GRE Issue: "The stability of a society depends on how it responds to the extremes of human behavior."

My Response Essay:

A society can suffer or gain as a result of extremes of human behavior. Moreover, in many cases, it will depend upon from which side one is looking at the issue. For example, if one group attacks the other, and succeeds in its cause -- whatever it may be -- one part of society may conceive it as a gain and the other may think of it as a token of disgrace. Admittedly, on certain occasions, how the society responds to the extremes of human behavior may also determine its very survival.

One good example that pops up in mind is that of secession of what we now know as Pakistan from India when India as a colonist, got emancipated from Britain. Basically, the contention of Muslim community leaders was that they needed a separate state on which government of India should have no control. Leades of the other view -- that everyone has fought for independence and now let us work together for India's progress rather than disintegrating ourselves -- first were reluctant for India's partition. But when the contention started manifesting itself in the form of violence and riots wherein a lot of innocents were being killed, the pro-unity leaders gave in and Pakistan was formed as a sovereign state. This event clearly suggests that the then society was not able to accommodate the exteremities exerted by a group of people and had to give in to its own disintegration.

American Revolution provides yet another supporting case. During those days, the American colonies were awakening to Britain's atrocities and injustice which were numerous and varied. For example, after the Seven Years' War, Britain had suffered a significant blow to its treasury. And now it tried to recover that in terms of tax revenues that would also come from its colonies. To serve this end, the Revenue Act and the Stamp Act were passed by the parliament. These were met with resistence and violence from the American colonies due to which the Stamp Act was revoked. But still the colonists had to pay more taxes than what they paid earlier. Moreover, considering the financial feebleness of its tea merchants, Britain allowed tea exporters to directly sell tea to retailers instead of routing it through traders. This met with particular ire from local traders, and at a huge tea party at Boston, these traders impostured as Indians and threw legions of tea into the bay -- the event we now remember as Boston Tea Party. Developments like these led to the big American Revolution which was great event in American history. Thus, it was again the extremes of the behavior of the ruler towards the ruled which precipitated in the awakenning of the society and, in a sense to the re-formation of the society.



Even in today's age, our society faces a threat from the prospect of how much damage an extreme act of today's human beings can inflict upon it. Man has invented deadly weapons of which nuclear weapons call for the most attention. In this era, every nation has forayed in the frenzied race for supremacy in nuclear capabilities. Iran has started its nuclear enrichment programme, and North Korea is not willing to curb its ongoing prgrammes. And all this, in a way exposes the inefficacy of United Nations -- or the effort of all the nations to make it effective. Whatever it is, that today's man has the power to destroy the whole civilization is inconvertible. In this context, it is worth mentioning that it is a threat not only from individual governments but -- and perhaps more alarmingly -- from the terrorists who do not belong to any particular country.

In sum, it is of paramount importance how a society is able to cope with the extremes of human behavior. History informs us that if the society is in favor of the cause of this extremes, it might get what it desires. On the contrary, if the extremities are targeted at disintegrating the society, the latter may have to acquiesce. In fact, given the 20th century inventions of nuclear weapons, the very survival of the society or rather the civilization itself may be contingent upon if it would be able to prevent the aplication of these inventions for destruction. I emphasize on the word "prevent", for the current state of science and technology does not give a favorble estimate of who can survive such a disctruction if it takes place.

The above is an unrated response. For 6 scored essays, see Essays scored 6 by ETS's E-rater

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