Although Neil DeGrasse Tyson is
very knowledgeable about astronomy and all the things that go into it, I do not
think that his ideas are helpful for day-to-day life. In his essay,
“Cosmic Perspective” Tyson explains to his readers how he personally feels about
cosmic views. Tyson believes that “powerful people rarely do all they can to
help those who cannot help themselves.” I personally, do not think this is
true. Granted, there are many powerful people who do abuse their power, but
there are also many more powerful people that use their power for good, and use
their power to help the less fortunate people in this world. Tyson also writes
in a tone that seems like he is dominant above everyone and he is the only one
that is right about this certain field of study. I say this because when he
talks about the psychology professor from an Ivy League school, he begins to
doubt his expertise and go on to say “it’s the professor, not I, who has
misread nature”. This quote helps support my claim because he is basically
saying he does not believe his beliefs about space and astronomy could be even
one percent wrong.
If you were to look at Noah
Charney’s article “This is Your Brain on Art” and Tyson’s essay, “Cosmic
Perspective” you would be able to see that their views on this world are very
different. This is because Charney offers a more artistic way to look at life
and think “outside of the box”. Meanwhile, Taylor looks at the earth and sees
that we are not unique, and we are just merely “another planet orbiting the sun”.
I think Charney would argue that Earth is a unique place in this universe and
there are many things about Earth that make it diverse from every other planet,
which is what makes Earth so beautiful.
Although I agree with your point about people with high power abusing their ability, I think that certain people can only do so much to help. I definitely agree with most of your blog post, but there are just certain things that the author emphasized for a reason, such as your comment on his knowledge of space and astronomy. I think that Neil DeGrasse Tyson wrote the essay "Cosmic Perspective" to give his own insight to certain things, but still pertaining to him and his personal ideologies. He seems to be "dominant" because he wants to establish firm credibility as an author, which makes sense to me. In correlation to the other authors, his education obviously has more meaning to him than any other aspect in his life, which is why he incorporates it into his day-to-day thinking and how he looks at the world. I agree that this is important to establish to your audience so they know who you are as an author, but I do think that sometimes it doesn't make sense to put your studies in with your way of thinking because too much confidence could cloud your judgement.
ReplyDeleteWhile you do have some valid points that may suggest that Tyson is a bit of an aloof author, I don’t feel that it was his intent to appear or sound this way. He uses the phrase, “another planet orbiting the sun,” not to say that humanity isn’t special, but to take away from the notion that people are the greatest thing to happen to the universe. He seems concerned with seeing that we remember our humility, as he goes on to discuss our obsession with getting to a goal before someone else. He says, “The cosmic perspective reminds us that in space, there is no air, a flag will not wave - an indication that perhaps flag waving and space exploration do not mix." This seems to be an attempt to help us abandon pride, not just as a whole world, but also as individuals, giving us advice that we can immediately take away and apply to ourselves. Tyson seems very aware that while we can say that everyone is equal, there are still obvious differences in how people live and are treated. Tyson does not want us to feel that humanity isn’t something to behold, but more that we need to appreciate all of humanity, not just the parts that are easy to appreciate, or perhaps not to ignore humanity as a whole for a show about space.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your blog and I especially like how you compared "This is your brain on art" and "Cosmic Perspective", because it really does show how these two authors think about our world. They both see the world differently than one another but that is because we are human. We as humans have the ability to form our own opinion towards how we view our world rather than someone else's opinion. We all think differently and view things with a different perspective just like the two authors. I feel like Tyson may have a different perspective of this issue which is why he thinks he is correct or more dominant than the professor. I also agree with what you said about mans use of power. We as mankind have the power to make a positive impact on this Earth before we leave by helping others in a polite manner. In reality this isn't true because some people use their power in a negative way which often times can affect our society and tear us apart. This causes hate and more obligations for us to deal with in the future. So when we express our opinions and use our power to control things we need to take a step back and look at things from a new perspective just so we don't cause any damage to our society.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading your blog you do express some valid points on how there are more powerful people that help do good than those who don't. I would have to disagree though with your view on Neil DeGrasse Tyson I don't believe he meant to come off as more dominant than everyone else. He expresses phrases that make readers think about all the things around us and how inside of them are millions of other things live and work around us. I don't believe he meant to seem more important than anyone else just that he wanted us to consider the other life forms that live and work around us. In Cosmic Perspective Tyson does not mean to be seen as dominant he is an intelligent person who is experienced in matters such as these. He is an astrophysicist that has spent much of his time on this subject. So while he may come of as being dominant I think it is just because he has much insight that he wants to share with other people. Tyson expresses his views on how we see ourselves as a whole he goes on to tell us how when he went away he forgot about everything else around him not because he didn't care but because at the moment things like that didn't exist. Its not to show that he doesn't care about the struggles of other human beings just that there are some things besides us tha are greater when we look at it from a different view.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your blog and agreed with you 100 percent all the way through it. I too believe that Neil Degrasse Tyson came off a little too dominant. His tone was a little aggressive as he was trying to get his point across, almost like he was trying to give us the sense that he could not be wrong. I also agree with you when you say that you think that Charney would argue the fact t that the earth is a unique place and not at all just "another planet orbiting the sun". To me Tyson came off a tad bit arrogant. If I ever got the opportunity to meet him I would have so much to ask him about his article, not because I disagree with him but because some of thing he said were just a tad bit unrealistic to me. I actually do agree with some of the things he says in his article I just thinks he has a very weird way of proposing them. However, I do believe his article was more so on what he felt was true and not so much of proven facts.
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