Can success be disastrous?
In order to prepare for the SAT 1 test, I'll be writing at least one essay daily. I'll be posting them online too (complete with all the grammar, vocabularly and spelling errors)--- I know they are pretty shitty, but do allow for the fact that I only have 25 mins to write them.
Can success be disastrous?
Can success, sweet success, ever be bad, or even disastrous? Can the accomplishment of our goals, our dreams, ever be bad, or even disastrous? I believe that success is by and large good, yet it is not perfect, for success can sometimes be detrimental to either our ownselves or to the wider community or the world.
Man is not perfect: we are sometimes driven by emotions to do things which may not be in our best interests. A person who has caught his spouse committing adultery may be overwhelmed by anger and wish, desperately, to kill them. Should he succeed, he will face either a lifetime of incarceration or the electric chair for a decision driven by emotions which he, in a clearer state of mind, may regret. When our rational facilities fail to function and we act on our emotions, success may ultimately be disastrous.
Success confers on us a sense of pride and confidence; yet too much success can also confer on us the evil cousins of pride and confidence: arrogance and complacency, twin terrors which often suffice to ensure disaster in the future. The annals of history are replete with tales of all-conquering generals who fall to an inferior army precisely because they, swell-headed by past successes, underestimated their enemies.
Sometimes, when considering the net effects of success, we have to evaulate the results on both the person and his surroundings. Consider Hitler and his worl war two campaign: had Operation Sea Lion or Operation Barraossa succeed, would the allied forces be able to stop him, to stop his genocide, to stop his inhumane treatment of citizens and POWs alike? His success would
lead to a castaclysmic results on the rest of the world. Should the Al-Qaeda succeed in detonating a dirty bomb in down town New York, in Paris, in the Hague, the ensuing chaos, loss of life and the inevitable Western/Middle Eastern divide would be disastrous.
Thus, while success can sometimes be good, it can also be disastrous.
Addenedum: Damn, so many blatant mistakes. I really need to allocate sometime for a final run-through.
Can success be disastrous?
Can success, sweet success, ever be bad, or even disastrous? Can the accomplishment of our goals, our dreams, ever be bad, or even disastrous? I believe that success is by and large good, yet it is not perfect, for success can sometimes be detrimental to either our ownselves or to the wider community or the world.
Man is not perfect: we are sometimes driven by emotions to do things which may not be in our best interests. A person who has caught his spouse committing adultery may be overwhelmed by anger and wish, desperately, to kill them. Should he succeed, he will face either a lifetime of incarceration or the electric chair for a decision driven by emotions which he, in a clearer state of mind, may regret. When our rational facilities fail to function and we act on our emotions, success may ultimately be disastrous.
Success confers on us a sense of pride and confidence; yet too much success can also confer on us the evil cousins of pride and confidence: arrogance and complacency, twin terrors which often suffice to ensure disaster in the future. The annals of history are replete with tales of all-conquering generals who fall to an inferior army precisely because they, swell-headed by past successes, underestimated their enemies.
Sometimes, when considering the net effects of success, we have to evaulate the results on both the person and his surroundings. Consider Hitler and his worl war two campaign: had Operation Sea Lion or Operation Barraossa succeed, would the allied forces be able to stop him, to stop his genocide, to stop his inhumane treatment of citizens and POWs alike? His success would
lead to a castaclysmic results on the rest of the world. Should the Al-Qaeda succeed in detonating a dirty bomb in down town New York, in Paris, in the Hague, the ensuing chaos, loss of life and the inevitable Western/Middle Eastern divide would be disastrous.
Thus, while success can sometimes be good, it can also be disastrous.
Addenedum: Damn, so many blatant mistakes. I really need to allocate sometime for a final run-through.
posted by jEsTeR | 1:19 pm
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