Issue185 【7.29 丑闻】倒计时一天，请狠拍

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TOPIC: 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."
WORDS: 545          TIME: 00:45:00          DATE: 2007-7-29 20:29:31

The author asserts scandals are useful, as they could focus our attention on problems in ways that no speaker or reformer ever could. I concede that scandals could reflect some problems to some extent, however, we need a dialectic angle to this issue.

Admittedly, although the scandals always involves in corrupt, adulteration, ex-affairs, and could cause bad effect in the society, scandals surely render some problems hidden in the society, taking the attention of the public and the government. For instance, in 2005, a study revealed that Van Parijs, a professor of MIT, had falsified and fabricated in his paper published in 2002. Then many institutions began to inquiry similar academic adulteration inside, and some results reveals falsified. This scandals has indicated that our academic know suffers from adulteration, and some measure should be introduced in order to diminish these affairs. Additionally, scandals could also offer us another angle to some idols we used to admire, which may be damaged their image in our heart, and make us not blind to admire them. For supporting example, I have to resort to Michael Jackson. Several years ago, he was a famous and popular star, but now he is notorious for child sexual abuse. This scandal makes some of us clear, that an idol is not only talent in some aspects, but also with the basic morality.

However, sometimes due to the media excess care's for the scandals, we are so sensitive to the scandals that we neglect some important respects, and even worse effect in some extent. On one hand, sometimes these scandals which too care for the private affairs of these celebrities alter our attention which should be put in other essential aspects. Just like when it comes to a famous sport star, the most we want to inform of is not what progress he just makes, but who he is meeting. Or sometimes we talk about a leader, we do not care for what he is busy doing for people, but the sexual affairs he had before.  On the other hand, sometimes our attention to these scandals will hurt the one involved. For example, if we occasionally know some scandals such as a crime in his early life for mistake of an individual, then these scandals come out. This must be hurt him/her, as he/she has already change his minds and do a lot of good things after this. So, too much attention to the scandals will benefit neither the stars nor the public.

Furthermore, the most essential factor to evaluate an individual is not his scandals, but his contribution and his characters. Some scandals are affairs that could not preserver through the public’s memory. For example, some of us admire the president Roosevelt for his contribution to the US economy during the great depression and to the world during World War II, few of us knows his ex-married affairs. Or, most of us heard of Winston Churchill, another figures popular in World War II, he is an alcoholic during his life long.

So, as a conclusion, I concede that scandals surely disclose some problems in our society, whether in politics, academia, or other areas. But we should not allocate too much attention to this scandals, the contribution is what we should care more.