Issue147 [勇往直前小组]第九夜ByPuding

PudingUID：2364107

TOPIC: ISSUE147 - "Tradition and modernization are incompatible. One must choose between them."
WORDS: 502          TIME: 0:45:00          DATE: 2007-7-28
Modified:600（好整，好奇妙）

With the development of science and technology, the society of human beings has developed from a barbarism society to modern society through thousands of years. The human civilization of thousands of years and the highly developed technology seemed to be contradicting to each other. Faced with the new and the old, how should we make a choice? In my view, however, the statement that one must choose between tradition and modernization is two extreme. In fact, the two are not mutually exclusive from each other.

Admittedly, in certain cases, some traditions are gradually disappeared because of the modernization. We cannot deny that some traditional customs, attitudes, or ways of thinking which had handed down from generation to generation has been changed by the process of modernization. For instance, before 20th century, the notion that women should stay at home, nurturing children and caring for elders was so taken as an assumption that no tentative attempts can be made to change it. However, Industrial Revolution made this thinking possible. As a result, women went out of home and began their career. Such kind of change greatly elevated the status of women and did great contribution to the gender equality. The change in the patterns of communication is another case in point. Today we use the modern communication tools such as Emails, telephones, etc. instead of the letter. This change makes our communication more efficiently. Thus, some traditions can be and should be changed by modernization.

And unfortunately, we can also see that some other traditions be changed even destroyed by modernization or globalization. These traditions help to define a culture or a group. The destruction of them is great loss of human beings and society. Consider the old architectures that have been damaged for the sake of modern traffic establishments or buildings. In spite of backout of the ancient architecture, what the modern people destroyed is the thousands of years of human civilization. And our offspring will never appreciate again. Hence such traditions such as old buildings, customs that may define a culture or a group cannot be modernized.

However, in most cases, so-called "modernization" is actually an extension or new iteration of tradition. It usually inherits the distillation from the tradition. Without a tradition there will be no modernization. This statement can be explained in the following realm: In language, although the English is a unique language to western culture, it actually derived from the ancient Greek and Latin language. In the sphere of visual art, either modern paintings or former paintings are base on the same aesthetic ideal--- symmetry, balance and harmony. Consider music, another area in art, the modern such as Punk, R&B and Blues share the same notion with classical music in harmony, what is pleasing to ear and even melody. The law is another case in point. All of us know that the USA law deeply rooted in English common law principle. Hence the modernization can and does embrace the tradition. They are not mutually exclusive to each other. What the modernization do is ameliorate or add some new factors to the tradition yet the essence never alter.

Consequently, as I discussed above, the correct way to modernization a culture is to transform or reform its tradition rather than uproot its tradition. We should inherent the good part in tradition and leave behind the bad part, making our society developing in a healthy direction.

To sum up, In my view the modernization and tradition are not contradict to each other and we should call for a balance between the two, making our society a better world.  

nbta03UID：2326371

With the development of science and technology, the society of human beings has developed from a barbarism society to modern society through thousands of years. The human civilization of thousands of years and the highly developed technology seemed to be contradicting (contradictory) to each other. Faced with the new and the old, how should we make a choice? In my view, however, the statement that one must choose between tradition and modernization is twotoo extreme. In fact, the two are not mutually exclusive from each other.

Admittedly, in certain cases, some traditions are gradually disappeared because of the modernization. We cannot deny that some traditional customs, attitudes, or ways of thinking which had handed down from generation to generation has been changed by the process of modernization. For instance, before 20th century, the notion that women should stay at home, nurturing children and caring for elders was so taken as an assumption that no tentative attempts can be made to change it. However, Industrial Revolution made this thinking possible. As a result, women went out of home and began their careers. Such kind of change greatly elevated the status of women and did great contribution to the gender equality. The change in the patterns of communication is another case in point. Today we use the modern communication tools such as Emails, telephones, etc. instead of the letter. This change makes our communication more efficiently. Thus, some traditions can be and should be changed by modernization.

And unfortunately, we can also see that some other traditions be changed even destroyed by modernization or globalization. These traditions help to define a culture or a group. The destruction of them is great loss of (of改成for或者to) human beings and society. Consider the old architectures that have been damaged for the sake of modern traffic establishments or buildings. In spite of backout of the ancient architecture, what the modern people destroyed is the thousands of years of human civilization(应该是the human civilization of thousands of years) . And our offspring will never appreciate again. Hence such(改成these） traditions such as old buildings, customs that may define a culture or a group cannot be modernized.

However, in most cases, so-called "modernization" is actually an extension or new iteration of tradition. It usually inherits the distillation from the tradition. Without a tradition there will be no modernization. This statement can be explained in the following realm: In language, although the English is a unique language to western culture, it actually derived from the ancient Greek and Latin language. In the sphere of visual art, either modern paintings or former paintings are base on the same aesthetic ideal--- symmetry, balance and harmony. Consider music, another area in art, the modern such as Punk, R&B and Blues share the same notion with classical music in harmony, what is pleasing to ear and even melody. The law is another case in point. All of us know that the USA law deeply rooted in English common law principle. Hence the modernization can and does embrace the tradition. They are not mutually exclusive to each other. What the modernization do is ameliorate or add some new factors to the tradition yet the essence never alter.

Consequently, as I discussed above, the correct way to modernization a culture is to transform or reform its tradition rather than uproot its tradition. We should inherent(应该preserve吧？) the good part in tradition and leave behind the bad part, making our society developing in a healthy direction.

To sum up, In my view the modernization and tradition are not contradictory to each other and we should call for a balance between the two, making our society a better world.