WORDS: 661 TIME: 0:45:00 DATE: 2007-7-29
According to the title of the statement, scandals are useful in certain areas by calling our attention to some problems in ways that no speaker or reformer ever could. Undeniably, it is quite appealing staying at a normative position, and I consent insofar as scandals do have positive effect. Nevertheless, scandals can sometimes distract our attention from more important things and thus reflect their negative side.
It's true that the speaker's assertion that scandals can be useful in politics, academia or other areas has many merits. Scandals are incontrovertibly part and parcel in uncovering some significant societal problems which usually are neglected by people. UA case in point lies in the notorious sexual scandal of President Clinton. It was the demand of the mass public that forced the related department to investigate the matter immediately and thoroughly. And the end result was the start of a new campaign-finance reform which benefited the society at last. Another example lies in the realm of academia: South Korea stem cell scandal. It turned out that the once proclaimed great advancement in stem cell research was merely a lie woven by data forgery, exaggerated experimental progress and even morally dubious cloning-needed way eggs coming from several young female scientists. Can you imagine the anger, disgust and frustration of the whole scientific world? Have you noticed the quite efficient series of measures taken by the authority to correct the mistakes? Still do you feel the change in the mass public that they no longer take in certain proclamation that easily? Not for the scandal, such fatal problems might still have not be discovered, let alone solved. Therefore, scandals serve a vital part, as expected in digging out some deeply hidden truth, as a sensitive nose is to a gundog or sharp eyes are to an eagle.U
Beyond this concession, however, I still cannot totally agree on this statement because it seems to recommend that scandals can force us to pay attention to problems in ways that even speaker and reformer can not, so they are spotless and useful at all time. But experiences as human beings inform us that sometimes scandals draw undue attentions and resulting in a series meaningless effects.
UConsider, for example, a singer in our country, who claimed to compose and write words himself, once received the extreme popularity among the mass population. Four years ago, a scandal threw stones at him claiming that 60% of lyric in one of his song was the same as one of a best-selling writer's poems. What's more, the singer and the writer were known as "good friends" by the public. Things in succession were the ruthless accusing from the writer and her supporters, the ardent justification from the singer and his true-blue fans, and the endless dispute between the two groups of people. Ridiculously enough, whether the scandal is true or not is still unknown today.
