The greatness of individuals can be decided only by those who live after them not by their contemporaries

In this contemporary era that we live in, everything seems to be in a super-speed. No one can predict the future – a nobody today can become a celebrity overnight. With the advancement in technology, our world has taken a big step towards globalization. Because of this globalization, it has become much easier than it was in the past to recognize greatness of someone. Thus, I do not concur with the notion that the people who live after should be the ones to decide on the greatness of an individual. There are so many examples in our here in the present days as well as in the history that corroborates the uplifting done by the contemporaries.

There are great heroes whom we venerate in the present day for the contribution they have made for the society. One great example of a hero that we all look upto is Malala Yousafzai. Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani girl who stood up for female education and is the youngest Nobel prize laureate. The contribution she had made for the rights of female education is immense which why she is highly regarded as an exemplary for many young people and is supported by the youths and citizens from all over the world. Similarly, Anuradha Koirala, who presented her greatness by establishing Maiti Nepal- a rehabilitation home for trafficked girls and women. Her contribution was recognized and she was awarded the CNN hero 2010 and till date she is highly regarded as a Nepalese social activist. These two strong women are just the “tip of the iceberg” representation for the individual’s greatness being recognized by the contemporaries.

In this day and age there are many platforms such as social medias and reality shows to show case your talent and to add to it some of these platforms reach almost all over the world, expanding the horizon of your exposure. There are great singers who rose to fame through reality shows. They were voted and chosen by the contemporaries and are still enjoying the fame and presenting their creative ideas for their contemporary audiences. Even in the ancient years, painters like Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso, were held in high regards by their contemporaries. The appreciation they received helped them further their talents in great extent. They were celebrated then and they are celebrated now. It was the contemporaries who decided on their greatness and the impact they have created still remains.

On the contrary, there are some cases where a person’s actions may be seen years after his/her death. For instance, it was Copernicus who proposed the idea of the earth being heliocentric – that the earth revolved around the sun. However, it was not accepted until Galileo proposed the same. Even though both of them were not accepted by their contemporaries, after years now we all know that the earth revolves around the sun. But this was centuries ago and now with all the advancements where we have enough facilities like patents, publications , conferences, manifestos etc.; this makes anyone of us to easily present his/her ideas. Therefore, with these facilities present it is simply impudent to conform to the given notion.

All in all, though this notion seems to be somewhat true in the context of our ancient era, it does not seem congruous with society that we live in today. Time has drastically changed and people have enough knowledge to sagaciously decide on the worthiness and greatness of an individual. Thanks to the advancements we have today that recognizing greatness is not a long tedious process.