Man did not sign a consent form before arriving on earth. He did not negotiate the climate of his birth, the economy of his century, the religion of his parents, or the fragility of his bones. He simply appeared . As Jean-Paul Sartre would say, he finds himself “thrown” into existence—condemned to be free, yet not consulted about being. This is the primordial confusion: existence precedes permission. On the surface of the earth, life appears ordinary. Some find it sweet; others taste only bitterness; many sip from a strange cocktail of sweet-bitter paradox. But beneath this ordinary surface lurks a metaphysical tension: Can any human creature truly choose the state he desires – peaceful, eudemonic, triumphant – without interference from forces beyond his control? Is man truly sovereign over his condition? Or is he but a fragile reed bent by invisible winds? The Illusion of Measure Long before existentialism, Protagoras declared, “Man is the measure of all things: of the thing...
Man did not sign a consent form before arriving on earth. He did not negotiate the climate of his birth, the economy of his century, the religion of his parents, or the fragility of his bones. He simply appeared. As Jean-Paul Sartre would say, he finds himself “thrown” into existence—condemned to be free, yet not consulted about being.
This is the primordial confusion:
existence precedes permission.
On the surface of the earth, life
appears ordinary. Some find it sweet; others taste only bitterness; many sip
from a strange cocktail of sweet-bitter paradox. But beneath this ordinary
surface lurks a metaphysical tension: Can any human creature truly choose the
state he desires – peaceful, eudemonic, triumphant – without interference from
forces beyond his control? Is man truly sovereign over his condition? Or is he
but a fragile reed bent by invisible winds?
The Illusion
of Measure
Long before existentialism, Protagoras declared, “Man is the measure of all
things: of the things that are, that they are; and of the things that are not,
that they are not.” The statement is bold – almost intoxicating. It places man
at the centre of reality, enthroning him as arbiter of meaning and value.
But can we sustain this claim in the
face of sudden disaster?
When
a man is struck by an inexplicable stroke in the prime of his discipline; when
thunder tears through the roof of a home unannounced; when erosion swallows
ancestral land; when a mysterious and persistent fire ignites property without
scientific explanation – where then is man’s measure? Did he decree these
events into being? Did he will their timing? We have long echoed the ancient
assertion of Protagoras that man
is the measure of all things – of the things that are, that they are; and of
the things that are not, that they are not. Yet, if this claim were
absolute, why does this supposed measure falter in the face of disaster? Why
can it not annul tragedy, suspend calamity, or deny the intrusion of the
unforeseen? The very moments that confront man with forces beyond prediction
and control expose the limits of that proud declaration. For in the presence of
the uncontrollable, man is no longer the measure of all things, but rather a
participant within a larger, humbling order – one that resists his claims to
total authority and reminds him that not all that occurs bends to human will or
definition.
No! He stands not as the measure,
but as measured – measured by contingency, by mortality, by forces he neither
commands nor comprehends.
Nemesis and
the Shattered Logic of Justice
The ancients personified cosmic justice
as Nemesis – the avenger of hubris, the
restorer of balance. Under this moral architecture, suffering has a logic. If
disaster strikes, perhaps one has erred. Perhaps some hidden transgression has
called down retribution.
But what of the man who has tried – deliberately,
conscientiously – to live justly? What of the one who avoided the camp of the
wicked, who paid his debts, who prayed his prayers, who restrained his
appetites? How does he interpret the billows of diabolical misfortune that
crash upon him?
If Nemesis is real, is he guilty
without knowing it? Or is justice not as linear as he imagined?
The confusion deepens when the wicked
appear to flourish. Evil seems profitable. Goodness seems punished. The moral
calculus collapses. The just man looks heavenward and finds silence. His
prayers for protection and redemption drift like vapour. He begins to wonder
whether the God he worships has abandoned him – or worse, exposed him to the
forces of darkness.
This is not merely pain. It is
metaphysical vertigo.
The God Who
Seems Silent
In the ancient drama of Book of Job, a righteous man loses everything – wealth,
children, health – not because of sin, but because of a wager beyond his
knowledge. Job’s suffering was not transactional; it was mysterious. He had not
bargained for disaster; he had not merited it. Yet it descended.
The narrative refuses simple answers.
It does not neatly resolve the tension between righteousness and suffering.
Instead, it expands the horizon: human understanding is finite; cosmic
governance exceeds our categories.
Still, for the modern sufferer, such
metaphysical explanations can feel like thin air. The heart cries not for
philosophy but for relief.
Shall he now turn to another god? Shall
he become a fugitive of faith, crossing thresholds he once condemned, desperate
for reprieve? Shall he trade conviction for comfort?
Confusion tempts him to.
Determinism
and the Harshness of Being
Is this deterministic living? If so, it
is harsh to bear. The individual obeys law and morality expecting fair reward,
yet calamity interrupts the script. He wonders whether he is merely an actor in
a drama already written.
Here Friedrich
Nietzsche intrudes with unsettling force. For Nietzsche, suffering is
not evidence of cosmic injustice but the crucible of becoming. Pain refines,
tests, exposes strength and weakness. It is neither diabolical nor divine punishment
– it is the raw material of transformation.
But this philosophical resilience is
easier preached than practised. When disaster strikes without warning, the
sufferer does not feel like a philosopher; he feels like a casualty.
The
Possibility of Meaning Amid Chaos
Perhaps the metaphysical world is not
diabolical in intention but indifferent in structure. Earthquakes do not
consult virtue. Disease does not examine character references. Lightning does
not discriminate between saint and scoundrel.
The just man suffers not because he is
just, nor despite it, but because he is mortal.
Yet this conclusion does not dissolve
confusion; it deepens responsibility. If there is no guaranteed immunity for
goodness, then goodness must be chosen not as a strategy for reward but as a
declaration of identity.
The fragile thread of belief becomes
not a bargaining chip but a defiant act. To continue believing – not
necessarily in immediate rescue, but in ultimate coherence—is an existential
rebellion against despair.
The Wish Never
to Have Been
In the depths of suffering, a man may
wish he had never been born. He may imagine that the force that brought him
into existence should have negotiated first. Had he been consulted, perhaps he
would have declined.
This echoes the tragic lament of
humanity across centuries. But here lies a paradox: the very consciousness that
protests existence is itself evidence of its mysterious gift. The ability to
question suffering, to demand justice, to seek meaning – these are not trivial
endowments.
The metaphysical world is indeed
mysterious. It contains forces beyond our calculation. But to attribute every
unexplained disaster to diabolical orchestration may be to surrender too
quickly the dignity of human resilience.
Why Does the
Just Man Suffer?
The perennial question remains: why
does the just man suffer?
Perhaps
because justice does not suspend natural law.
Perhaps because suffering is not always retribution.
Perhaps because faith is tested not in abundance but in deprivation.
Perhaps because freedom requires risk.
Perhaps because mortality is the price of existence.
Or perhaps because we do not yet see
the full architecture of reality.
Whatever the ultimate answer, one
conclusion stands: man did not bargain for existence, yet he is here. He did not
design the metaphysical weather, yet he must navigate it. He cannot always
prevent disaster, but he can decide whether disaster will define him.
To hang on the fragile thread of belief
– whether in God, in meaning, or in the stubborn worth of goodness – is not
naïveté. It is courage.
In a world where the wicked sometimes
prosper and the righteous sometimes bleed, to persist in justice is an act of
metaphysical defiance. It says: though I did not choose to be born, now that I
am, I will choose how to stand.
And perhaps, in that choice – amid thunder,
erosion, fire, and silence – man becomes not the measure of all things, but the
witness that meaning is still possible, even in the shadow of the diabolical.
Okom, Emmanuel Njor (PhD)
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