ISSUE36 [076G飞跃小组]zengyouwen第7次作业

zengyouwenUID: 2284999

TOPIC: ISSUE36 - "The greatness of individuals can be decided only by those who live after them, not by their contemporaries."
WORDS: 446          TIME: 上午 12:45:00          DATE: 2007-3-2

The author indicates in the issue that the greatness of individuals can only be decided by those who live after them, not by the contemporaries. I agree with the author for the weakpoints of the contemporaries and the complexity of the greatness.

To begin with, the greatness of individuals usually cannot be understandable enough to their peers, thus makes many of them stand at the opposite side of this greatness. A good case in the point is the great painter-- Van Gogh's abstract drawings, which is now almost the most valuable paintings in the world ,but until his death there has not been somebody  who had taken Van Gogh's drawings seriously. This indicates  that just because of the man at the same time with this great painters that cannot know the meaning of the paintings and also because of the drawings have gone forward so far from their times thus give the chance to the man live after them to make this fair judgment.

Another point is the restrictions of the contemporaries of the great individuals. As we know, different things happen just for different reasons and the situations. So if the situation is not there, maybe the expected thing will never happen unless it is a big wonder. Just as the Einstein's theory of relative, which was published at the 1920s, only few people could understand his theory at that time, because it has gotten so much assumption beyond the common people's imagination. Thus made this great theory come into practical 30 or 40 years later in the aerospace engineering, then people have realized its importance. Just because of the theory's assumption factor is too far away from the publishing time that make the greatness of Einstein is this area being known to the public have been late for years.

Admittedly, the contemporaries are by no means anything at all; they still give a hand in the forming process of the greatness but just judged unfairly. For instance, the critic of the public that they cannot understand the greatness make the great man try his best to get it more accessible to the public, thus make the fair assessment come earlier and more great than expected. But if there is not any critic any more, from the perspective of the public it will be hard to have a fair judgment to it for ever.

In conclusion, the author's view that the greatness of the individuals can be decided only by those who live after them, not by the contemporaries, has been reasoned as presented above. The contemporaries have these weakpoints and advantages as mentioned above thus lead to the man live after them have a fair and reasonable judgment.