It is said that physicians sometimes ask patients, “Do you really wish to get well?” And, to be perfectly realistic in this matter, we must put the question of whether modern civilization wishes to survive. One can detect signs of suicidal impulse; one feels at times that the modern world is calling for madder music and for stronger wine, is craving some delirium which will take it completely away from reality. One is made to think of Kierkegaard’s figure of spectators in the theater, who applaud the announcement and repeated announcement that the building is on fire. . . It have tried, as far as possible, to express the thought of this essay in secular language, but there are points where it has proved impossible to dispense with appeal to religion. And I think this term must be used to describe teh strongest sustaining power in a life which is from limited points of view “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” It can be shown in every case that loss of believe results in some form of bitterness. . . When it becomes evident that the world’s rewards are not adequate to the world’s pain, and when the possibility of other reward is denied, simple calculation demands the ending of all. The task is how to keep men from feeling desperately unrewarded. Do they today with to go on living, or do they wish to destroy the world? Some are unable to comprehend the depth of bitterness which may induce a desire for the second course. . . Then we must ask the question of whether they are willing to pay the price. For possibly there attitude toward this is like their attitude toward peace: they want it, but not at the expense of giving up this or that thing which they have come to think of as the warp and woof of their existence. Weaver, Richard M., Ideas Have Consequences, p. 166-67.