That people should never be satisfied with what they have and should always strive for something new and different seems to be a propensity inherent in human nature. 来源:免费范文网
www.qc99.comWe have all read in Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice that “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife.” This only testifies to one aspect, which is also a necessary condition, of human existence.
On the most abstract level, the spirit of dissatisfaction constitutes the very force that has propelled human civilization forward in the course of human history. Stimulated by the thirst for knowledge from within and challenged by the harshness of the environment from without, man has evolved triumphantly from the most primitive to the most advanced and sophisticated. If it had contented our pristine ancestors to dwell in caves or to lead their nomadic life, they would have remained some mere vagabond creatures, lurking in the unfriendly forests and in the hostile wilderness, forever on the alert so as not to fall prey to some ferocious predators. Consequently we can safely conclude that it is precisely man’s inquiring mind and his aspiring nature that distinguish himself from other animals. In the modern world, this insatiable desire on the part of mankind has given rise to the most spectacular development of science and technology. We know that, with all the material wealth we have accumulated, we can live a passable, even a well-to-do life. However, we are also fully aware that life of this kind is not the best. Therefore, we travel into the unknown depths of the universe to explore its mysteries and we undertake perilous expeditions to the South Pole under the hope of discovering alternative energy sources to compensate for those which we already have, but which are depleting at an alarming rate. Every single advance in science and technology is invariably the result of man’s incessant quest for the new, the different and the better. Finally, the turn of the century has witnessed a sustained proliferation of “isms”, both in arts and in literature, such as Impressionism, Expressionism, Symbolism, Cubism, Fauvism, Surrealism, Structuralism and the like. Why? The reason is simple. This flourishing is a direct response to people’s discontent with hackneyed and stereotyped modes of expression whose expressiveness has been worn away by centuries of overuse. Appreciating classical masterpieces only, say, Mona Lisa by Da Vinci, is a dull job. By contrast, Picasso the cubist has expressed a profound truth in Guernica with a refreshingly avant-garde freshness and originality. The existing conditions are always being transcended by the new and the different. Admittedly, there are possible exceptions to this general rule of dissatisfaction. An ancient Chinese saying that “those who constantly feel satisfied tend to be happy” is quite illustrative in this respect. But I would rather interpret this as implying that people’s sense of happiness and satisfaction results from what they have achieved, including what is new and what is different. After all, human beings are by no means the jackdaw in Aesop’s fable who could afford to indulge complacently but vainly in singing and dancing without knowing where his next meal would come from.