Issue 19 l-sunshine来看看吧。
Issue 19"If a society is to thrive, it must put its own overall success before the well-being of its individual citizens."
Does a society have to place its own global success for prospect superior to the interests of its individual citizens? The speaker maintains that and I fundamentally agree. However, this claim should carry with some caveat, or it will otherwise be unduly extended to a dangerous degree and risk the democracy of a society.
First of all, conflicts between the interests of the society and that of its citizens are naturally inevitable for the two kinds of interests stand in disparate levels. The former consists of macroeconomics, policy, and so forth. It concerns how most people live and work. One specific individual seldom has enough reason to outstand among the majority. On the other hand, the latter interests concerns well-being of one himself/herself and people around him/her as well. It is undeniable that there abounds with disagreements, discord and conflicts between individuals due to restraint of resources nearly everywhere. The interests of a society is a mixture of these trivial units, and therefore has a different color from those of unrepresentative persons. Laws, policies, ethics and mores of a society should keep a consistent identity. If they tried to be harmonious with every citizen, they would have to deny themselves because of unbearable self-contradictions.
If justly qualified with reasonable definition, range and measure, pursuing the overall interests of a society will result in beneficial return to more people at the worthy expense of a few individuals. In fact, it is a society's function to coordinate different moves of people for a macroscopic aim. Let some people lag behind while more other advance, and in next step it is another group's turn, in the way how we move our legs as we walk. That is a necessary trade-off for the whole society go ahead on and on. For example, at the beginning of China's economic and politic reform, Chairman Deng Xiaoping wisely proposed a slogan: "let a part of people get richer first". The rise of these people hurt feelings of many others, who were too accustomed with the old society where people had been poor but equal. However, such hurt later turns into powerful stimulation of the majority and the new, advanced and flourishing Market Economy has been successfully built, which makes more and more people much richer than before.
The relationship between society and its citizens can be perfectly assimilated to that between a body and its cells. Cells build up a body while the body's health is superior to that of a single cell. If a body does exercises, some cells will exert to death. If a body gets ill, pills and treatment may kill a considerable number of cells. In some cases, to save the whole body, an organ with countless cells will has to be cut off. No commonsensical person will object these actions for the health of a body. Then few well-founded reasons can one offer to disapprove the rational and legitimate pursuit of a society's success over its citizens' well-being.
Nevertheless, I need to caution that the superiority of societal global interests should not be allowed to go too far. Such proper function of a society to make trade-offs among its people may jump to its opposite if unduly used by some politicians and alike for their prejudice and selfishness. Any group manipulating the government, media or other social interest server in the name of society, will trespass upon other groups and thus the real interests of society will get loss. That is just like a man who drinks and smokes too much for paralyzing pleasure and consequently breaks his health down.
In sum, the claim for a society to put its overall interests first before that of its individual citizens is chiefly legitimate. The nature and function of society decides its necessity. In the final analysis, however, society should not allow its power to sacrifice its people cross the line of legitimacy and degrade itself into a tool of some group in their own interests. 你说得怎么像是别人的东西呢？
我的逻辑主线是：本质上个人和社会的利益有何相通和不同；举例说明适度合理地追求社会整体利益，能以少数的个人利益换取更大的个人利益；用比喻说明个人和社会的利益关系；提醒社会利益不能成为少数集团的幌子。
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