Issue 41, 真诚请求指教，很快上考场！

jacobwang123

It is common that we regard certain people as “Great Men”, normally due to their outstanding contribution in scientific field, or fundamental work to begin an age of literature, even countless extraordinary leading skills during those battles defending a country. The question is why and how do we do this? Is there any standard of evaluation of the greatness? There is a view that the greatness of individuals can be decided only by those who live after them instead of their contemporaries. Personally speaking, this opinion is totally biased, since it overlook the basic rules and objectiveness of the evaluation of individuals.

Firstly, there is a concept that needs defining carefully—what is greatness? We tend to regard the substantial contribution of an individual as the common criteria. What is ironic, however, is that we also compliment certain people without real contribution or promote the development of history. Generally, these people might have done something that inspire other with their strong wills, sincere social volunteering work, or even something as a disable man impossible for healthy people, like Pistorius. Even beyond these people, it is logical to call some people we ignore even unaware of their name as great people. For instance, countless Mr. and Mrs. Nobody behind the bright halo of those “great men”, who prepare all the indispensable work for the achievements of greatness. Even those people in everyday jobs, such as cleaning the sewer of cities, devoting lives teaching poor children in villages, and risk own lives and families to fight crime, reasonably deserve the title “greatness”. However, no matter contemporaries or people after them, few of them have tried to admit their greatness. Therefore, with a blur definition of greatness, there is no meaning to discuss who has right to evaluate great people.

Even if there is a standard for labeling individual’s standing, role in the history or other evaluation, it is still wrong to arbitrary claim that those live after them are more qualified than their peers, due to different perspectives, focuses and references. Admittedly, For those who live after the great people, the influence of the greatness could examined by time. Van Gogh, Schubert, and other countless people representing greatness used to be ignored by the world when they were alive but recognized after decades even centuries. However, lacking of sufficient historical information or affected by political power, some evaluation from the later generation could be biased. For instance, it is widely known that Martin Luther King’s brave and sight significantly promoted African American’s civil right movement, while later generation are seldom aware of his extramarital affair which marred his image with glory. Furthermore, the contribution to fight Japanese invaders and defending of universal value of Zhongzheng Jiang are still unrecognized by Chinese people after more than half century due to the biased agitation from present ruling party.

To sum up, the argue that the greatness of individuals can be decided only by those who live after them instead of their contemporaries is unreasonable. It is fine to regard certain people as great men under sufficient analysis. And the evaluation from the contemporaries and the later generation are both valid since they could provide different some references in a logical way.