 Sun Sep 23, 2007 18:32 pm GRE Essay: Contemporary problems are harder than the problems of yore. |
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Hello!
Question:
People are mistaken when they assume that the problems they confront are more complex and challenging than the problems faced by their predecessors. This illusion is eventually dispelled with increased knowledge and experience.
Answer:
Whether a particular problem is more complicated now than it was in the past depends, of course, on its type. Nevertheless, I tend to agree with the speaker that the complexity of the most issues remains practically the same as it was earlier.
Progress of our society is inevitable: every year brings new technologies and new problems related with them. Our knowledge expands so rapidly that people have to learn much more than predecessors, being students to decades. A person has to complete about twenty years of tough studying now in order to receive a good job and enjoy high esteem among peers. A century ago, however, one could receive only basic knowledge to be seen as a highly educated individual. As the result a lot of people believe that it was much easier to be successful in the past; but people live longer now, so it’s possible to devote more time to education.
Many contemporary young scientists think that it was far easier to make great inventions in days of old. For instance, Charles Darwin known nothing about molecular biology and genetics, he proposed relatively simple theory and has been considered to be one of the greatest savants who have ever lived. Today, every young biologist is aware of the natural selection and most of these scholars believe that it was not so complicated to invent it in comparison to new DNA investigations, which they are realizing. In my opinion, however, the bygone problems are easier than up-to-date ones only absolutely, not relatively. Indeed, it cost as much efforts to Charles Darwin to invent his theory as for a modern scientist to understand the purpose of a certain gene, because the former didn’t have attainments, which are available for the latter.
If we consider other parts of human existence, we will realize that some of the encountered problems were even harder in the past then know. Many ancient savants were unable to continue their work because of severe deceases, which are treated now with ease.
In the highly hierarchical society of the Middle Ages people coped with so tremendous problems in order to raise above their class, that seem unbelievable now. Since the causes of main problems are the same, I could argue that we confront similar issues, especially concerning interactions with other people. The young believe that their love challenges are more complicated that their parents’ ones; the poor believe that it was very easy to become reach in the past, but impossible now and so on. In my point of view, most of these problems, in spite of the devising of the Internet and jet aircrafts, have had the same causes and difficulties today as in the Middle Ages and even in the Ancient World.
“Knowledge is the power”, - said one great man and his maxim is completely right for the subject being discussed. New experience and knowledge provide us with possibility to understand the feelings of our predecessors. We would never look arrogantly on scientists of the past if we known a few about their rude techniques and exciting conjectures. Speaking with the people who are older than we are, we realize that their problems were the same.
In sum, I tend to agree with the speaker that the relative complication of the issues we met is the same as years ago; sometimes it’s even lower. And only new information and knowledge help us to understand this simple fact. |
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Konstantin
I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 11 Nov 2006
Posts: 118
Location: Saratov,Russia
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