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There's a lot of cruelty going on all the time, and I'm not just talking about inter-human cruelty. I'm talking about whole species becoming extinct, asteroids hitting planets, black holes gobbling up stars.
Barbara Ehrenreich
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote highlights the pervasive cruelty in both human interactions and the natural world, emphasizing the extinction of species and cosmic events.

Barbara Ehrenreich's quote reflects on the various forms of cruelty that exist beyond just human behavior. It acknowledges the harsh realities of nature, such as species extinction and destructive cosmic events, suggesting that cruelty is an inherent part of both human and natural history.

Themes

CrueltyNatureExtinctionCosmic EventsHuman Behavior

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about environmental conservation, one might say, 'As Barbara Ehrenreich reminds us, there's a lot of cruelty in nature that we cannot ignore.'

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Well I do think there are people who are habitually negative and depressed and take the opposite approach because they imagine the worst, and their minds become dominated by that. They let their own emotions and expectations transform their perceptions of the world.
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Some of us still get all weepy when we think about the Gaia Hypothesis, the idea that earth is a big furry goddess-creature who resembles everybody's mom in that she knows what's best for us. But if you look at the historical record - Krakatoa, Mt. Vesuvius, Hurricane Charley, poison ivy, and so forth down the ages - you have to ask yourself: Whose side is she on, anyway?
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I would never call myself a cancer survivor because I think it devalues those who do not survive. There's this whole mythology that people bravely battle their cancer and then they become survivors. Well, the ones who don't survive may be just as brave, you know, just as courageous, wonderful people.
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