- The surest indicator of a great nation is not the achievements of its rulers, artists, or scientists, but the general well-being of all its people.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.________________________________________
Saying that the surest indicator of a great nation is not the achievements of its rulers, artists, or scientists, but the general well-being of all its people, the speaker asserts that the competence of a society is measured not by a few elites of the society but by the living conditions of average citizens. In some sense, it is true that a few excellent individuals in any society are too unique and exceptional to represent properly the overall state of the country. Still, I firmly believe that, if a nation’s greatness involves its potential and future progress, we cannot ignore those several excellent figures, an invaluable asset of the society.
Of course, few would disagree that a few outstanding individuals may sometimes mislead us in evaluating the actual ability of a society. If greatness of a nation is defined as its present ability to provide its citizens with general happiness, security, and material abundance, there seems no relation between the society’s competence and the fact that it has several super-elites. In fact, although Mexico today has two super-rich in the world’s top ten rich guys while Germany fails to have one in the list, we hardly say Mexico is greater than Germany; the fact that the former has two in spite of its notorious general poverty may be simply revealing its malfunction in social redistribution system, not its greatness.
Then, do the achievements of a few excellent always have nothing to do with the capacity of a nation? When it comes to the creative designing and preparation of the future, having one or two outstanding individuals is itself the best resource of an organization or a society. Just as the fate of Apple experienced huge turnarounds according to its opportunity to go with an individual, Steve Jobs, the destiny of a country may be profoundly affected by whether it has a far-sighted political leader or not. By their own ability to design the future creatively, an ability that cannot be earned by collective efforts, those few individuals can wield a power to change the fortunes of their countries.
Further, the significance of exceptional individuals in assessing greatness of a country can be understood in another sense. Turning to their power to inspire younger generations, it is clear that the general competence of a nation can be properly measured by those few individuals. Although he was only one person who enjoyed his own fortune as successful athlete in English Premiere League, Jisung Park, a Korean soccer player has made huge impacts on numerous youngsters in his country; when many children have dreams to be a good player as him, his success is already no longer his own. It has inspired those young players to have pride, dream, and even will-power to endure certain types of fatalism or defeatism. In short, sometimes, the achievement of one person is a psychological asset to encourage the whole country.
The given statement asserts that a great nation is represented not by the achievements of a few excellent leaders but by a good life of its ordinary citizens. In some sense, it is undeniable that the power of a country is ultimately subject to the general well-being and actual level of happiness enjoyed by its people. However, I still believe that having distinguished elites in politics, arts, sciences, and economy will give a nation a variety of unfathomable potentials, especially in terms of the size of dreams people can have and the level of optimism they can assume.
Of course, few would disagree that the general welfare of average citizens is critical to tell a great country from one that fails to gain respect from other countries. With regard to the level of happiness that a country can offer to its people, a society with such widespread social problems as poverty, illiteracies among many, poor health-care systems for the ordinary people and so on can never be categorized as a great nation. We respect many northern and western European countries not because they have several wealthy tycoons or world-leading scholars and politicians; rather, in my opinion, one of the important reasons why we give credence and respect to them is their well-established “social” welfare systems—people in these counties can use public schools for high quality education, visit hospitals for good health, and work for their own happiness, all of which are limited to the few wealthy in some countries. Without “socially sharable happiness,” a country, even though it has lots of talented and chosen elites, does not seem to deserve respect from other countries.
Nevertheless, this does not preclude the importance of several heroic and charismatic elites in making a country great and respectable. In terms of the initial design and planning of the future a country wishes to have, we can safely say that the greatness of any nation depends more on several insightful leaders than on the ideas among the general public. Imagine the present Great Britain without so many excellent political leaders it has produced such as Queen Elizabeth, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, and Tony Blair. What if the United States were deprived of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theo Roosevelt? Though the strength of a country cannot exclude the collective ability of grassroots, its fate, especially during a series of inevitable crises, is generally determined by those few judicious and brave designers.
In addition, the role of several elites in making a country greater can be evident in terms of their values in stimulating the public’s psychology. The current power of Japan in world economy and world politics is said to be being prepared just after the Second World War that left only great despair and frustration among the Japanese. It is well known that they revamped their new hope, confidence, and pride from those several artists, political thinkers, and scientists who helped all its people overcome agonies and dismays by their respective talents. This also says that the potential of a nation is not a simple function of the average state of all its people but, rather, a consequence of a few good leaders.