Issue120【StruggleToTriumph】by_Letitia 2011.1.2

Letitia_DUID: 2970714

120"So much is new and complex today that looking back for an understanding of the past provides little guidance for living in the present."

The speaker claims that looking back for an understanding of the past provides little guidance for living in the present where so much is new and complex. It is true that with the development of the society and as we come into a modern world, there are more complex facing humanity which cannot be solved by the past way. However, too much emphasis on modern problems undermines the value of the history which can show inspiration and become a mirror of modern people.

Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world? Surely because a new kind of knowledge is taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest. However, with the advent of such knowledge and science, more problems and complex have risen which did not exist in the past. One apt illustration on this point is the computer, especially the Internet. It makes the information expand without limit and more people have the opportunity to access such knowledge, but at the same time, it breeds information overload and steals our time and the attention from the family, community and the coworkers. Its own legion has been formed as human are becoming the slaves within the technology world. How can we turn for help from the past when there is no computer at all? So few guidance could be showed in the past concerning the high-speed development of the modern world.

Granted that quite a lot of problems in modern world have no relation with the past, but it does not mean that few guidance of the past could be provided. In some circumstance, history gives inspiration when we face the complex today. Such as professional climbers in the past and today, even if they are facing different conditions and problems, the solid goal for all of them are the same--the top of the mountains. For the climbers in the past, it is true that during these days they are facing difficulties of the perilous nature, mannered in the way which would make modern climbers shudder even at the mere thought of it. But the earlier climbers did not go out of their way to court the dream. Such spirit stimulates the modern climbers to improve and the experiences of earlier people give modern climbers more opportunity to solve some certain problems.


In other hand, as history is replete with lessons of different errors, people today may have attention to avoid them and the methods to solve them if the problems are similar to those of the past. As some problems have remained during a long time, people can introspect themselves from the previous experience and adjust the methods to solve them. Such as the large range famine in the past, perhaps we have not solved it completely, but we can conclude the reason and the effect adopting by the government to make the wisdom decision when we confront it again.

Depending on the past experience and turning to the history for help is not an appropriate way to solve the modern complex and problems while the world has changed so much. Nevertheless, with the consistent of our history we can gain some inspiration from the past when we come to the certain condition. The history becomes a mirror of the current which means the current is mirror of the future, so we can learn much from the past lesson if we make best use of it.