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这篇写得异常艰难。。。。。提纲早就列好了思路换了好多次
41 The greatness of individuals can be decided only by those who live after them, not by their contemporaries.
Generally speaking, nearly everyone in the world has more or less influence on the development of the whole society. The behavior or achievements of some individuals could not only impact the contemporary society but also have profound influence on the modern civilization. While some other people might seem have nothing to do with their contemporary society but eventually promote the development of the later generations. In other words, anyone's behavior might have two different effects, the short-term effect or the long-term effect. Thus I basically agree with the statement that comparing to contemporaries, the later generations can be more objective and accurate to justify the social impact of the predecessors, but one that I could not fully support due to the “all or nothing” expression it gives.
As we all know that in the long river of history, many great individuals and their achievements could not be understood by the contemporaries. As it is said that great ideas are often advance the time. The phenomenon was extremely obvious in the area of science and philosophy. Such as Copernicus’ heliocentric theory, which eventually changed people’s value of the whole world and university, was regarded as a heterodox at that period. The alternating current, invented by Nikola Tesla, was counted as a dangerous threat to human lives. But it is obvious that the alternation current has become an indispensible part of our everyday life. With the development of science and technology, more and more early “heresies’ ”value have been excavated by the later generations, and predecessors’ greatness have also been approved.
In addition, comparing to the contemporaries, the later generations could not been influence by the press’ reports and advertises so that the great individuals judged by them can be more reliable. Taking the politicians as examples. Nearly every politicians in the history is controversial because their influence are various for different people and there is no standard for people to judge them. In general, the person in power is always called the great, especially in the period when democracy had not been spread. Contemporaries’ eyes were usually obscured by the superficial illusion. That is losers are always in the wrong. Like the Chairman Mao’s mistakes in the 1960s, which were finally be acknowledged by the authorities after his death, even though his greatness was enough to make up the flaws. Therefore only by many years later, when the authorities were changed, people could truly and objectively evaluate his or her records and influences.
In contrast, we cannot deny that many great achievements have been widely praised by their contemporaries, especially in the fields of art, literary, music and so on, which could be judged at face value. There is little later proved or disproved in these areas and also nothing about further knowledge or later technology. Thus the greatness of individuals in these areas was commonly approved by contemporaries and their achievements would never fade with the passage of time. For example, Da Vinci and his paintings, which were striking sin they were published, were regarded as the perfect representative of the renaissance Europe. His productions have influence on generations of people and still been respected until now. Thus it can be seen that the real great individuals would not be buried in time, and no matter when people approve their achievements, their influences would never be diminished.
To sum up, time tries all, including the greatness of individuals. The reason why the later generations could be more objective to determine the great is that they have more time than the contemporaries to examine the greats’ influences and achievements. |
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发表于 2012-10-12 18:17:59
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