The speaker claims that the general welfare of a nation's people, rather than the achievements of famous individuals, is the surest indication of a great nation. In my view, a society overemphasizing the contribution of elites and overlooking the welfare of its people will eventually achieve little, for the ultimate goal of social progress is the general welfare of all members.
The speaker claims that the general welfare of a nation's people, rather than the achievements of famous individuals, is the surest indication of a great nation. I agree that a society should affirm those achievements, however, a society overemphasizing the contribution of the elites and overlooking the welfare of its people will eventually achieve little.
The speaker claims that the general welfare of a nation's people, rather than the achievements of famous individuals, is the surest indication of a great nation. This claim relies on the belief that those achievements and the welfare of members in that society are independent concepts which are somewhat irrelevant. In my view, however, contribution of elites of well-being of people are constantly interacting, and those achievements will eventually benefit social progress.
Without experience, human endeavors become aimless. Without a society that recognizes the importance of imagination, human world becomes colorless and eventually inefficient. Thus, while our social progress necessitates experience, imagination is equally important. Imagination promises us a future while experience ensures us not to go too far in the wrong direction.
Simply put, while our social progress necessitates experience, imagination is equally important. Imagination promises us a fantastic future while experience ensures us not to go too far in the wrong direction.
Simply put, while our social progress necessitates experience, imagination is equally important. A society can hardly meet the challenge of the future without any one of imagination and experience.
反证、重申立场、递进解释
Simply put, a society can hardly meet the challenge of the future without any one of imagination and experience. Thus, while our social progress necessitates experience, imagination is equally important.
Simply put, a society can hardly meet the challenge of the future without any one of imagination and experience. Thus, while our social progress necessitates experience, imagination is equality important. Imagination promises us a fantastic future while experience ensures us not to go too far in the wrong direction.
Although the issue of endangered-species protection is a complex one which involves moral duty and the comparative value of various life-forms, it would be irresponsible to hastily accept the statement that there is no need for societies to save endangered species. At least for the sake of our own survival, societies should pay more attention to the condition of animals and plants around us.
Simply put, whether an art work holds merit almost has nothing to do with the extent to which the work is understood. One who knows the very essence of art will agree that the true value of an art work could be determined in many different ways. Furthermore, in accepting the statement we take the risk that artists may pander to public taste, which will surely hinder real artistic progress.
I agree with part of the claim that scandals can call our attention in a distinctive way, but I cannot agree that scandals are useful because of this characteristic. On the contrary, scandals usually distract us from more pressing community or societal problems.
The reason for the distractive feature of scandals is that, people are too often attracted by the sensational effect of scandals, while ignoring the underlying issues behind them; or many scandals themselves are of little social significance in revealing deeper problems. At the community level, for example, several years ago the chancellor of a university located in my city was expelled from office for misusing university funds to renovate his posh residence. Every new development during the scandal became front-page news in the campus newspaper. But did this scandal serve any useful purpose? No. The scandal did not reveal any pervasive problem with university accounting practices, and did not result in any sort of useful system-wide reform. Rather, it was merely one incidence of petty misappropriation. MOreover, the scandal distracted the university community from far more important issues, such as affirmative action on campus safety, which were relegated to the second page of the campus newspaper during the scandal.
Even on a societal level, scandals can serve chiefly to distract us from more important matters. For example, time will tell whether the clinton sex scandal will benefit out political, social, or legal system. Admittedly, the scandal did call our attention to certain issues of federal law. It sparked a debate about the powers and duties of legal prosecutors, under the Independent Counsel Act, vis-a-vis the chief executive while in and out of office. And the various court rulings about executive privilege and immunity will serve useful legal precedents for the future. Even the impeachment proceedings will no doubt provide useful procedural precedent at some future time. Yet on balance, it seems to me that the deleterious effects of the scandal - in terms of the financial expense to taxpayers and the various harms to the many individuals caught up in the legal process - outweigh these benefits. More importantly, for more than a year the scandal served chiefly to distract us from most pressing national and global problems, such as the Kosovo crisis, and health -care reform, to name just a few.
Some people may argue that scandals can sometimes serve to call our attention to pervasive social or political problems that we would otherwise neglect. Perhaps the paradigmatic modern example is the Watergate scandal. Early in that scandal it would have been tempting to dismiss it as involving one isolated incidence of underhanded campaign tactics. But in retrospect the scandal forever increased the level of scrutiny and accountability to which our public officials are held, thereby working a significant and lasting benefit to the society. More recently, the Clinton-Gore fundraising scandal sparked a renewed call for campaign-finance reform. In fact the scandal might result in the passage of a congressional bill outlawing private campaign contributions altogether. thereby rendering presidential candidates far less susceptible to undue influence of special-interest group.
Though I admit that the society would be the clear beneficiary of the reforms cited above, yet these cases are still exceptional. To sum up, no one would deny that scandals can catch our eyes because of their very nature, but whether a scandal works more benefit than harm must be addressed on a case-by-case basis. For those scandals which have high relevance to the wider social interest or well-being , or which reveal significant social problems, they can serve to flag important social-political problems more effectively than speakers or reformers can. However, except for these few exceptional cases, scandals often serve to distract our attention from more crucial issues, and will become no more than conversation pieces at people's leisure time.