issue48 第十三次作业

Francis07UID：2185659

TOPIC: ISSUE48 - "The study of history places too much emphasis on individuals. The most significant events and trends in history were made possible not by the famous few, but by groups of people whose identities have long been forgotten."
WORDS: 510          TIME: 00:45:00          DATE: 2007-8-12 上午 11:00:17

The speaker contends that the most important events in history were mostly made by groups of people instead of by the famous individuals, and we are not paying more attention on these groups.  I concede with the speaker insofar that these groups of people are essential to the great events, however, emphasis placed on those individuals is not only because these individuals are great themselves but also remembering them is the same as remembering the whole group not forgetting the identities of them.

In retrospect, history have has seen a lot of greatnesses made possible by groups of people.  Without the combination of their efforts, the successes of these events were almost unimaginable.  Wars can not be fight by the few individuals, therefore, the independence of America can not be attributed to the effort of Washington only.  His army had done a great deal, too.  The exploring of outer space was not only the contribution of Armstrong, but also that of the many scientific researchers.  The fighting for the fatal disease of SARS is also the contribution of a great many Chinese medical workers.  Even winning the sixth NBA final was not the only effort of Micheal Jordan, his teammates are also indispensible indispensable for the success.

However, although the group efforts are indispensable, the individuals are even more important for a success.  They control and navigate the whole group in the correct direction.  Without these individuals, a group might not work as a group.  It is the talent and effort of these individuals that made these groups coherent and powerful.  A group of people can be easy to get, but the individuals with such great ability as to lead a group is hard to find.  How could a group find the New continent without the lead of Kristopher Columbus.  How many "Lincoln"s could you find in history bringing the success for the North in winning the Civil War?  How many "Roosevelt"s could you find in history bringing the economy of American up from the very nadir by the New Deal?  Individuals as them are very rare in history, and it is their talent in leading a group of people to the final success.  Therefore, people emphasis them as the key to the success is not overstating.

On the other hand, individuals are important in historical events because they are representative.  People do not have to remember very participants in a great event only because there are too many.  We just have to place more attention on the more representative ones such as their leaders or some heroes in a battle.  Therefore, remembering them is remembering the whole group.  It is not forgetting the importance of the group but trying to remember them instead.

Thus, people nowadays talk more about the individuals are because, firstly, these individuals are really the great ones in history, and secondly, remembering these representative individuals is as the same as remembering the whole group of people in this event.  We are not forgetting the efforts of all these great people, on the contrary, we admire them all.