issue203 【红尘笑看沧桑】互改小组第9次作业 by luxixi

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ISSUE 203

Social science, which involves customs, environment and human behaviors, is a kind of complicated science. And many social scientists are joined together to find out the best way to understand the best way to understand the character of a society. The author gives us a suggestion to examine the character of the heroes and heroines of the society. In my point of view, however, although I believe that the author gives us an effective way to detect the character of the society, maybe it is not the best way.

Admittedly, the heroes and heroines can reflect the valuable spiritual characteristics of a society. The reason why these men and women are admired and respected usually is that they have overcome some kinds of difficulties, and make some great achievements in some specific aspects. Form the heroic individuals, common people can understand the importance of persistence, patience and determination. Take the famous athletes as an example, their success is based on hard work from childhood, and they have to stand physical and psychological burden ever since. If we want to learn the character of a society through the examination of the characters of the athletes, we will get the information that persistence and hard work are regarded as significant characteristics. So it is really a good method for the social scientists to learn the values and feature of a society.

However, it is not the best method, as spiritual character cannot be regarded as the whole character of a society, and there are many other good ways to explore the nature of a society. If we want to learn deeply about the character of a society, we have to be familiar with its history, political and legal system, and diplomatic strategies. And only from these can we understand fully the essential social feature. From the national history, we can understand the reasons of the current social structure and political pattern. Just take US for instance, without the necessary knowledge about the civil war, perhaps we cannot realize that searching for racial equality has been one of the social values from hundreds of years. From the political and legal system, we can learn whether the social is democratic. And from the diplomatic strategies, we will find out whether peace is the goal of the society. These features, however, cannot be replaced by merely studying the character of great men or women.

Meanwhile, there is also a tough problem about whether the great names are admired by the whole society and then from the eyes of the fans we can read the treasured characters? The answer is sometimes not. In a society with excessive disparities in wealth, while the modern youths are crazy about some handsome heroic actors, the poor are still struggle against disease and hungry. The media, however, is sometimes the tool of the wealth and we cannot hear the voices of the poor. If this is the case, it is entirely meaningless to examine the character of the heroes or heroines.

In sum, although I do not deny that the suggestion given by the author is a good one, as its own limitation, I cannot regard it as the best way to learn the character of a society.