Topic 55

55. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? A person should never make an important decision alone. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

WHETHER MAKING A DECISION ALONE DEPENDS ON DIFFERENT CASES

In my opinion, whether a person should make a paramount decision alone depends on different circumstances. In some cases, such as a statesman, it is required discussion before making a decision. In some other cases, for example, under emergencies when there is no abundant time to discuss, a person may make a decision on his or her own.

As a threshold matter, under cases when decision will influence large quantities of folks, discussion ought to be carried out before a person makes it, instead of deciding everything without asking for others' advices. For instance, a national policy usually directly affects several millions of people. Some people will benefit from a new policy while some other multitudes suffer from it. Therefore, a policy may even have to with stable status of a country. In such a case, the person, usually the president, should discuss each possible impact of policies, and carefully work out a decision at the last moment. If president tries to carry out a new act on his or her own will, which is possible in some countries, the whole country may be messed up as result of the act.

Secondly, when decision has to do with a single person, it is also recommended that the person should talk to his or her parents and friends before he or she decides what to do or which choice to choose. For instance, take a teenage young man who wants to determine which university he attends to. If he depends completely on his own interests without taking others' opinions into account, he may encounter tough situations when he attends that university. For instance, there may be dorm problems, surrounding problems, health care problems and so forth. Thus, the young man ought to talk to his parents first. From talking, he will learn experiences and lessons his parents have already had. Then, by synthesizing information from other persons, the young man will be more likely to make a correct decision.

However, in special cases when time is limited and discussion is not possible to be held, a person has to decide by his or her own within a short period of time. Sometimes it does take place. Perhaps the paradigmatic example is a general who leads a troop in battlefield. Situations in a war are keeping changing. A whole company may be completely killed within an hour, which is a serious circumstance. Therefore, leader of a troop should decide what to do alone, instead of talking too much with his or her soldiers. Any hesitation under such emergent situation will certainly cost severe outcomes -- for example, thousands of people's lives. Similar cases occur in hospitals. Consider a patient who is injured, bleeding and in coma. Doctors have to decide what to do first -- to stop bleeding, or inject something. Without a quick decision, the patient may have to die.

In summary, whether a person should make a paramount decision alone or with other people varies from case to case. Nevertheless, it is highly recommended, from my standpoint, that a person ought to discuss with his or her parents, friends and colleagues before making a decision, unless the right situation is too emergent and special to talk with others.