re-visit how they should live life (Sullivan, 2013). Wallace mentions that the speech may not seem inspirational, but it is, to a great extent (Sullivan, 2013). In that speech, he helps the graduates and many people to date to understand the importance of how we choose to think. But the main aim of this essay is not to explore Wallace’s speech but to capture his reference to ‘water’ in an example.
The construction of rights is a perfect example of understanding what Wallace means when he extends the argument of ‘water.’ The fish in the water swim in it, but none seems to know what water is. It is a spectacular analogy for human ignorance. In my view, however, the construction of rights is a recognition of the ‘water,’ that is, what people are entitled to as humans. The bill of rights in our constitution basically recognizes what we are entitled to as citizens of the United States (U.S.). The same law is instituted in all the countries worldwide and even in the United Nations (U.N.). A few countries have failed to provide the full bill of rights to their citizens as required by the U.N., But it is clear that having rights is a universal thing.
The construction of rights was done because those who did it recognized that rights constituted human beings’ essentials. Without being told, one could recognize that another person had a right to life, a right to work, and a...