What to fear

The first half of chapter fourteen really stuck out to me. It describes the idea of man advancing as a people. Its says that if man wants to advance it may need to stumble forward, but forward nonetheless. Even though it is painful to fall forward it must be done in the sake of moving at all. The narrator then says that sometimes man has to move back half a step but never a full step. It is almost as though we as people will be moving forward, but can move backwards in the sake of keeping movement going forward. The last line of this passage seems to be extremely important. It reads, “… fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe.” This encompasses the entire concept spoken of in the previous parts of the passage. It concludes with the idea that if people are not will to give up everything to move forward, then no one will ever be able to move forward again. The passage also describes what you else should be feared like the idea that bad things stop happening. This is because when the bad in the world ceases, there is no way to know if anything is worth anything. It is the things that we fear that allow us to know that what we have done and what we need to do is not for nothing. It shows purpose to the things we do in our lives. This idea in this particular chapter really is speaking of everything that is happening in the county with the bad economy. It is happening so that the country can advance and recover to be stronger than before. The last line of the quote is extremely important. It basically says that the quality of dying for something is what makes man so great and separates us from the rest of the universe.