Romantic Realism
The Question:
How do I apply the principle of Romance to my life?
Our Response:
Romanticism is the conceptual school of art that depicts life, not as it is, but as it might be and ought to be, and mankind as erotic and heroic beings of free will, who are capable of choosing their own values, achieving their own goals, and controlling their own existence.
Since each of our lives is our own greatest creation and legacy, Restore Reason endorses the use of Romantic Realism as the means by which we can all create (or recreate) our own personalized reality.
One of the defining characteristics of our mentality and our social life is the human capacity to create alternate realities beyond the reality presented to us by our five senses. We have also developed this capacity into a range of specialized practices that we label with terms like "art", " religion", and "play". All human societies imagine and create these alternative worlds upon which they shape and model this reality.
In contemporary society, enormous resources are harnessed to sustain this tradition of mimicry using Romantic Realism. Romantic Realism refers to the tremendous variety of images of perfection that saturate our cultural environment - television programs, airbrushed photographs, erotic films, theme parks, romance novels - the list of examples is virtually endless. All of these forms of media depict some part of mundane life — they are realistic — and all of them are also more meaningful and appealing than mundane life – they are romantic.
One of the most obvious examples of Romantic Realism is advertising, in which we observe a world which looks a lot like our own world but is somehow better. For example, we are familiar with the concept of friends gathering to eat at a restaurant, but a TV ad depicting such an event is likely to feature spectacular looking people eating spectacular looking food and having more fun than us mortals ever get to have.
Romantic Realism is a form of entertainment because it follows the same basic pattern as, say, a television drama: we are presented with a fantasy that is similar to everyday life, but with all the boredom edited out and everything that stimulates us (attractive people, sex, suspense, violence, music, etc.) turned way up. Once you start looking for it, Romantic Realism can be experienced everywhere.
Think for example about all the attention our society lavishes on celebrities — romantically realistic people. Even much of our food could be considered a form of Romantic Realism, in that it is designed to maximize arousal through precisely the right blend of salt, sugar and fat. Or consider what may be the original form of Romantic Realism — romance itself: the idea that an ideal sexual partner will allow us to transcend all the challenges of a long-term relationship.
More importantly, Romantic Realism is the means by which one can overcome the use of faith (i.e. feeling) as a means of cognition for determining the reality of existence. Religion must encourage faith because it cannot actually show the believer the coming paradise. This creates a challenge of timing — just when will paradise be realized? A very widespread technique, of course, is to link heaven to the transition that occurs at the end of life, but that could be a very long wait.
Romantic Realism, when used in conjunction with Virtual Reality (click here for more information), is the method by which each of us can experience that which we find most aesthetically pleasing as context for our lives, or as an escape from the harshness of the real world.
| Restore Reason "Truth, Freedom, Beauty, Romance" |
How do I apply the principle of Romance to my life?
Our Response:
Romanticism is the conceptual school of art that depicts life, not as it is, but as it might be and ought to be, and mankind as erotic and heroic beings of free will, who are capable of choosing their own values, achieving their own goals, and controlling their own existence.
Since each of our lives is our own greatest creation and legacy, Restore Reason endorses the use of Romantic Realism as the means by which we can all create (or recreate) our own personalized reality.
One of the defining characteristics of our mentality and our social life is the human capacity to create alternate realities beyond the reality presented to us by our five senses. We have also developed this capacity into a range of specialized practices that we label with terms like "art", " religion", and "play". All human societies imagine and create these alternative worlds upon which they shape and model this reality.
In contemporary society, enormous resources are harnessed to sustain this tradition of mimicry using Romantic Realism. Romantic Realism refers to the tremendous variety of images of perfection that saturate our cultural environment - television programs, airbrushed photographs, erotic films, theme parks, romance novels - the list of examples is virtually endless. All of these forms of media depict some part of mundane life — they are realistic — and all of them are also more meaningful and appealing than mundane life – they are romantic.
One of the most obvious examples of Romantic Realism is advertising, in which we observe a world which looks a lot like our own world but is somehow better. For example, we are familiar with the concept of friends gathering to eat at a restaurant, but a TV ad depicting such an event is likely to feature spectacular looking people eating spectacular looking food and having more fun than us mortals ever get to have.
Romantic Realism is a form of entertainment because it follows the same basic pattern as, say, a television drama: we are presented with a fantasy that is similar to everyday life, but with all the boredom edited out and everything that stimulates us (attractive people, sex, suspense, violence, music, etc.) turned way up. Once you start looking for it, Romantic Realism can be experienced everywhere.
Think for example about all the attention our society lavishes on celebrities — romantically realistic people. Even much of our food could be considered a form of Romantic Realism, in that it is designed to maximize arousal through precisely the right blend of salt, sugar and fat. Or consider what may be the original form of Romantic Realism — romance itself: the idea that an ideal sexual partner will allow us to transcend all the challenges of a long-term relationship.
More importantly, Romantic Realism is the means by which one can overcome the use of faith (i.e. feeling) as a means of cognition for determining the reality of existence. Religion must encourage faith because it cannot actually show the believer the coming paradise. This creates a challenge of timing — just when will paradise be realized? A very widespread technique, of course, is to link heaven to the transition that occurs at the end of life, but that could be a very long wait.
Romantic Realism, when used in conjunction with Virtual Reality (click here for more information), is the method by which each of us can experience that which we find most aesthetically pleasing as context for our lives, or as an escape from the harshness of the real world.
For more information on how to become a member of Restore Reason, click on the following link:
Become a Member of Restore Reason
| Sign of the Dollar Membership Pendant |
