Issue211 我的第一篇~请筒子们尽情拍~

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“Any decision-whether made by government, by a corporation or by an individual person, must take into account future conditions more than present conditions.”

I agree with the speaker that under some circumstances it is crucial to take into account future conditions more when any decision is about to make. With more consideration for future condition, we may make adequate preparation for future development and create a better life for our descendants. However, we cannot simply ignore the present conditions in all conditions when making choices, otherwise, we prone to fail to meet with the emergent requirement at present and achieve no short-term success, which may be a crucial part for future prosperity.

From a practical point of view, it is fairly nature to put more emphasis on future conditions when making decisions, for the future development is crucial for us to prepare for the problems we may face later and to help our future generations to experience a better life. The example of the interdiction of non-degenerated plastic bag around the globe is a very persuasive fact to illustrate this point. The invention of plastic bag provides great convenience for our daily life. On the other hand, however, the plastic bag is very hard to degenerate thus posing great threat to the environment. To make sure that the nation won't become a victim of the environment disaster causing by the plastic bags, many countries, including Canada and Singapore, are preparing to make the plastic bags obsolete or have already make certain policy to ensure the interdiction of plastic bags, despite the convenience brought by them. Other countries are also seeking alternate materials to replace the plastic bags, although this action may cost more for the country. To lessen the existing environmental issues and create a more friendly future for later generations, the governments make a decision which put more considerations into future needs than nowadays convenience, proving that under certain circumstances it is necessary to focus on future requirement.

However, focusing only on future conditions may provide some negative effects when solving certain problems, both technically and ethnically. From the beginning of human society, the desire to invent perpetual motion machines has never vanished from the brains of inventors. From the "Magic Wheel" in 8th century to the “Motionless Electrical Generator " invented On March 26, 2002, human beings have never stopped to seeking a machine which may benefit greatly to the human society. We cannot deny that perhaps in the future we may find some new physics principles which make the perpetual motion machines possible, but at present, this kind of endeavor turns out to be a totally waste of resources, which may benefit more for people's basic needs such as food and drink. So rather than focus on the invention of a machine which is not even possible in nowadays theory, we can turn our attentions to some more emergent needs such as sanitation and poverty. The clone technology provides a bright future for elimination of human diseases, but whether we should focus our attention on this research is still open to doubt, for it is still under controversy if we can totally control the cloning process. In these two cases, we may well put less emphasis on future conditions and put them into nowadays need.

Putting attentions into present needs is necessary, maybe important in emergent situations, for us to cope with some issues that may require immediate response or with problems that may lead to future success. To manifest this point clearly, here's an example that is reasonable convincing. The Oil-for-Food program, established by United Nations in 1995, is intended to make Iraqi citizens’ life less affected by the international economic sanctions. We know that oil is a very important strategic resource which empowers a country's military troops. However, as the Iraqi people lack basic supplement of food and drink, the more pressing problem is to provide them enough daily supplement rather than to restore more oil for offensive purpose. So the government of Iraq agree this program, making the problem of food for Iraqi people less serious, thus the Iraqi people may become healthy enough to work for the country, providing certain possibilities that the country may one day able to solve the difficulty in food supply. This example clearly illustrate that thinking about pressing need is important in certain situations when making decisions.

In conclusion, while we must take future conditions into considerations when the problem we are dealing with is closely connected with the well-beings of our future generations, more attentions for present days’ requirement must be paid when we are dealing with situations of emergency to ensure our present basic need or with conditions that require immediate achievement in order to attain future success.