new essay

[tans]

40. "The media—and society in general—mistakenly expect an individual to speak for a particular group, whether or not that individual truly represents the views of the entire group."
The author contends that the media and society in general mistakenly expect an individual to speak for a particular group whether or not the individual truly represent the views of the entire group. I can not concede the claim wholeheartedly .Though it is true that society expect one individual to speak for a particular group but it is the group's responsibility to select the speaker. Society or media will not decide who will speak or whether the speaker is the actual representative of the group.
To patronize my view first I am taking the example of a cricket team. It is very natural that one team will win and one will loose the game when a match is played between two teams. After completion of the each international level or national level game, it is mandatory for both of the team's captains to attain media interview to explain their advantages or shortcomings. But obviously the captain will not be decided by the media, team itself will decide who will be their leader.
Is it necessary for a leader or a representative to share the views of the entire group? Not necessarily. Suppose a group is containing hundred members. Then each of these members will have different point of view on a particular topic. And in our societal level it is not a pragmatic thinking that all these hundred people will express their ideas if they are to present their views on a certain topic. In that case it will be a total chaos. Let me take a hypothetical example of a locality. Suppose authority has decided to sanction the proposal of a school building or a hospital in that locality and asked to express the views and the prior need of the dwellers. Obviously authority will not listen to all thousand people of that area. So they will have to select a representative. But side by side it is also true that different person will have different views on this matter and representative will express the views of the majority, not the views of all denizens.
Now what will happen if all members of a group try to express their own ideas and act accordingly? In a battle ground, every soldier is subordinated to a commander. And they are to follow the orders of the commander. But in the field if every soldier tries to attack their opponent when ever they feel suitable, then it will be an anarchy and lead to the disastrous defeat in the battle for that very country.
So coming to the conclusion, it is necessary to select a representative for a group to speak for the group to society or media. Now it is the group’s responsibility to select the proper person who will carry out the task better than others.

[tans]

plzz rate it and obvious request to compose one to my essay mates-cooldude, rashmi, kinshuk and others

[cooldude001]

"The media—and society in general—mistakenly expect an individual to speak for a particular group, whether or not that individual truly represents the views of the entire group."


The assertion claims that the society often considers an individual's statements as being representative of an entire group, even when they merely represent his own views. While this may be true in many cases, it would be making an unqualified generalisation to assert that this phenomenon always holds.

There have been many instances in our history when labelling of individuals occurred against the wishes of the subject in question. Many a times have we noticed a famous personality like a political leader expressing his own personal views on a topic, only to find later that their views have been attributed to the whole government. Such instances abound in chronicles of human history, and in contemporary newspapers.

For example, a few years back a minister in British governemnt spoke out against homosexual movement in a a personal interview. This led to an outrage and demand for the resignation of the whole governement. Finally, after much mud-slinging, the minister was forced to resign. As another instance, Prince of Wales recently made an uncharitable demand about the nature of Indian nationalist movement. Such views were seen in India as being representative of the British governement and they gave rise to intense movements in India, even after several disclaimers by the British governement. As a final example, consider the case where a sports editor in a newspaper in India, in a private interview, expressed his opinion against women's reservation in parliamentary seats. Much hue and cry ensued, as this view was seen to be the formal policy of the newspaper. After several rebuttals by the media house in question, saying that these views are only personal views of the sports editor and do neither reflect nor affect the general views of the newspaper, this editor had to resign.

Even in the realm of bureaucracy, off-the-cuff remarks made by officials in a govenrment ministry are seen as indicative of the government policy. An athelete who is caught of doping in Olympics leads to adverse views against the whole contingent. Same goes for personal comments by a senior official in the business community. An effect of this phenomenon can be seen in the rapidly proliferating media relation companies that work assiduously to maintain a good public image of celebrities and high-profile businessmen.

On the other hand, there have also been instances where the views of certain individuals were classified as being relevant only to their community, when in effect, they addressed much larger concerns.For example, while Mahatma Gandhi in India always spoke for all humanity, his ideals are often quoted only in the context of Indian freedom movement. Similarly, the ideals and struggles of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King were relevant for all people, cutting across the barriers of race and nationality, yet their statements are often compartmentalised so that they refer only to the community from which these leaders hail.

While all the above evidences seem to strengthen the argument, it would be a fallacy and a dangerous generalisation not to present a few examples when the views and opinions of an individuals are considered as being their own. In many cases, the remarks of radical writers are regarded as merely being a reflections of their own opinions. For example, the book "Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie offended many fundamentalist Muslim groups in Iran, and led to a fatwa on his head. Yet, his views as expressed in the book were not seen as representative of the larger Indian Muslim community to which he belongs. Similarly, often the remarks of actors and actresses in Hollywood are often seen as expressio of their personal opinions, rather than a public announcement of the Hollywood community's views.

In sum, we conclude that many a times this is the case, that the remarks of certain individuals are seen to be representative of their community, even when they are nothing more than an expression of personal opinions. This can be attributed to the basic human instinct to classify and generalise everything - including movements, people and opinions. However, this is not always true, and valid exceptions exist. Consequently, while the assertion of the topic prima-facie does carry some merit, it should be qualified and judged on a case-by-case basis before being outrightly sanctioned.

[cooldude001]

Hey Tans, after writing mine and reading yours (in that order, ), I think your ideas and points made are way better than mine. :-)

I ran out of ideas midway through the topic. What do you folks do in such a case ?

[BeHappy]

Hi Tans,

I like your essay. Good use of vocab with simple and nice language. It is convincing and shows lot of improvement. I know I am way behind all of you and can not write like this.
Tans you try very difficult topics. Do you select them from GRE.org pool?

Cooldude, i think this is more than enough as u were able to say what u want to...

[cooldude001]

BeHappy, the size of essay is probably allright, but when I ran out of ideas, I resorted to deviateing from the topic and repeating my points .. (after spending three minutes thinking about my summer vacations ) ... I was truly struck by a writer's block. The end product, I think is pretty detestable !!

Tell me, what do you guys do when struck by a writer's block ?

[tans]

hi cooldude
ur essay, in this case is digressing at some points and example of dope case of and salman rushdie r not sounding great. better take a more generl point of vie,not going for big examples of big personalities. otherwise, size of essay is fine . do u think, the essay size of mine will cause prob in exam as it is too short?
hi BeHappy,yaaa i take the topics from pool and generally try to compose those not given in ARCO book.

[cooldude001]

That's right Tans, you've hit it right. I will try to do better next time onwards.

I think the size of your essay is alright. The quality of your ideas and points made, however, swings from essay to essay, just like mine. For example, this was a good one. Still, if you think you can increase the length of the essay without an adverse impact on the quality, I would advise that.

Hey, do you have an online version of the ARCO book ? If yes, can you email it to me? You have my email id .

By the way, what are you doing this early in the morning? night-outs? :-D same here.. :-)

[tans]

hey,
thanx for ur advise.
to my ultimate disappointment yesterday i slept at 10-30, so morning started at 4-30 for me. it is quite natural for me. now, i m not having on line version of that book,

[gre_newbie]

This issue stimulus is difficult in my mind.

Can anyone share some additional ideas?