欢迎拍作文 issue 99

crazyjooUID: 2805124

TOPIC: ISSUE99 - "In any realm of life-whether academic, social, business,

or political-the only way to succeed is to take a practical, rather than an

idealistic, point of view. Pragmatic behavior guarantees survival, whereas

idealistic views tend to be superseded by simpler, more immediate options."
WORDS:  605
TIME: 1:01:23
DATE: 2000-7-19 9:45:29




Is pragmatism the only way to succeed? The speaker claim so for the`reason that practical behavior guarantees survival while idealistic deportment doesn't. However, in my opinion, idealism is at least as important as pragmatism in most areas, no matter it be academics, social reform or politics.

Firstly, when it comes to today's universities, it is not uncommon to see that students who did not get high grade average in school, make much greater achievement after graduation than his or her classmates who usually got A or even A+. In fact, many students who we regard as earnest and clever ones, do not devote themselves to their major discipline because they only choose lucubrate disciplines rather than those disciplines where their interest really lie.This is understandable given the pressing employment rate. However, a truly academic achievement or discovery won't and cannot come out from those pragmatic students who only concern themselves with immediate need and short term survival, that is to say, making fully use of the existing things and survive in the current term, rather than take a serious consideration over the long term goals, which might seem to be idealist, such as, planning to improve the existing things or even create a substitute instead.

Secondly, let us turn to those social reformers. Admittedly, pragmatism let people recognize the hardship along the way to ultimate success and thus they can avoid those trap and have a good preparation for the tribulation. However, in most case, pragmatism usually leads to pessimism considering the extremely awful ordeal. And it is the idealists who incite the revolution and change the society as a whole. Without idealist leadership, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Saint Joan and America's founders, it is highly possible that America, India and France are still dominated by the aggressors. It is the idealist's notion of freedom, love, peace vitalized the torpid citizen. It is the idealist's the vision of an ideal society severs to be a strong motivation to impel the pessimist citizen to rebel the aggressors.

Finally, let us turn to politics area.It usually appears that many politician tend to maximize their politics achievement in the limited tenure in order to be re-elected. At first glance, it seems to be a good thing since most politician so pragmatic that they are trying to contribute as much as possible to the society. However, this sort of pragmatism would be hurtful in the long term respect because it lacks long term idealist plan and strategy. For instance, most soccer fans would laugh at the idealist goal settled by Japan Soccer Association, that is, to win the World Cup in 2050;after all, it is hard to predict which team will be the next World Cup champion,not to mention the World Cup held in 2050 . In contrast, China Soccer Association's is much more pragmatic. Get the admission to world cup is its ultimate goal. Despite the sharp contrast in the skill of these two national football , the more idealist one are getting more and more factual benefit from their idealist goal, to be more specific, their long term idealist strategy. The answer to this paradox lies in the different maneuvering of these two soccer associations. Japan Soccer Association pay high attention to the development of youth while China Soccer Association pour all its money to the current national team and have little interest in developing the youth players.As a result, Japanese are quickly approaching to their ultimate goal---the World Cup champion , while Chinese are struggling to get mere a admission to this tournament.

To sum up, idealism plays an important role in any realm of life. Pragmatism serves us well for its simpler, more immediate options. However, idealism is the very foundation upon which we human advances. Through idealism, we cherish our visions and dreams and finally make it reality.