The Roots of Romanticism
Borrowed from Isiah Berlin
The Restrained Romantics Chapter four
Original native liberty
Maturity is self-determination
Exploitation as an evil
An extremely sublime form of slavery
Scruples
There is no merit
In choosing what is right
unless it is possible to choose what is wrong
Choosers of acts
A value is made a value by human choice
Being overwhelmed
is helplessness and slavery
Being rendered incapable of acting otherwise
makes one an animal or thing
rather than a human being
Choose
Rise above nature
Subjugate nature to a beautiful, unfettered, morally directed will
We are not part Nature (life) mocks all the rules
This is not art Without regard
This is not man Nature is indifferent
This is nature Nature is amoral
Nature destroys us in the most ruthless and hideous fashion
Nature, this elemental, capricious, casual, chance directed entity
Three Stages
Governed by necessity
Driven by the nature of matter
Possessed by passions and desires
Savage
Adopt very rigid principles
Rational state
Principles a kind of fetish
Without knowing why
Barbarian
Liberation by art
Home with Faulkner
Freely invent We invent the rules Without a sense of pressure
Anything we make is ours Anything we make does not constrict us Invent the game
Obey its laws with enthusiasm With passion With pleasure
Ideals are not to be discovered by……………………….
Intuition
.
Scientific means
.
Reading sacred texts
.
Listening to experts
.
Listening to authoritative persons
.
Are not to be discovered at all
…………………………Ideals are to be invented
As art is generated Reassert our humanity Invent our own ideals
Because they are invented Are in opposition to nature Realized
In some beautiful and friction-less manner
Become somewhat more unbridled
Life begins with action
.
knowledge is an instrument
Acceptance, willy-nilly because we cannot help it
because it is presupposed
In the biological necessity
In the necessity of living
Is an act of faith
.
Things are as they are because I make them so
Far reaching pragmatism
.
.
Relinquish
To be free is nothing, to become free is very heaven. Endless self transformation. Endless self creation. A vast cosmic design perpetually renewing itself. A violent effect. Culture is not a deterrence to violence. The only deterrent is moral regeneration. Although I cannot force my body. I can force my spirit. Each individual spirit is imperfect. Hemmed in and confined.