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TOPIC: ISSUE41 - "Such nonmainstream areas of inquiry as astrology, fortune-telling, and psychic and paranormal pursuits play a vital role in society by satisfying human needs that are not addressed by mainstream science."
WORDS:509 TIME: 02:00:00 DATE: 2008-2-1 16:46:36
The speaker asserts that non-mainstream areas play a vital role in society because they satisfy human needs. I agree that astrology, fortune-telling, and psychic and paranormal pursuits address certain basic needs. However, it does not take into account the significant negative effects of non-mainstream, which may far outweigh their psychological benefits.
One reason for my fundamental agreement with the speaker is that people could gain peace and secure sense from these non-mainstream areas. As the rapid pace of the science and technology, competition now is much heavy and brutal than ever before. No matter what jobs the people take, they will suffer from stress from all directions. Take a company's leader for example, he has to make the right decisions in infinite choices, compete with his opponent and bring profits for a firm's shareholders or other owners. He has to face with stress everyday. He may find comfort in astrology books because some pieces of advice seem reasonable and feasible in the reality or even bring an inspiration about the business strategy for his company. These frustrations cannot easily be relieved by mainstream science, for they are usually rigid and even cold. In short, the non-mainstream areas could bring comfort for people when they are depressed by frustration imposed by the reality.
Another reason why I essentially agree with the speaker is that non-mainstream areas could respond to the people's curiosity about the future and unknown world. For instance, just have a glance at the weekly or monthly horoscope on newspapers and magazines, you could easy get the information about the constellation's fortune in the week or month to come. You even calculate your fate for the entire life. In the vague predictions of their destiny, people satisfy their curiosity in the future uncertainties; therefore they might be more confident and less anxiety about their future and work more effective.
Having recognized the benefits of the non-mainstream areas bring for the human, however, paying too much to them also have harmful effects, which we cannot neglect, to out society. When we pay too much attention on non-mainstream areas, it is entirely to trap in superstition which is not only harmful for individual, but also damage the society’s stability and harmony. For example, the Falungong organization in China is one king of heresies. When the believers of it fall ill, they do not go to hospital and take medicine, but believe that they will be cured by doing their Falun exercises. In order to enter their so-called paradise, they even commit suicide. So far, this organization has mined many families and taken the lives of many of its believers. Indisputably, paying too much attention to the non-mainstream areas would bring deleterious effects to the society.
In sum, I concede that non-mainstream areas satisfy certain basic needs for human. Nonetheless, to some extent, the speaker’s claim overstates the importance of these non-mainstream areas. In final analysis, in my view, the best approach to the problem is that we should better pay proper attention to the non-mainstreams, both the positive and negative ones.
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