It's fascinating that Wallace could make such beautiful observations and then define his own reality without anyone noticing. It is about religion and beliefs -- that is where empathy as the desired behavior comes from. Religion, specifically Christianity, is where all of mankind has been instructed away from the default setting as the new ideal. Here's Chesterton on suicide. Juxtapose it with Wallace's video and you find a man who never ever got off default mode yet was able to preach the truth anyway. Fascinating! "Not only is suicide a sin, it is the sin. It is the ultimate and absolute evil, the refusal to take an interest in existence; the refusal to take the oath of loyalty to life. The man who kills a man, kills a man. The man who kills himself, kills all men; as far as he is concerned he wipes out the world. His act is worse (symbolically considered) than any rape or dynamite outrage. For it destroys all buildings: it insults all women. The thief is satisfied with diamonds; but the suicide is not: that is his crime. He cannot be bribed, even by the blazing stones of the Celestial City. The thief compliments the things he steals, if not the owner of them. But the suicide insults everything on earth by not stealing it. He defiles every flower by refusing to live for its sake. There is not a tiny creature in the cosmos at whom his death is not a sneer. When a man hangs himself on a tree, the leaves might fall off in anger and the birds fly away in fury: for each has received a personal affront."

I went back and read the whole thing. Now I am convinced that he was insane at the time he wrote it. Anyone that truly tries to comprehend truth and beauty in this way is doomed to madness. His parable about the atheist, the religious fellow and the Eskimos is a perfect example of someone who fancies themselves to be so open minded but is truly completely closed off. He cites the question of God from both character's perspectives but never questions if he himself is God. Wallace can only be wrong or right -- never just a broken and lost man incapable of his own salvation. Sad.

Wow! This was beautifully well-done! I loved it. This is water.

Nice. Thanks for another great post Scott!