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Issue185 ."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."
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Can scandals be useful? The speaker claims so. As far as I am concerned, I believe that scandals can be useful to some extent, whether in politics, academia, or other areas, not only because they help people observe and judge the world they live in from a clinic or objective perspective but also because they serve as an effective determent, restraining unreasonable intentions and behaviors and thus protecting citizenry from potential harm. On the other hand, overemphasis on the utility of scandals will backfire, since it might bring unnecessary bothering to humans’ life.
First of all, scandals help us know comprehensively the world we live in that we usually, with the exposure of scandals of any kind, begin to focus our attention on problems that we paid little or even no attention before. Such is a human nature that almost everyone tends to show his or her bright sides to the outsides, while the fact might be that a seemingly respectable person or family has some terrible secret which has been concealed from strangers for years. This situation especially applies to describing the scandals of celebrities in whichever field-Political leaders, movie stars, scientists or famous authors. If the secret, say, an unusual personal habit or anything about their privacy, is not so serious or it did not carry on any deleterious effects to our society, we realize that after all those role models are normal human creatures and also have some flaws, and any tiny error still cannot erase their once great achievements. Consequently we adjust our expectation toward the world around us, we begin to stay composure when faced with any unexpected results, and we learn to get along with our families, friends, and other social members with more understanding and tolerance. On the other hand, the scandals of real bad behaviors of a celebrity not only set a counterexample for all the society members but strengthen our awareness of the belief of doing right things.
In addition, scandals can be useful because in many cases they effectively deter people from doing any unjustifiable things and protect the interests of individuals and the whole society. As we all know, scandals ruin one’s reputation. Thus, anyone who cares about his reputation might consider the deterrent before any harmful action. Even if he disregards any potential consequence, the scandal ultimately discloses his terrible secret to the public, his reputation is ruined, and public interests are protected. The typical examples of the Nixon’s Watergate scandal and the U.N. oil for food scandal aptly illustrate this point. On the other hand, scandals can be used as a threatening weapon to help one beat his rivals and achieve his goal. In the political field, let us take a look at the U.S. President Election. During the political struggle, the winner must be the one who successfully weakened his opponents by making other candidates’ scandals public as well as proved his own aptitude and capabilities. In this sense, compared to the benefits an outstanding political leader can bring to his citizenry, scandals indeed are an indispensable political tool.
However, we have to say that undue employing scandals or using forged ones brings us two serious social issues-privacy encroachment and offensive language or behavior. In a sense, one purpose of scandals is to dig out one’s privacy. Some journalists or watchdogs even earn their living or make themselves famous by virtue of exposing other people’s private life. With the increasing commercialism of the whole society, this phenomenon is becoming more and more serious. However, the result is that someone will be hurt. The tragedy of Princess Dianna immediately comes into my mind. That is also why many celebrities might frown when it comes to mentioning the journalism. Even in our personal life, scandals often play such an unpopular or bothersome role that we even avoid associating with those who have no restraints in gossips. Gossips not only hurt people but also exacerbate personal relationships, moreover, it is not hard to imagine that in a gossip-ridden school, company, troop or country, people’s morale is seriously dampened. What is worse, a scandal disclosed at some unsuitable moment will unnecessarily cause a panic among social members, rather than a positive confrontation. For instance, the scandal of the 1990’s economic crisis and of a pandemic birdflu make people suffer more from them in spirit other than in reality. Therefore, in such events, scandals are harmful in themselves.
In conclusion, whether scandals are useful or harmful is a much more complicated and unrealistic societal problem than is often assumed. I agree to some extent as the speaker claims that scandals can be useful in some occasions. However, at the same time we also need to call attention to misuse scandals for some unjustifiable reasonable. After all, in some cases, people might utilize scandals as a threatening tool and hurt people who should not deserve the harm.
这次没有限时，写起来感觉反而思路不连贯，限时我又不能按时完成。
[ 本帖最后由 mmbee 于 2007-5-27 22:32 编辑 ] | 
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发表于 2007-5-27 17:33:52
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