Every sphere of life demands and is guided by standards or absolutes. Measurements that make things right or wrong, good or bad, healthy or unhealthy. Bereft of these set, decided and accepted standards, language itself is difficult. Anti-establishment or anti-structuralists have long fought this 'standardization' of some aspects, at the cost of exclusion of the other; by some over and above others; for now vs forever. It is also interesting to note that those criticizing the very notion of standards or absolutes, cannot then propose alternatives!
While set benchmarks help in one way, they also restrict in another sense. Just like the compound wall around a house, prevents others from coming in, it also 'imprisons' those within! That without these standards, nothing really moves, is perhaps not entirely false. We just cannot do without them - even if one demolishes an existing one, it can be done only by erecting another (unconsciously, mostly).
The eternal debate and all dissension is then a result of deciding who, by what criteria, for what purpose, sets the standards, the absolutes.
While set benchmarks help in one way, they also restrict in another sense. Just like the compound wall around a house, prevents others from coming in, it also 'imprisons' those within! That without these standards, nothing really moves, is perhaps not entirely false. We just cannot do without them - even if one demolishes an existing one, it can be done only by erecting another (unconsciously, mostly).
The eternal debate and all dissension is then a result of deciding who, by what criteria, for what purpose, sets the standards, the absolutes.
When the absolutes keep becoming relative pretty fast, as in the current day, the absolutes themselves become blurred.
ReplyDeleteLike how they say change is the only constant, it sometimes feels like relativism is the only absolute.
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