issue185 十二月高强组第三周周日作业, 请拍!

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题目：ISSUE 185 - "Scandals-whether in politics, academia, or other areas-can be useful. They focus our attention on problems in ways that no speaker or reformer ever could."
字数：656          用时：0:55:00          日期：2006-12-9
1.     scandals 在监督方面有一定作用
2.     如果滥用会有害处， scandal的受害者的正常生活可能被打乱，scandal可能被人利用。
Are scandals useful in that they focus our attention on problems in a distinctive way as the speaker claims? I concede that scandals reveal several social problems and hence respond to the development of a better society. However, the potential harm that unlimited or undirected scandals could inflict on person involved and on society overweighs their constructive benefits.

Admittedly, scandals, in politic, academic or other areas, brings information about a otherwise hidden issue which is not virtuous or good for the development of the society as a whole, such as the deception in the field of academic research, the dishonest behavior of a politician, the underhanded political activities, the manipulation of the election and the like. All the affairs could, to some extent, undermine the fairness and conflict harm to the society. In this sense, scandals are effective to disclose those harmful issues. In turn, the harmful consequences that those actions bring in could be revised or at least decreased and the ones who have performed those actions could be discovered and receive their deserved punishments. Which as a result will enhance the overall well-being of the society. In the scandals, media such as magazines, televisions and newspapers participate in and therefore press the departments concerning give out rational judgments and make reasonable decisions. The ordinary people could be more involved and acquired more information which reflect the democracy and transparent of the society. As a result, people in power or others who seek to obtain honor need to be more conscious and concrete in that they have to take some responsibility for the consequences and any unwarranted actions could be revealed as a scandal. For instance, the research in the field of gene by a famous Korean scientist which once is deem as a breakthrough in biochemistry, turn out to be cheating. This scientific scandal cause this scientist was fiercely condemned and the reputations of that Korean scientist or even whole Korean researchers are declined. However, this scandal will benefit the academic field for long. Because this scandal not only reveals a scientific fallacy, but also alerts other scientist not to make any deception in the result of the research, hence heightens the purity of the science research.


Though the scandals are beneficial so far as they reveal problems, and focus our attentions on the problems, if go to extreme, the potential harm they could pass on to the society could not be neglected. In the first place, the person involved in the scandal, even innocent, may receive great amount of pressure. For example, the victims of the sex harass scandal happened in Japanese educational ministry are focused too much by the public and therefore their normal lives are disturbed. Some of the female victims were even frightened to revenge because of their testimonies. In the second place, to some extent, the credibility of a scandal is hard to assess, it is hard to tell which scandal actually reveals the truth, and we don’t know the real purpose of the scandal. In other words, the scandals are difficult to control. It is not rare that to defeat the competitors, some people or enterprise produce scandals to defame their competitors. Concerning that most scandals are pervaded by the Medias, and with the rapid development of internet as a new mean to spread information, many unjustified scandal could be easily prevailed through the internet. The social harmony could be diminished by those scandals in that such scandal driven by some anti-social person or group may provide false information to deceive normal people in order to meet their special aims.

To sum, the scandals could be deemed as an spice to smooth the run of society, which helps to solve some social problems. However, the spice should not be abused since absent any control of the spread of sandals should lead to confusion and disturbance of the society which to the contrary, are harmful to the social development.