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Issue 36 the greatness of individuals can be decided only by those who live after them, not by their contemporaries.
In the ear of admiring praise leading to the promotion of people’s adherence to evaluating the greatness of individuals, there exists a widespread awareness that only by those who live in the future, not by their contemporaries, can the greatness of individuals be decided. Just valid, however, this conclusion may be, it only skims the surface of the problem. As not approve to the commonly belief, I advocate that the core of the process of evaluating the greatness of individuals cannot be determined only by distinguishing the time they live in but also by the limit on making the decision.
Granted that from the pace of history, we have a natural tendency------- a tendency that a myriad of misunderstandings have been clarified, however, we suffer a titanic limit in the dark corner of the history is, as well, the limit which acts as a crux in determining the proceeding discussion, such as inability of understanding a new theory, political intention, failure of appreciating a art work and the like, imposed by different time or society or even people.
First, some of the greatness of individuals could be interpreted by their contemporaries mainly due to its lack of limits on the current time. In China we admire Chairman Deng Xiaoping for his contribution to promoting our current life and the increasing amount of money we have gained as In South Africa, they admire David Moulds(就是曼德拉,我查了他的英文名好象是这个) for his bringing liberty to his compatriot especially those who live in slavery; Among women, they adore Mother Teresa for her kindness and love for those who are poor as among Black Americans, they adore Martin Luther King for his persistence and sacrifice in gaining rights and effacing the discrimination in America. The reason that these “lucky dogs” deserve such reputation lies in the fact that they aptly explore the essential and potential desires their contemporaries bear in the bottom of their minds and hearts and more importantly bring these desires into reality which illustrates an increasing beautiful future ahead.
By contrast, some of individuals could not deserve such a fortune as the formers. Their greatness can hardly be not greater than that in the proceeding discussion, the reason the contemporaries does not accept it is that it is imposed on some limits varying from subjective to objective. From the perspective of “subjective” ---- mainly from the political intention------ Liu Shaoqi, the state founder of China, the great militarist, the chairman of Party, persecuted to death during the Revolutionary Culture, whose reputation was renewed until about 20 years later is just an exact case in point. This kind of tragedy is due to the limits which are imposed in terms of the time and the politics, which does not substantiate the lack of greatness of individuals but lend credence to the tendency that contemporaries deny and eliminate the greatness for a political purpose at the cost of decaying the significance of individual’s contribution. From the perspective of “objective”----- mainly from the inability of knowing the nature------The countless examples in the history of Noble Praise that scientists’ new theories cannot be accepted during a period varying from years to tens of years ------ Max Planck’s 18 years waiting for the Noble Praise, or in the field of art, Van Gogh’s years of “waiting” in the heaven for being accepted and the like. This kind of failure of recognition originated from the limit forced through the inability of foreseeing the nature of the world, which generates out of our will at the same time out of our control as well. Therefore, limits are the crux in making decision on evaluating the greatness of individuals.
To sum up, for those whose greatness can be accepted should not be shy for their appreciation in that they deserve it; for those whose greatness is unfairly decided, not due to its own errors but the limit imposed from all directions of the society, should not be discouraged for those who fail to see their greatness will undoubtedly bogged down and find it counterproductive in the near future. Maybe the task of fairly deciding the greatness of individuals without any limits is hard, however, the difficult of the task is no excuse for avoiding it. |
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