最后的战役 第一周 issue 208 by Elaine

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ISSUE 208 The way people look, dress, and act reveals their attitudes and interests. You can tell much about a society's ideas and values by observing the appearance and behavior of its people.
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A society's attitudes and values are reflected in the way its people talk, dress and behave. The connotation of this topic is that because of the strong influence a society casts on people, its members tend to act and think alike, if not exactly, at least share some characters. The speaker seems to agree with this idea. From my point of view, it is partly true, yet it is not always the case. It depends on a lot of factors, ranging from culture, internalization, and other forces.

There are some fundamental values that people share in the same society, for the bond of culture and tradition. Society affects people in innumerable ways even before people have noticed that. For instance, in some Middle Eastern countries, women always wear black robes which cover most parts of their bodies. While the situation is completely different in Europe: it is allowed for women and girls to choose color and type of clothes whatever they like and the fashion is always led by some prominent women. Black robes reflect the conservation of middle eastern women, then it can be naturally deducted that the society have set a lot of limits on them--in their value systems, women ought to accept the obligation to serve men and the submission to lose part of freedom. Similarly, an open-minded atmosphere and pursuit of beauty reveals from the dress of European women. It is the educations and surroundings that cultivate these two kinds of women. As everyone in a society cannot escape from the molding power of the larger society, in return, society can be seen in each member.

However, it is not always reliable to understand a society by looking at its people. Firstly, from the angle of the consistence of a society, in one which consists of people from various backgrounds, its nature is more difficult to tell by observing alone. Sometimes the tradition and culture of a society do not originate in itself or be brought about by the same group of people, but be cultivated by different groups. As a country known of its diversity caused both by history and modern trend of population fluxion, the America might be confused by her own personality. Immigrants from all over the world gather here and each has their own cultural marks: Chinese diverse a lot from Africa-Americans. Tolerance is not equal to assimilation. Traditional and cultural discrepancies do exist. To a certain degree, it is the right foundation of a vigorous nation. With the trend of internationalization, it is relatively hard to draw some communities' shared traits, especially in the cases of those international metropolitans, for the high degree of diversity.

Secondly, from the angle of the starting points of people's behavior, it also leads to some mistakes if the exterior points of people are regarded as a way to get to know a society. All the diplomats show the same sophistication and wisdom when they are deal with the international affairs, considering the benefits of their countries. Christians from all over the world behave similarly when they are in the churches according to the religious rules. Even though we cannot draw the conclusion that these people are all the same and the larger societies they coming resemble each other unless some pretty silly results are embraced. Therefore, if we take into the specific factor that affects a certain act, a society have less say upon its members' behavior. Now that it does not act as a guide, individual is no longer a miniature of society.

In conclusion, sometimes it is proper to outline a society through its people, for the similarities they share. While in other occasions it is not an effective way. When the evergrowing impression of internationalization and other forces which direct people's behavior are taken into account, the situation is far more complex.