The Roots of Romanticism
Borrowed from Isiah Berlin
The Lasting Effects Chapter six
Vast battle of inspiration
.
Forces rage
Uncontrolled way
Celebrate the will
Hate the fixed nature of reality
These untamable unbridgeable abysses
Necessity for perpetual ferment
And the absence of structure
Say everything and its opposite
Break up the nature of the given
.
.
Incompatibility
Plurality of ideals
Each has its own validity
.
Against the notion of order
of progress
of perfection
of classical ideals
of the structure of things
Right
never completely identify oneself or idealize some impossible myth
never be fulfilled fulfilled it would be worthless
It is perpetually creating * There is no self * Only movement
motive -- consequence
.
Motive counts more than consequence
Motive can be controlled
Consequence can not
We cannot quite tell
So many marks for motove
So many marks for consequence
We oscillate between the two
Still members of some kind of unified tradition
We now oscillate freely
Cut and Vased
Reality is a kind of void Call it absurd You and you alone exist
You cannot plead extenuation This is the stoic sermon
There is no systemic symbolism
As we live, we communicate
A being should understand a portion
There is normality
There are common values
To what extent, impossible to say
If I find something given, I must smash it
Structured, I must destroy it
Give free play to my unbridled imagination
To this extent, romanticism
if driven to its logical conclusion
Does end in some kind of lunacy
Forgive
An attempt to convert life into art presupposes human beings are some kind of stuff
Still enunciated by over-rational, over-scientific analysts
A unified answer is likely ruinious
Single solution likely to become violent and despotic in the name of solution
We arrive
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Desire to remove obstacles will destroy those creatures whose benefit is offered the solution
.
The imperfection of all human answers and arrangements
.
Neither art nor life can be perfect or true
.
Realize they must make do
.
Must make compromises
.
A result of this passionate, fanatical, half-mad doctrine
Touching Tolerance
An appreciation of the necessity of tolerating others
Preserving an imperfect equilibrium in human affairs
Impossibility of driving humans into the pen we have created
The result is Liberalism, Toleration, Decency
Affection for the imperfections
Lasting Effects
Increased rational self understanding
Emphasizing the unpredictability of all human activities
Aiming at one thing, producing almost the exact opposite
(end)