issue185 FLY AW第十七次作业

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题目：ISSUE 185 - "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."
字数：664          用时：上午 12:32:21          日期：2006-6-24

The achievement of reformation and development of the society can be contribute to many critical factors, such as speakers, who publicize their viewpoints and attract the public' attention, reformers who develop or even overturn the given governing mechanism and systems of legislation, practicing their assertion bravely and intelligently in order to gain supports from the public, and scandals, though this kind of publicized news are invariably tinted with moral transgression, still have their unique and fantasy appealing toward the public. Nonetheless, the disadvantages of scandals usually overshadow their usefulness, thus distract the public from the brilliant images to the other extreme, and to some extent undermine the normal organization and development of the holistic society.
Admittedly, compared to other roles which compel the development of the society, scandals have a fantasy and unique appealing toward the public, making them focusing on the immediate social problems quickly. After all, the human nature, which etches in the genome of Homo sapiens, decides the tendency of public to peer into the privacy of the celebrities or some particular groups under the scrutiny of spotlight. The trial of accused murder, National Football League superstar O. J. Simpson, was televised and became a huge media spectacle, captivating the nation's attention during the entire trial. Though, in the end, Simpson turned out to be innocent, the enthusiasm of the public toward the scandals still can be seen from the response of the mass toward the case. Compelled by the pressure from the public, the authorities are thus more likely to allocate more emphasis and energy on the issues that arouses lots of focus and controversial comments.

Compared to the role of scandals, speaker or reformer cannot attract the masses through a widespread and quick means like the former. As mentioned above, individuals, either the old or the young, the male or the female, would inevitably show strong interests in the negative aspects of brilliant and perfect images of a particular celebrity or the dark side of a government. Yet in terms of the speaker and the reformer, they can only attract the individuals who share the same interests and views with them, and at the same time increasingly gain more supporters over a comparatively long time. Sometimes those reformers or speakers’ contentions may even be suffocated before being known widely among the public. No doubt, as for the extent and rapidity of focusing the public’ attention on social problems, scandals would be in the upper hand.
At the same time, however, too much emphasis on scandals may lead to blindness and partial judges toward the celebrities and the groups. An apt illustration of this point is the scandal of Bill Clinton, former president of the United State, the wise and insightful leadership and brilliant ability to boost the sluggish economy of American were tarnished by the exposure of his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Also, in China, president Mao’ achievements in emancipating the poor and defending the country toward the external intrusion, are usually overshadowed by the Culture Revolution, which act as a farce overthrowing given values and beliefs. Should those mentioned above leaders’ attainment be ignored, by the mistakes which deviate from the established moral conceptions, or should we descendents take the publicized fallacies as the whole of a certain person? Every average and commonsense person would deny the fact, yet in actuality the most tend to agree with the assertions above, because of the undeniable strong power of scandals, which distract us from the just and objective standards.
In conclusion, the achievement and progress of our society is to some extent boosted by the scandals, which exert their unique power of attracting the public in a widespread and rapid way, that either speaker or reformer cannot compare, leading relevant departments or persons would perform their responsibilities to decrease the negative influence of the scandals. While benefiting from the news of scandals, it is unfair for the masses to flatter the contribution scandals actually do and be misled by them.