issue208 【kaleidoscope】小组第八次作业

cloverlanpusUID: 2606441

题目：ISSUE208 - "The way people look, dress, and act reveals their attitudes and interests. You can tell much about a society's ideas and values by observing the appearance and behavior of its people."


The speaker asserts that one can catch on a society's ideas and values through observing the appearance and behaviors of its people. I find this assertion to be one-sided. As far as I am concerned, while necessarily through observing the appearance and behavior can we find out their attitudes and interest which can reveal the social values, in order to thoroughly evaluate the values and ideas of a society, further investigations concerned with the culture and politics are indispensable.

I concede that by observing one's appearance and behavior we can find out  his or her interest and attitude in some degree and learn about the values of the society through repeating this observation. After all, one choose what he will  wear and what he should do by his personal preference and value which might also be used in other aspects in his life, such as his attitude toward different ideas, even in the social life. Here is an interesting and supportive example to illustrate my point----the comparison of Frechmen and Germans. French people tend to wear fashionable and well designed cloth and their behaviors are more open, while at the same time Germans would like to wear traditional and formal cloth and pay much attention about their manner. These significant differences of appearances and beheviors illustrate that France is a nation that pursue freedom and is full of imagination while Germany tend to more strict and have rigid principles.

However, while observation of people's appearances and behavior can be beneficial, but it is far from sufficient because in modern world this kind of difference is not that obvious. With the trend of globalization, one style of  cloth can be found in every corner of the world and  the appearance of different people is becoming more and more similar. As a result, one can hardly tell that one kind of typical appearance represents which social attribute. In addition, under the pressure of serious social competition, current people are more likely to hide his or her primary purpose and behave in a entirely opposite way. Thus, the behaviors may not truly tell us what one thought. Facing with this shortcoming, other method to complement the understanding of social value is obligatory.

Necessarily through a thoroughly investigation of the culture and mainstream thinking can we achieve a comprehensive understanding of the social ideas and values. After all, these can directly reveal the real thoughts in one's mind and can hardly be imitated. As a typical example, literature, a significant part of social culture can directly unearth the value of a society. Just as the Lost Generation, a literary genre named after a book of Hemingway, which is very popular in America after World War I, reflected the confused feeling of younger generation who witnessed inhumanity in the war.

To sum up, observation of appearance and behaviors is an useful method to appraise the value and idea of a society though having some weak point, but not sufficient. Only when this method combines with the investigation of the culture and mainstream thing can we achieve a thoroughly understanding of the social values.

azoiUID: 2636348

1# cloverlanpus
不好意思 离家在外 现在好不容易找到机会上了……

The speaker asserts that one can catch on a society's ideas and values through observing the appearance and behaviors of its people. I find this assertion to be one-sided. As far as I am concerned, while necessarily through observing the appearance and behavior can we find out their attitudes and interest which can reveal the social values, in order to thoroughly evaluate the values and ideas of a society, further investigations concerned with the culture and politics are indispensable.

I concede that by observing one's appearance and behavior we can find out  his or her interest and attitude in some degree and learn about the values of the society through repeating this observation. After all, one choose what he will  wear and what he should do by his personal preference and value which might also be used in other aspects in his life, such as his attitude toward different ideas, even in the social life. Here is an interesting and supportive example to illustrate my point----the comparison of Frechmen and Germans举例很好. French people tend to wear fashionable and well designed cloth and their behaviors are more open, while at the same time Germans would like to wear traditional and formal cloth and pay much attention about their manner. These significant differences of appearances and beheviors illustrate that France is a nation that pursue freedom and is full of imagination while Germany tend to more strict and have rigid principles.

However, while observation of people's appearances and behavior can be beneficial, but it is far from sufficient because in modern world this kind of difference is not that obvious. With the trend of globalization, one style of  cloth can be found in every corner of the world and  the appearance of different people is becoming more and more similar. As a result, one can hardly tell that one kind of typical appearance represents which social attribute. In addition, under the pressure of serious social competition, current people are more likely to hide his or her primary purpose and behave in a entirely opposite way. Thus, the behaviors may not truly tell us what one thought. Facing with this shortcoming, other method to complement the understanding of social value is obligatory.

Necessarily through a thoroughly investigation of the culture and mainstream thinking can we achieve a comprehensive understanding of the social ideas and values. After all, these can directly reveal the real thoughts in one's mind and can hardly be imitated. As a typical example, literature, a significant part of social culture can directly unearth the value of a society. Just as the Lost Generation, a literary genre named after a book of Hemingway, which is very popular in America after World War I, reflected the confused feeling of younger generation who witnessed inhumanity in the war.

To sum up, observation of appearance and behaviors is an useful method to appraise the value and idea of a society though having some weak point, but not sufficient. Only when this method combines with the investigation of the culture and mainstream thing can we achieve a thoroughly understanding of the social values.