0910AW 同主题写作第8期 issue221 by weenbopper

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第一篇写作, 没有严格按照时间来写, 望高手多指点指点
ISSUE221 - "The chief benefit of the study of history is to break down the illusion that people in one period of time are significantly different from people who lived at any other time in history."

History has emphasized as a means for demonstrating our improvement and prosperity compared to the predecessors, for promoting brilliant culture, for transmitting distinct value and for providing solid standard on our behaviors; however, the chief benefit of learning history, as the statement argues, is to diminishing the groundless public opinion that we are sharply different from the people at any other time.

Many individuals, if not the most, harbor the illusion that we are different from; and even superior to, our predecessors; and this superficial superiority comes from our significant technology development. Undoubtedly, we, human beings, have experience a bombardment of technological innovation in the last thousands of years, on the top of list are definitely the three times of Industrial Revolution, which has greatly increased the productivity and capacity of industrial factory from sparse little handicraftsmen to large-scaled international enterprises, but also has agitated for social change from the most rigorous slave regime to the democratic and communist society today. Nevertheless, the individuals who indiscriminately bear this illusion just simply get the difference in human beings from the sharply different degree on scientific and democratic realm. Furthermore, never can the modern citizens assure a practical and accurate comparison to the people who lived before them. The most direct video and audio documents are still not exact and vivid enough to demonstrate the interior thought and value which is the basic nature of every individual, not to mention the years when only paper material or even carving is available. Actually, this ironical superiority is generated from the indiscriminately analysis and the shortage of substantial document. Also, the increasingly progress on human rights ostensibly add further credence to the falsehood that we are different; however they beg the question by mixing the definition of human rights with humans. Human right is nothing more than a simple exterior aspect of human’s living standard.

The semblance with our previous counterparts comes in the following three major aspects. At first, we are born every little the same biologically, and this is the most obvious part that we can simply judge from body structure. The second point is that the citizen, which composes every society with legal system and country, plays a never-changing role--the country represents political and coercive forces and tends to deploy all the resources and powers to serve the interests of the political group in control and also to deal with things that threaten the very survival of the state; the citizen is the inalienable part that ruled by the country, and; on the other hand, serve the very interest of their homeland; and law serves as a tool to support country’s governance and bridge the hidden gap between country and its citizens. The individual who superficially suppose this changing role of citizen as history progress do not understand the basic nature of country as organized forces and citizen as governed integration. The third point is that human’s thirsty for the unknown and courageous exploration for nature always remains the same. This statement can be aptly illustrated by countless scientific and artistic breakthroughs along the history. After thousands of failure, Thomas Edison eventually found the perfect material to accomplish his lamp wick; Galileo overthrow the sun-centered theory that strongly entrenched in the doctrines of the Catholic Church at the expense of his precious life; Beethoven is acclaimed as the most prolific and famous composer and musician to ever live regardless of his entire deafness, all the elite above have tried every possibility and racked their mind to explore the unknown and nature in whole lifetime.

In sum, the public opinion that we are different with our predecessors materialize out of thin air result from our groundless inference and lack of effective proof; actually, as the similar body structure, role in society and desire for exploration, we and our predecessors are of little difference.