Issue 236 "Encouraging young people to believe that they can accomplish GREat things if they try hard enough is both misleading and potentially harmful."
所谓的大事有两种:现实和不现实的.现实的是有益的,不现实的是有害的
1)鼓励年轻人完成不现实的大事对自身的危害
2)对于社会发展和进步的不利影响
3)鼓励年轻人完成现实可行的大事的好处
Is the advice, encouraging young people to believe that they can accomplish GREat things if they try hard enough both misleading and potentially harmful? Before we answer this question, we have to convince that the great things take two forms: one is fantasy while the other is realistic. If the assertion is confine to the former, I agree with the speaker. In addition, the later one can help shape and form the correct ambition and value system of the young in their life.
Firstly, encouraging young people to believe they can accomplish the GREat things that are fantasy or not realistic is “both misleading and potentially harmful” to themselves. Common sense inform us that incorrect goals can lead young people to accomplish little in their life or even do some disserves to the society. Youngsters do not have social experiences and might be easily tempted by some fantasy ideas or whims. They will engage in futile efforts to accomplish those so-called great things. Not only waste their valuable time, they but also delay their academic studies and never succeed. Consider, for example, some young people who consider establishing a utopian society as their great things, and they work hard to complete the wish. Any informed person knows the utopian is fantasy, but these young people living under this illusion will drop out and fail for nothing. Therefore, encouraging them to believe that they can complete this fantasy thing is so misleading and potentially harmful to their development.
Secondly, encouraging youngsters to believe that they can achieve GREat things that are unrealistic threatens to social development and progress as well. Our social development and progress are relied on the contributions of those people who hold realistic opinions, positive ambition, and right value system. The youngsters who live under the illusion that they can accomplish great things that are fantasy or unrealistic will be occupied by their “great things” and become solitary and lack cooperating spirit. They cannot survive in the modern society, and their big goals would drive them to do something extreme as crime and theft, which can threaten to the social stability and the public security, hence tamper the social progress and development. So it is dangerous to encourage young people to achieve great things that are fantasy.
Finally, urging the young to accomplish the GREat things that are realistic can serve them well in their life journey. Any one needs an ambition in its life to guide the way to the success. Realistic goals shaped by young people exert a favorable influence on their development and their future careers. The young will face many difficulties and frustrations in their life, only the belief that they can accomplish great things motivates them to resolve these problems and ultimately approach the success. Many examples illustrate this point, such as the American founders, Gandi, and Martin Luther King who were encouraged to believe that they would achieve great things through hard work as a youngster. Otherwise, America and India are now still colonies of England, and the African Americans are still segregated to back of buses, never attain the equal rights.
In sum, the GREat things have two forms, fantasy and realistic. And the speaker unfairly overlooks the positive effects of the belief of accomplishing great things that are realistic, whereas the fantasy ones are both misleading and potential harmful as the speaker maintains. We should encourage young people to accomplish realistically great things thorough their earnest work that make sense.
