No matter how inured you get to atrocities, you're still always stunned and shocked by how cruel and wasteful Homo sapiens can be.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the persistent shock we feel when confronted with human cruelty, regardless of how desensitized we may become over time.
Steven Pinker highlights the inherent capacity for cruelty within humanity and suggests that, despite our exposure to numerous atrocities, the devastation inflicted by our own species remains jarring. This illustrates a paradox of desensitization: as we witness more suffering, the emotional impact can either diminish or, in certain moments, strike us anew with its harsh reality, reminding us of the moral responsibilities we hold.
In practice
In a discussion about human rights violations, this quote serves to remind us of the persistent nature of cruelty.
The foundation of individual rights is the assumption that people have wants and needs and are authorities on what those wants and needs are. If people's stated desires were just some kind of erasable inscription or reprogrammable brainwashing, any atrocity could be justified.
The linguistic clumsiness of tourists and students might be the price we pay for the linguistic genius we displayed as babies, just as the decrepitude of age in the price we pay for the vigor of youth.
If we are not to abandon values such as peace and equality, or our commitments to science and truth, then we must pry these values away from claims about our psychological makeup that are vulnerable to being proven false.
We adults protect ourselves with laws, police, workplace regulations and social norms and there is no conceivable reason why children should be left more vulnerable, other that laziness or callousness in considering what life is like from their point of view.
The idea that children are passive repositories to be shaped by their parents has been massively overstated. A child's peer group is a far greater determinant of its development and achievements than parental aspiration.
Reason is non-negotiable. Try to argue against it, or to exclude it from some realm of knowledge, and you've already lost the argument, because you're using reason to make your case. ... We don't "believe" in reason.
In countries where people have to flee their homes because of persecution and violence, political solutions must be found, peace and tolerance restored, so that refugees can return home. In my experience, going home is the deepest wish of most refugees.
The destiny of world civilization depends upon providing a decent standard of living for all mankind.
However important the struggle is and however much misery and poverty and degradation exist, we know that it cannot be more important than one human life.
If we believe that a person seeking refuge is to be pitied, feared, despised, and looked down upon, we are doing ourselves a disservice.
I will never tire of repeating this: what the poor need the most is not pity but love. They need to feel respect for their human dignity, which is neither less nor different from the dignity of any other human being.
In their greatest hour of need, the world failed the people of Rwanda.
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