Humans aren't as good as we should be in our capacity to empathize with feelings and thoughts of others, be they humans or other animals on Earth.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes humanity's shortcomings in empathizing with others, including both people and animals.
Neil Degrasse Tyson's quote highlights a critical aspect of human nature, pointing out that our ability to empathize with the feelings and thoughts of others is often lacking. This lack of empathy extends not only to fellow humans but also to other animals on our planet, suggesting that we have yet to fully realize our potential for compassion and understanding, which is essential for fostering better relationships and a more harmonious existence.
In practice
In a discussion about animal rights, this quote could illustrate the need for greater empathy toward all living beings.
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.
Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behaviour and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.
We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.
The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.
When you play a game of thrones you win or you die.
Our individual life is brief, and perhaps the whole life of mankind will be brief if measured in astronomical scale
If you caught your kid raising cats in tiny boxes, forcing them to live in their own feces without clean air or sunlight, pulling their teeth and claws out with pliers to keep them from hurting each otherβ¦youβd rush him to a psychiatrist. But you support that very behavior every time you buy meat, eggs, dairy or fur.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.