issue189 过去的成就对现在没用～留链回拍

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TOPIC: ISSUE189 - "If people disregard the great works of the past, it is because these works no longer answer the needs of the present."
WORDS: 514（629）          TIME: 上午 12:45:00          DATE: 2006-7-23

I fundamentally disagree with the speaker in terms of the statements mentioned above. Our modern era has been marked with tremendous achievements made by our predecessors, and nearly all of are indispensable to us. We as modern individuals treasure them, reexamine them, and advance them because of these precious works’ irreplaceable functions to our human beings, such as instructing, and inspiring.

To begin with, casting a glance at the field of science and technology, our daily life is replete with the previous marvelous inventions. We substitite the automobiles for our flabby legs, replace the mail delivery with more economical and efficient e-mail, we put our baby on the cellphone on the other side of which waits its grandmother. Turning on the TV, as well as the air-conditioning, we enjoy a show which was filmed by a video camera. Meanwhile, not only does this marvelous endeavor strikes a quite new era to us, also, we inherit as well as extracting the essence from the preceding attainments in the field in order to develop the old theories, produce new ones, strike creations, and explore the unknown. Copernicus corroborated Galileo's observation a century ago, and established his own theory which paved the way for the decedents. Also, Newton's Classic Gravity Theory served a landmark in the recorded scientific history, which most subsequent scientific theories in this field are based on. Thereby, the preceding great works in science are indispensable to our modern lives, either from the everday-chores angle, or from the academic angle.

Meanwhile, as for the realm of artistry, the great works of the past are also valued by people today for they present us some valuable ideas. Undoubtedly, due to our talented artists' specific and deep perspective, as well as the perfect self-expression toward the external complex and sophisticated world, we have the opportunities to investigate our humanities and the society in the past and to better understand ourselves. For instance, without Sherry Levine's unique expression of the discontent toward the sexual discrimination, we would probably not be astonished by the fettered women with unimaginable low social status in the record history, not to mention understand the women's current revolutionary status in the holistic world, as well as the necessity of being aware of the sense of equity at any time. Obviously, the great artworks in the past provide us such a unique fashion of expressing and understanding the outside world that we are often warned our superficial thoughts, enlightened and inspired by them.

When it comes to the marketplace, also, as least partly, the previous works exert their functions. The major function lies in the instruction during which we study the foregone successful cases, as well as extracting the essence of the classic economic theories in the past. For example, the basic knowledge in Microeconomics tells how to master, manage, and maximize our own current cash. Besides, this knowledge, such as the supply-and-demand principle serves a classical tenet which we latter generations adhere to in face of investing. The theories in the management are exerted by our entrepreneurs in organizing the company and cooperating with the competitors. Nearly all the great works in the economic field are so indispensable to us that they are taught in class of the universities, discussed in the seminars, and widely used in the management and organizing of a particular Corp.

Simply put, without the previous great works in all endeavors, the contemporary would live in a groundless and shallow world which is incogitable. Luckily, the reality is not the case, people do not disregard any of the great works in the past, on the contrary, they valued them, examine them, and exploit them, since the works invariably render us some valuable functions including instruction and rendering us a better understanding of the world.