Socrates of Sri Lanka Douglas Amarasekara

Scrutiny by Hemantha Warnakulasuriya

Wisdom: Douglas Victor Abraham Sooriyarachchi Amarasekara was the kindest, gentlest and wisest man I have met. When I first met him, he was the Professor of Mathematics at the University of Colombo, the Sri Lanka University. He was a mathematician, astronomer, musician, pianist, poet, dramatist, short story writer, artist and scientist etc.

He could speak and converse in more than twelve languages. He could read and write more than sixty languages. He introduced me to Plato, Socrates, Bertrand Russell, Henry Miller and Tennessee Williams.

He was an admirer of the plays produced by the 'Ape Kattiya' Group. Later, he was my teacher, guru and mentor. We wrote and published several pamphlets and books such as 'Twenty-five years after Maname', 'Romanisation of Sinhala', 'The Food Crisis' and 'Colloquial Sinhala'. The papers were written by him, and my contribution was only a few ideas. We discussed conversed and argued for several hours before we penned our ideas.

He completely changed my life and made me think differently on many aspects. He compared and contrasted the Western and Eastern civilisations. He was a great admirer of Chinese brush drawings, Japanese Haiku poetry and Greek culture and civilisation.

At that time, many letters appeared in the newspapers on the art of good writing. Many thought that good writing consisted of ponderous and pedantic discourses published by those who aspired to obtain a doctorate from a University. Most dissertations were a copious collection of high sounding words. A reader would have to wade through pages until he deciphered what the writer intended to express.

Anyone who found it difficult to understand such theses were considered ill educated. He once said that the greatest literary work ever written by a human being was the 'BIBLE'. For example, he pointed out to me the first sentence in Genesis.

"In the beginning, God created heaven and earth." He told me that there was not a single word which was superfluous. It was written in the simplest of language.

In order that the present day reader would get a glimpse into thinking of this great man, I have copied an article which appeared in the Daily News in the late '90s.

"Over the last few years we have been having a good deal of discussion in newspapers and other journals about the Art of Good Writing.

In this Article I wish to put before readers an exceptionally interesting example of good writing, and to discuss both its style and substance.

First, let us briefly review what we have discussed about the purpose and the process of writing.

What exactly happens when writer writes something, and a reader reads what has been written?

1. First, there is an IDEA in the writer's mind.

2. Secondly, the writer translates that idea into WORDS and puts the words on paper.

3. Thirdly, a reader reads the words and translates the words back in to the SAME IDEA in hisown mind

Thus, the purpose of writing is to convey ideas from the mind of the writer to the mind of the reader.

Since the purpose of writing is to convey ideas from the mind of the writer to the mind of the reader, it is evident that the value of a piece of writing depends first and foremost on the value of the original ideas.

Secondly, the best style of writing is the style that conveys the ideas as efficiently as possible. To convey the ideas efficiently, the words should be clear. They should be precise. Superfluous words should be avoided. The phrases should be clearly constructed, and as short as possible. The sentence should follow each other logically.

As an outstanding example of good writing, here is a passage by Bertrand, Lord Russell.

"As Geological time is reckoned, man has so far existed only for a very short period - a million years at the most.

What he has achieved, especially during the last 6,000 years is something utterly new in the history of the cosmos, so far at least as we are acquainted with it. For countless ages the sun rose and set, the moon waxed and waned the stars shone in the night, but it was only with the coming of man that those things were understood.

In the great world of astronomy, and in the little world of the atom, man has unveiled secrets which might have been thought undiscoverable. In art and literature and music, some men have shown a sublimity of feeling which makes the species worth preserving.

Is all this to end in meaningless horror, because so few are able to think of man, rather than this or that group of men; Is our species so destitute of wisdom, so incapable of love, so blind even to the simplest dictates of self preservation, that the last proof of its silly cleverness is to be the extermination of all life on our planet? For it will be not only men who will perish, but also animals and plants.

There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels?. I appeal as a Human being to human beings remember your humanity and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new paradise; if you cannot, nothing lies before you but universal death".

This passage was written by Lord Russell in 1956, six years after he was awarded the Noble Prize for Literature" In recognition of his many sided and important work in which he has constantly stood forth as a champion of humanity and freedom of thought". It is an exceptionally fine example of good writing. The reader will observe how well it conforms to what we have said about good writing.

In the first place, it deals with a very important subject, the survival of life of our planet. In the second place the reader will observe the clarity and precision of the writing. There is not a single word in the passage. That an educated person cannot understand. The words are put together in clear and simple phrases and sentences, e.g. "The sun rose and set, the moon waxed and waned, the stars shone in the night, etc.

The historical context in which this passage was written is also very interesting. It was as follows. The Second World War culminated in 1945 with the explosion of two Atomic Bombs which completely destroyed two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

World War II was followed by a series of minor wars, revolutions, crises etc - The Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Israeli War, the Berlin Crisis. The Suez Crisis, the Cuban Crisis, etc. Each of these could easily have escalated into a Third World War, which could have destroyed not only human life, but all life on this planet and politicians.

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England said half humorously "I don't know what an Electron is, and I don't want anyone to tell me". Of course said this half humorously, but only half. He very probably did not know what an electron is.

On the opposite side of the earth, Chairman Mao Ise Tung of China said that the Atom Bomb was a paper tiger - something to frighten children with. He thought that even if there was a Third World War, and all the big cities in the world were destroyed, there could probably be a few human beings left in remote regions, who would in the course of time repopulate the planet.

He was wrong. Scientists have definitely calculated that if there was a Third World War, and a few hundred Hydrogen Bombs were exploded, the radioactive fall out would be sufficient to destroy not only all Human life, but all on this planet. This is not science fiction but cold sober scientific fact.

The Atom Bomb is not a Paper Tiger. It is a very real tiger. and while it is a good thing to be scared of a paper tiger, thinking it to be a real tiger it is very very much more dangerous not to be scared of a real tiger, thinking it to be a paper tiger.

The most dangerous of the crises was the Cuban Crisis the circumstances of which were as follows. There was a communist revolution in Cuba, and the Russians were helping the Communists by sending them arms by sea. President Kennedy of America requested the Russians to desist but the Russians took no notice.

Then President Kennedy did a very rash thing. He drew an arbitrary line across a map of the Atlantic and declared that if any Russian ships crossed that line, he would sink them. At that very moment there were some Russian ships steaming towards Cuba. President Khruschev of Russia ordered them to go full steam ahead. This was probably the most dangerous moment in the whole history of mankind.

Then Bertrand Russell, the world famous philosopher, author of Principia Mathematica, winner of a Noble Prize, an old man of ninety, came forward.

He got in touch with K. President Khruschey by phone, and begged and prayed him to turn the ships back. Persuaded by Bertrand Russell, President Khruschev at the very last moment ordered the ships to turn back.

And the world was saved - at least for the moment.

The situation was so dangerous that Bertrand Russell spent all his time in the last years of his life making strenuous efforts to alert Nuclear War. (He died in 1970, aged 98).

His efforts seem to have been successful. Today most educated people realise the danger of a nuclear war, so that when a war involving the USA broke out in the Persian Gulf - the Gulf War the whole thing was settled in about two weeks. Twenty five years earlier it could easily have led to a Third World War, and the extinction, not only of Homo Sapiens, but of all life on this planet.

So let us hope that wisdom, love, and the instinct for self preservation will prevail and that humanity will progress along. "The way to a new paradise". If I had mental picture of Socrates, his wisdom, his knowledge and his philosophy and for me the person who came closest to him was Douglas Amerasekera.