Individual or the general people? |
||
|
TOPIC: ISSUE48 - "The study of history places too much emphasis on individuals. The most significant events and trends in history were made possible not by the famous few, but by groups of people whose identities have long been forgotten." WORDS: 573 TIME: 00:45:00 DATE: 2008-8-13 11:23:03
In this issue, the author compains that we put too much emphasis on individuls when studying history, however, it is the group of people not just those specific heros who made the history. Ignoring the majority of the people who sacrifice their lives for the their country is definitely unfair to them all. While, in my point of view, I agree with the author's opinion that success in history cannot be achieved without the devotion of the majority of people, yet, it's impossible to study each individual when exploring the facts happened in the past. It's a pratical method to refer to the famous few who can best represent the wholly group.
We can never deny that without the great efforts made by each individul in those significant events and trends, the team of the group can never achieve their goals. The famous scentists, Newton, once said, as I paraphrase: I succeed on the shoulder of those great scientists who had done the same experiment before me. It's true that it is Newton who discovered the famous law of gravity . Yet, as himself recognized, without the theories our ansstor have discoveried and explored, he could not get the stimulation to come up with the significant thought in natrue. Things are the same when fighting for the independence of one's country. In the year 1949, Chinese people had successfully won the Anti-Janpanese War and set up an indepent country ever since. We cannot owe all of the success made by Chairman Mao or the public coucil, without the contribution of all the Chinese people, there would be no China as today.
On the other hand, we should also recognized that if ever we would like to study history or explor those unknow facts happened in the past, we have to select someone who can better represent the majority of the people's thought. Only in this way can we get information with high efficiency. For example, whenever we think of the movement fighting for the freedom of Indians, we think of the brilliant leader Mahatma Gandhi. He took the first step standing out, gathering the people who had the same dissatisfactory with England Rij. His thoughts and innovations is a representive sample of all the Indians who joined the movements. Therefore, by studying the life of Mahatma Gandhi. We can know a lot of the famous and historical events. Otherwise, collecting tiny information of each individual who took part in the fight, is impossible for the people nowadays to form a clear picture of the situations then.
What the author worries about may lead side-effect to our society. For some time, we do put too much emphasis on individuals while take no consideration to the others in the group. This kind of phenomeno encourage people to be more aggressive and more fierce if ever they are longling for being remembered by history. In order to get the high social status or stand out among millions of people, they may take some extreme efforts which may do harm to the rights of the others. Dishonesty or cheating may damage the healthy atmosphere of our society. Such, when appreicating the couragement and brilliant individuals , we should also show our respects to every one invoved in those significant events.
In sum, the opinion of the author is partly right, but it is a great method when studying history or those mavelous events happened in the past.
那些古老的例证...
|
||
|
|
|
