‘Originally…’ ‘In essence…’ ‘Essentially…’ ‘At source…’ ‘Basically…’ ‘Ultimately…’ ‘Fundamentally…’ ‘The bottom line is…’ ‘At the end of the day…’ ‘When all is said and done…’
We seem to use these phrases whenever we feel the need to reduce or sum up the complex, unquantifiable and unsayable to what we falsely imagine is ‘the final answer’. The reductionist pull is quite natural in the face of infinite causes and conditions and yet what we’re attempting to define is undefinable.