Yang Yilin

Professor Dykhuizen

Expository Writing

June 13, 1999

Persistence

            I always have my own opinions.  When I was an elementary school student, I would often stick to my ideas because I always thought that I am right and did not accept the opinions of other people.  My mother used to say to me, �gYou should have ears to listen to what other people say.  Without taking other people�f sayings seriously, other people never become real friends with you.�h At first, I didn�ft understand what my mother really wanted to say, but I gradually comprehended the meaning.  Then, I started to control myself in order to get rid of the persistence in my thoughts.  Today, I am more flexible and I can listen to other people�fs ideas without feeling nervous.  However, I often use the term, persistence, in my life.  To me, the word, persistence, has three different ways to use. 

              To begin with, I use the word, persistence, toward people who have good logic to support their theories, but whose ideas are not accepted at first.  In this case, people continue insisting on the reliability of their theories in order to convince or persuade other people even though almost all people do not think that the new theories are right.  For example, Galileo Galilei, a great scientist, found the theory that the earth moves by observing the satellites of Jupiter.  However, people at that time could not believe the theory because they believed the theory that the earth is located in the center of the universe, and the other heavenly bodies moves around the earth.  Therefore, Galileo persisted in his theory and went on insisting upon his idea.  However, the theory was accepted gradually.  Darwin, who found the theory of evolution, also stuck to his theory because he thought that the theory was logical and right.  Although it was a very epoch-making and surprising discovery, people in the world were puzzled at first.  Today, many people stand for the theory of evolution.  As you can see, this type of persistence always has logical or strong reasons, and the theories and ideas are usually right and accepted finally.  Especially, scholars and scientists tend to fall into this type of persistence. 

              Second type of persistence is more common.  It�fs used toward people who stick to their religious beliefs.  These religious people do not have logical reasons to continue to believe their ideas, but they strongly persist in them.  For instance, Christianity accepted the theory that the earth is located in the center of the universe, and the other heavenly bodies move around the earth.  Christian did not try to admit the new theory of Galileo Galilei that is logical and persuasive for a few centuries.  Another example is North Korea.  There is an idea that the economy of North Korea is terrible because the other countries bully North Korea.  Although most people there continue to believe the religious idea, people in the other countries think that this idea is very strange and can not understand it.  In these cases such as Christianity and North Korea, people�fs persistence in these thoughts is very firm and strong, but the religious ideas are very often wrong. 

              The most common persistence in thoughts is caused by pride and experiences.  All people have pride and experiences to some extent.  The higher pride, more experiences, and less flexibility people have, they tend to persist in their own ideas.  For example, elderly people are apt to think that their ideas are always right.  This is because they live for a long time, so they have high pride and many experiences.  They don�ft want to adopt the new thoughts of other people, especially the young for keeping the pride of the elderly people.  For this reason, the elderly people always stick to their ideas.  In addition, I think that I was one of the people who have high pride even though I was an elementary school student.  I also didn�ft have enough flexibility.  Therefore, I did not accept the ideas of other people at all.  As you can see, everybody can have this type of persistence.  Although people sometimes notice that they are wrong, they don�ft yield ideas or opinions to the other people because they think that yielding means loss and the loss is against their pride. 

All in all, I can clearly use the term, persistence, in different three ways.  In the first case, there are logical and persuasive supports.  In the second case, religious beliefs affect the persistence of people.  In the last case, it is the most common that the persistence of people is based on the high pride, many experiences, and less flexibility.  Sometimes, persistence can be good, but it limits the view of people and makes them continue to have mistakes in many cases.  People can�ft forget that everyone has the possibility of falling into these three types of persistence.  Therefore, each person should have an ability to distinguish the difference between the good and bad persistence.