Present your perspective on the issue below, using relevant reasons and/or examples to support your views.
“Important truths begin as outrageous, or at least uncomfortable, attacks upon the accepted wisdom of the time.”
According to Newton’s law of motion, “Any body tends to be in its state of motion or rest, until and unless subjected by some external force.” Same principle applies to the accepted wisdom of the time also. “Accepted wisdom of the time”, what is most important in these words is the word ‘time’. It’s true that many a thing use to starts because times demand it, and in due course it becomes accepted wisdom. But, any accepted wisdom use to follow Newton’s law of motion even if it use to get worn out with time; and this is the reason why any change in accepted wisdom is meet with stiff resistance. So, in the terms of Newton’s law, we can say, “Any accepted wisdom tends to be in its state of acceptance or denial, until and unless subjected to some external force.”
To better understand- why any important truth begin as outrageous, or at least uncomfortable, attack upon the accepted wisdom of the time, we have to delve into the functioning of the human brain. How human brain use to function in the case of accepted wisdom? Two different processes mainly control human cognizance: active and passive. In any moment of time our human brain use to perceive things actively and passively. With the passage of time, accepted wisdom moves from our active brain part to the passive brain part, and gradually our brain use to stop analyzing the prose and cons of the accepted wisdom. This is the reason that gradually our brain uses to perceive accepted wisdom as eternal truth, and the brain opposes any change in the accepted wisdom, even if it’s right. This resistance to change is nothing but a kind of reflex action.
The Essay on Wisdom: a positive human trait
Wisdom A Positive Human Trait Wisdom is not simply intelligence or scholarship. It is a combination of knowledge and good judgement based on experience.("Wisdom" 96) As one familiar quote states, wisdom comes through suffering.(Bartlett 68) You must undergo something in order to fully comprehend it. No one is born wise. Wisdom is gained only through acquiring insight and understanding. Often, ...
Several examples can be cited from the past, where important truths have begun as outrageous, or at least uncomfortable, attacks upon the accepted wisdom of the time. When for the first time, Carl Linnaeus placed humans with monkeys in his classification scheme; it was met with a lot of objection, not only from religious people but also by many scientist and elite researcher of that time. Most of the people at that time posed strong resistance to this theory, but finally it was accepted with time. In a similar and more pronounced event, Galileo was placed under house arrest for his theory that earth use to revolve around the sun. That time his theory was treated as heresy because of well-accepted fact at that time that sun use to revolve around the earth and not the opposite.
In most of the well-accepted social customs, which need to be changed with time, we use to notice that any change is meet with a lot of resistance. One prominent example of this is sati pratha, which was practiced in India for many decades and still we use to hear some of the cases from the remote part of the country. During earlier time when Indian kings were attacked by Muslim invaders and defeated, the ladies whose husbands have been killed in the war, were burn alive with the dead body of their husband to save them from the molestation by the invading army. This has taken the form of custom with time and when Raja Ram Mohan Rai has started his fight against this custom, it was met with stiff resistance from the orthodox class of the Hindu society.
But, there is another aspect of this statement. Not only implementations of the important truth are met with resistance, but any implementation, either right or wrong, are met with the same resistance.
The Essay on Resistance to Change 4
Change is a very natural part of life. Very rarely do things remain the same either in our personal lives or our professional lives. People must be able to adapt to these changes in order to keep up with those around them. Some of these changes are easy to take on as people buy into them very quickly and easily. Other changes are met with resistance. If not handled properly, this resistance to the ...
In conclusion, we can say that not only important truths begin as outrageous attacks upon the accepted wisdom of the time but also any change in the accepted wisdom, either wrong or right, begins in the same manner. So, it is ‘change’ in the ‘accepted wisdom’, which is met with stiff resistance and not only important truth. ‘Change’ is the rule of nature and we should be prudent to that change.
NOTE: This essay is one of the essays from the GRE issue section. Any comment or more number of points on this topic is cordially welcomed. This section I have started as an endeavor to write all the essays of the GRE issue section. So, it will be great help to all the students preparing for the GRE or any other such examinations, where analytical writing is an important section. Please donate as many essays as you can or at least whatever relevant points you are having. Don’t forget to mention the term GRE before the start of your essay topic. Place all the essays in the English section while submitting any of these essays or point (Select ‘English’ under ‘Subject’ heading while making your submission of the essay).
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