Please be critical...I welcome any comment~~I will be glad to read your essays to return the favor.
Growing up in China, I have been told that socialism is the best in the world. I was convinced, until I grew up and was convinced again democracy is the best. But as I read more editorials, I became more puzzled. They go around the same arguments, quoting the same social problems and political events over and over again, but none of them touches the fundamental problem. Everyone was equally convincing, and I got brainwashed after I read every article. When I argue with people about politics I quote fragments of ideas from random articles instead of forming my own new ideas. (How do you distinct the difference between quoting others and forming your own? It is the difference between a bad "intellectual conversation" and a good Model UN draft resolution)
But one day I ran into Hayek's Road to Selfdom. It brought me to late 19th to early 20th century, when the debate between socialism and democracy, planned economy and market economy occur mainly between intellectuals and had yet to transform into ideology wars between massive campaigns. They were systematical theories touching the nature of the regimes instead of superficial analysis of random events, and do not rush to accusations. The stack of books on my knees carries a real constructive debate, while New York Times and People's Daily carries a quarrel, or a street fight. Suddenly it dawned on me: what I have been lacking is an individual mind that I can make rational judgments myself, because my understanding on society and politics are fragments, accumulated from the sea of editorials and other articles I read. I have a sudden urge to read all the books and understand their arguments-by Karl Max, by George Orwell, by Hayek, by Keynes...
This was when the power of "systematical learning" first shed light on me. It is the foundation of independent mind, of expanded scope, of critical thinking, of all the innovations and developments. The true meaning of liberal arts education is not memorizing figures and facts-which is something we do often and take for granted. It is, by laying foundations, change the way we think and get us prepared for a life time pursuit of intellectual interest. And the true goal of learning history, by tracing back the important events of the past, is to understand the present and learn how to think about them. Each major event in history opens a new door, behind which is a gold mine of human wisdom. History is a sea of human wisdom, and I hope Cornell University's history major could help me navigate through it.
In freshmen and sophomore year, I would take introductory units, extending over as much fields as possible. Not only remembering figures and facts on textbooks and reading materials, but also hitting the library often and having in-depth discussions with the faculties. From junior year, I plan to participate in research programs, to combine what I learnt in classroom with practice and gain a deeper understanding. All the while I plan to extend my passion and experience in Model United Nations, since, as I mentioned above, cultivate innovation and creation.
