When reflecting on David Foster Wallace’s speech and the reading concerning the beginnings of rhetoric and rhetoricians there are many shared characteristics which help to both explain and delve further into the concept of rhetoric and other closely related ideals. One of the main points mentioned within Wallace’s speech is the idea of being aware and noticing others instead of being transfixed on ourselves. The same concept can be seen in rhetoric, we must know our audience and understand their perceptions concerning a particular topic before we can talk on it. We must write “to the issues of the day to move hearts and minds” and the only way to do that is to become more open and truly take time to think about the people around us and the society we live in (Cline, 2006). Furthermore, Wallace discusses the fact that we shouldn’t judge the people around us and instead we should be able to get to know them, so that when we make conversations and discuss ideas we can in turn “help mankind arrive at transcendent truth” (Cline, 2006).
Consequently, by stopping to reflect on our lives and the people surrounding us we can gain a better understanding as to what our purpose is and how we can convey our message to others. We must also learn to go against our “natural default setting”, the innate calibration inside ourselves, which tells us to act and think a certain way. We must instead focus on the “energy of language” and observe the fact that there is power within our words and it is up to us to choose how we want to utilize this awesome ability which predates us in every way. This is the core message within David Foster Wallace’s speech, the idea of making a choice, and it may not always be the right one, but in time we will all get there. Similar to the start of Democracy and the stepping stones made possible by Solon, if we consider the possibilities and think outside of our own little world, we will be able to connect with people on a broader scale and in turn become better rhetoricians. 
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