issue120 “永不言弃”互改小组第二次作业 9号

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120. "So much is new and complex today that looking back for an understanding of the past provides little guidance for living in the present."
现代社会是如此的崭新和复杂以至于回首了解过去对于当代生活已经没有太大帮助了。
现在和过去

The speaker asserted that today is new and complex ,as a result ,understanding of the past provides little guidance for living in the present. If the speaker means we can’t use the method of past to solve the current issues , I agree with the assertion insofar. However, if the speaker just claim that the modern society is isolated from what goes on in the history , I do not share that partial view.

Admittedly ,
technology and the development of our society brings about new and complex problems
in many fields distinction
from the past . Modern society is increasingly facing various complex problems such as social discrimination , social equality ,poverty, population, pollution , and so on
which are difficulty to understand or solve thoroughly ; puzzlingly intricate. Simply on the basis of the experiences of past is impossible to achieve our destination .Thus in order to keep social stability, the fundamental interests of all people , revitalization the ideas, beliefs, and values people held in the past and propose creative methods is necessary.
Greek philosopher Heracleitus who maintained that strife and change are natural conditions of the universe. There is nothing permanent except change.

However , we must pay attention to the history , a valuable record of society's past. There are a great deal of similarity and relationship between our past and the contemporary society. Anyone could fail to notice the fact that some things such as the hunger for knowledge, the passion for the life of the mind, and the love of literature are imperishable and indestructible and thus eternal. Consequently, the accumulation of past experiences and knowledge are available. To illustrate this view ,I’d like take science for example. The achievement of modern science are all based on the discoveries or the experiments of past scientist . Dr. Hawkin's research about the nature of the universe is sure to have a lasting impact on our lives but it was brought about mainly by the recognitive and important work of Einstein and Bohr . It is to say ,any important theory is organized by perceiving and coordinating the talents and skills of others and putting old ideas together in new ways.

Without past and history it is impossible for the development of the modern philosophy, art and music . But for Socrates 、Plato and Aristotle's philosophy , Kantian’s thoughts may lost root.; Great names in Western art such as Giovanni Bellini, Titian, Tiepolo, Veronese and Canaletto are creators whose base was Leonardo da Vinci , one of the greatest artist of Renaissance Italy; every kind of music pop, hard rock, soft rock/adult contemporary, soul/rhythm and blues, rap/hip-hop, country, jazz, blues can’t exist has no classical music as them basis. In a word, past and today is a consistent process, the achievement of today is the result of past, without the hard work of past great man , today is like “Hanging Gardens ”.

To sum up, in terms of how to solve the modern social problem I agree that just only studying the past is incomplete, the creativity, innovations, and vision when facing some complex issue is significant. However, modern society can’t
isolated from
history , there are still some eternal problem have playing a eternal role in the development of human civilization. It is irrational act to
antagonize past and today , because they are an integrated whole.