issue208

hlzhang431UID: 2297648

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

Can we tell much about asociety's ideas and values only by observing the appearance andbehavior of its people for the reason that the way people look, dressand act reveals their attitudes and interests? The author believes so,although I do not agree. In my view, people's appearance and behaviorcan indeed in a certain degree reflect the ideas and values of asociety, however, it is not enough to as to get a full comprehensionabout the true value of society and there are still some more aspectsto be considered.

Admittedly, we cancertainly tell some about a society's ideas and values by observing theappearance and behavior of its people. Since people are one of the mostimportant parts of a society and thus for the purpose of analyzing theideas and values of a society, there is no denying that we should studythe attitudes and interests of its people, which can be reflected inpeople’s appearance and behaviors. In reality, people in differentcountries tend to dress and behave differently: Japanese people usuallydress formally, French people like to dress romantically, women in theMiddle East must wear scarf all year round, American people do not liketo be late for parties, people in China tend to behavior quitemodestly, etc., which could reflect their attitudes and interests.Therefore, in order to recognizing the ideas and values of a society,we should carefully observe the appearance and behavior of its people.

However, even if theappearance and behavior can reflect the ideas and values of a society,there are also situations that only observing the appearance andbehavior might arrive at the wrong conclusion. As a result of hightechnical communication and fast transportation, people in differentcountries are more likely to learn from each other. Consequently, theytend to, in a certain degree, dress or behave in the same way. Forinstance, people in most countries, such as America, China, Japan,etc., are fond of wearing blue genes recently not only because thiskind of clothes is quite cheap but also because it is very comfortableto wear it. As a result, by observing that people in these countriesall wear the same kind of clothes, people might conclude that the ideasof values of these societies are the same whereas they actually arequite different from each other.

Besides, the observation ofpeople's appearance and behavior is not enough for the purpose of fullyunderstanding a society's true ideas and values. Everyone might share abelief that expect for the appearance and behavior of its people, theideas and values of a society can also be reflected in many otherrespects, such as its architecture, customs, ethics, etc., all of whichmight differ from country to country. As a result, these aspects areall well worth learning if we want to acquire a fully understanding asociety's true ideas and values.

Simply put, by observingthe appearance and behavior of people, we can in a certain degree tella society's ideas and values. However, it might come to a wrongconclusion if we only rely on this kind of observation. Consequently,for the purpose of correctly and completely analyzing the ideas andvalues of a society, we should also consider other possible factors,such as architecture, customs, ethics and so forth.




[ 本帖最后由 hlzhang431 于 2007-7-5 06:58 编辑 ]

leeking85UID: 2257265

;d: 指出个小错误：
For instance, people in most countries, such as America, China, Japan, etc., are fond of wearing blue genes (jeans) recently not only because this kind of clothes is quite cheap but also because it is very comfortable to wear it.
其实我觉得你文章最大的优点就是行文很流畅，让人看的懂，蛮连冠的。好好学习啊！偶尔还会出现一些闪亮的词汇，让人感觉很好。:eek: （PS：虽然我有些用法我没见过，这个似乎还是可以私下交流哈！）

[ 本帖最后由 leeking85 于 2007-7-8 12:55 编辑 ]