I dream of a world where the truth is what shapes people's politics, rather than politics shaping what people think is true.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of truth in politics, advocating for an honest foundation rather than manipulation.
Neil Degrasse Tyson's quote highlights the critical role that truth should play in shaping political perspectives. It warns against the danger of political agendas distorting people's understanding of reality, suggesting that a society grounded in truth will foster better decision-making and understanding among its citizens. In an era of misinformation, the call for truth as the basis of political thought is more relevant than ever.
In practice
This quote can be used in a political discussion to advocate for transparency and integrity in government.
The problem is that many people operate on the assumption that NASA should go to Congress every year with hat in hand and justify it every year. Well, I see it as the greatest economic driver that there ever was. Economic drivers don't need justification.
The press still thinks [global warming] is controversial. So they find the 1% of the scientists and put them up as if they're 50% of the research results. You in the public would have no idea that this is basically a done deal and that we're on to other problems, because the journalists are trying to give it a 50/50 story. It's not a 50/50 story. It's not. Period.
As a scientist, I want to go to Mars and back to asteroids and the Moon because I'm a scientist. But I can tell you, I'm not so naive a scientist to think that the nation might not have geopolitical reasons for going into space.
In just one year, the expenditure of of the U.S.'s military budget is equivalent to the entire 50-year running budget of NASA combined.
One of my great laments is that education today seems to have... be less about passion and more about process, more about tactic or technique.
Lots of people think, well, we're humans; we're the most intelligent and accomplished species; we're in charge. Bacteria may have a different outlook: more bacteria live and work in one linear centimeter of your lower colon than all the humans who have ever lived. That's what's going on in your digestive tract right now. Are we in charge, or are we simply hosts for bacteria? It all depends on your outlook.
Every human being in that case resembles Christ in his loneliness; and that is the hardest part, that's real hunger.
My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone.
Since I do not believe that there should be different recommendations for people living in the Bronx and people living in Manhattan, I am uncomfortable making different recommendations for my patients in Boston and in Haiti.
Let us treasure up in our soul some of those things which are permanent..., not of those which will forsake us and be destroyed, and which only tickle our senses for a little while.
The future of the world depends on how well we meet it.
In nothing do humans approach so nearly to the gods as doing good to others.
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