issue226

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ISSUE226- "People are mistaken when they assume that the problems they confrontare more complex and challenging than the problems faced by their predecessors.This illusion is eventually dispelled with increased knowledge andexperience."

Thespeaker asserts that it is a mere illusion that the problems we confront aremore complex and challenging than the problems faced by our predecessors-- onethat can be eventually dispelled with the increase of knowledge and experience.However, I strongly hold that it might not always be the case. In my view, thespeaker unfairly generalizes the nature of contemporary problems. I concedethat some problems we face today are universal and timeless, of which thecomplexity and difficulty have changed little during human histories, and thuswe are beginning to have a better understanding of it as we are becoming moreknowledgeable and sophisticated. Nevertheless, some of the problems plagued ustoday, with no parallels in previous societies, are indeed more complex and challengingthan any problems that earlier societies have ever faced.

Admittedly,there is no denying that we human beings are still facing some universal andtimeless problems, whose complexity and difficulty do not seem to have changedas time gone by. Problems confronted by our ancestors are still with us today,of which the most significant one must be the prejudice of women. In the pastwomen in Chinawere always thought to be at a lower position than men and thousands of moraldisciplines have been exerted on women to restrict their behaviors. Forinstance, they were deprived of opportunities to receive education and theirmain tasks were to serve their husband and children. Nowadays, though women'sposition has significantly improved compared with the past and they are allowedto pursue higher education in colleges, they are still at an inferior conditionin today's fierce job market, where employers are more willing to hire menworkers rather than women workers. Possibly, it is because women's physiologicaldifferences with men and I believe that with the increased awareness of highefficiency of women workers, such sorts of prejudice might dwindle in the nearfuture.

However,the speaker overlooks several societal problems that are unique to today'sworld, which are more complex and challenging than any problem faced by ourpredecessors. These problems, unheard of in the previous societies, are mainlybrought by scientific and technological development, whose complexity anddifficulty are unrivaled in earlier times. For this, we need look no further asto the world's environmental problems plaguing us today. No doubt that cars,refrigerators, air-conditioners, factories, etc. has brought a great deal ofconveniences to our lives, but at the same time they also have cause seriouspollution problems to our environment. As a result, several health problem haveemerged and moreover, we tend to have longer summers and vise verse, shorterwinters these days, which will undoubtedly affect the quality of our lives inthe near future. Another important problem comes to my mind is the newtechnology of cloning, which has aroused a great deal of attention in recentyears. Cloning can indeed bring about many promising consequences if usedproperly, such as being used as a means to increase agricultural techniques.However, it is unreasonable to believe that human cloning is morally orethically correct due to the killing of embryos and the possible consequencesof having deformed ones. All in all, these problems are inherent to thetechnical development of modern society, which are more complex and challengingthan any problems earlier societies ever confronted.

Inconclusion, whether the problems we face are more complex and challenging is acase-by-case issue. On the one hand, some universal and timeless problems,present in both our societies as well as earlier ones, does not seem todecrease in complexity and difficulty and we might gain a better understandingof it if we fully scrutinize its origins. On the other hand, there are also acertain problems as a result of technological development, which are unique totoday's world and might be more complex and challenging than any problems inprevious societies.