What This 9,000,000-Copy Bestselling Novel Taught Me About the Greatness of Humanity
Whether it’s greatness or awfulness, you’ll find whatever you’re looking for.
“When I look at the ocean, I feel the greatness of man. I think of man’s magnificent capacity that created this ship to conquer all that senseless space. When I look at mountain peaks, I think of tunnels and dynamite. When I look at the planets, I think of airplanes.”
-Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
You know you’re a nerd when you have a favorite astrophysicist.
Anyway, my favorite is Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and I recall him saying something a few years ago that has never left me. This isn’t an exact quote, but he said something like:
“Most people look up at the infinity of stars in the sky and it makes them feel extremely small. But when I look up at the night sky, I feel big.”
In the same way, it’s so easy to look up at these massive skyscrapers we have, or consider all these unbelievable achievements that surround us every day and think that it somehow diminishes you, or that you’re so small compared to the great masterpieces of world literature and art, the futuristic technological advances that support our lives, etc. When in fact, that couldn’t be…
