What is, is what must be

"Man is the measure of all things: of things which are, that they are, and of things which are not, that they are not."

Protagoras, a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, identified as one of the sophists by Plato who credits him with having invented the role of the professional sophist.

Perhaps for most readers, this is all very confusing: the title to this article, and the quotation that follows it. As for the title of the article, simply put, all it means is "it is what it is"; or "everything is everything" - a phrase that seems to clearly state the obvious, but actually implies helplessness. Hence, all I am saying is to simply accept the inevitable and carry on with life; doing what needs to be done as duty to self, community, and humanity.

Of course, that matchless wit of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, George Bernard Shaw put it more succulently as "Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness." Thus, what you must do, ought to be all that concerns you. Not what other people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness.

Duty

It is the harder, because you will always find people who think they know what your duty is, better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who, in the midst of the crowd, keeps with perfect sweetness, his independence of solitude and does what must be, done in keeping with his conscience. This is what Bernard Shaw's quote means. I have also learned over the years that knowing what must be, done; and doing it, does away with fear. However, I took the title to this article from the book Watership Down, a classic adventure novel by Richard Adams, an English novelist who served in the British Army during World War II.

The whole quote goes like this: "There is not a day that goes by when a doe does not offer her life for her kittens, or some honest officer of an Owsla his life for his chief's, but there is no bargain. What is, is what must be."

Another interesting episode on the subject of "is" is when Bill Clinton, then the 42nd President of the United Sates of America, while being questioned in the United States Senate about Monica Lewinsky with whom it was alleged he had an affair of sorts; brilliantly sends the questioning in a new direction: To determine the meaning of the word "is". He says, "Depends on what the meaning of the word is, is." The full transcript of it according to footnote 1,128 in Starr's report, goes as follows:

"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If the - if he - if 'is' means is and never has been, that is not - that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement....

Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true."

Years from now, when we look back on Bill Clinton's presidency, its defining moment may well be Clinton's rationalisation to the grand jury about why he wasn't lying when he said to his top aides that with respect to Monica Lewinsky,"there's nothing going on between us."

Intellect

However, be these things as they be; these are brilliant illustrations of the use of intellect in interpreting words.

In the bygone days, Sri Lanka too had its share of such brilliant and illustrious personalities who exhibited their mastery of the Queens tongue - as English is commonly, referred to. Of course, in later years, though not by much, we have heard about our former president Chandrika Kumaratunga's reference to the tongue; but that is another story, another context.

The fact of the matter is, and it is a sad fact indeed to note, that our pseudo politico know all educationists have reduced the standards of all languages taught in schools to a never before low.

No better proof of this is needed, and all one has to do is to listen to the language that emanates from our parliament. Proof sufficient that, we are unable to produce pupils with mastery over any language: be it Sinhala, Tamil, or English, to offer such wit and humour to the public at large.

On the subject of the statement: man is the measure of all things; I would say that a human being is the definitive foundation of value rather than a god or any moral law that does not change; and it is we humans who give things the qualities they have, the ultimate source of values.

Properties, social entities, ideas, feelings, judgements; in short, everything originate in the human mind. Judgements and knowledge are in some way relative to the person judging or knowing; and human subjectivity determines the way we understand, or even construct, our world.

Thus, this statement is, generally interpreted to mean that there are not objective, absolute, standards that exist external to human beings.

Instead, all standards by which things are, measured - including our values - must come from within human beings and are dependent upon our circumstances and situations.

Thus, I would say, know your world by your own proportions, from your point of view: give shape and familiar concreteness to the world that surrounds you, and let your imagination compare. If the "you" looks at infinity from your own point of view, you will see immensity. Infinity does not see anything looking at you, because it does not look.

If a human looks at himself from the point of view of infinity, he sees nothing. For us, our life, space, things, they all count only as far as they relate to us. They mean to us, what our mind perceives.

The most advanced knowledge we possess, the giant discoveries of humanity, is still a small step for Man; the individual's question is what wisdom we gain from it to live happier.

For wisdom is a humble choice we receive and derive; of looking at the world and interpreting it steadily from the point of view of what is meaningful to us as persons, of what makes sense to us, of what value it has for our life: How does it concern people? Is it good for me or bad for me? Do I like it? What can I do about it? What is best for us to decide, to do? From where do we come, who are we, where do we go?

Consequences of what we meet and do for the life of persons; and seek the ways to navigate, steer, and improve our reality instead of just bearing it.

A wise one turns the world into a mind sized world; whereas, fools make it too complicated to cope with; or too abstract, metallic, and alien for us to live.

However, beware: wisdom unverified is of a blind seer. Hence, at all times, be guarded by reason for reason is the ultimate measure and judge of things in which, we are nothing but the dust of stars.

For views, reviews, encomiums, and brick-bats: [email protected]