[Big Fish]02月26日Issue48--By sunny球球

sunny球UID: 2693880

TOPIC: ISSUE48 - "The study of history places too much emphasis on individuals. The most significant events and trends in history were made possible not by the famous few, but by groups of people whose identities have long been forgotten."



When comes to the issue about the famous few or the anonymous groups of people, who should be responsible for the significant events and trends in history, many people would stand on the side of the former as the speaker asserts. However, after a careful consideration, I hold the different opinion that we should emphasize on both the key historical figures and the mass people who have been long forgotten.

Admittedly, the mass anonymous people have played a pivotal role in our history and served as the basis power to make every progress to the society. Without the support and active participation of the groups of people, some outstanding thoughts and the daring endeavors of the famous few would never come true. Take the Chinese miracle Great Wall for instance. It was proposed by the first emperor of ancient Dynasty Qing, however, without thousands upon thousands labor forces, how can it be constructed and then shock the whole world? In the same way, how can the American President Lincoln achieved such great contributions to the democracy of America without the help of the north people and the slaves? We have to realize that the power of the nameless and faceless groups should not be neglected and it was the group effort that makes things different.

However, we should see that those common people have just followed their leader in the past and equally influence was made by the famous few to the history. These key individuals are those who have special abilities and superb leadership skills. Just like the catalyst of the society, they incite and inspire the people and lead them to improve their living conditions and therefore accelerate the development of the history.For example, under the lead of Roosevelt, all the partners in the part and people from every corner of the world got together and gained success in smoothing the Great Depression in US in the 1930's.We should not be narrow-sighted that the success was attributable not only to the people, but also to leader Roosevelt.

Furthermore, without the prestigious, we can imagine that the masses may lost in confusion and can not gain any results in the foregoing achievements in human history. Some major decisions, such as politic plans and physic theories , are better judged by the few celebrities and other skillful experts, who are more informed and thus have better judgment and perspectives, thus can lead us to the right destination. As we all know that, it is Chairman Mao, who lead Chinese people in the darkness and show them the way to gain their independence. It is Einstein who put forward Theory of Relativity and also gave a perfect interpretation of the photoelectric effect. It is Mozart who was talented in music and left the world with so many mellifluous compositions. Without these talented people, we may get progress as well, but our society would advance slower.

To sum up, our history is shaped by key individuals as well as groups of people whose identities have long been forgotten.While the ordinary people function as the basic power and the famous few act as catalyst, our society would move more quickly.