Heroes & Romantics
I seldom wonder why people wrote about kings, warriors and heroes. Often romanticized them to the utmost heights, making the reader feel — for the moment — sad and courageous simultaneously, with eyes having a drop of tear, shining in the sun, indicating a clear vision ahead, a boost to the mighty power of will. Romantics drew a very peculiar picture of life, that history, literature or mere facts couldn’t. The difference is so contrasting between the two, where on one hand history felt like a pencil sketch by a kid and on the other, romantics yielded out a beautiful colored illustration of it. They knew that the reality is not as plain as it seems, it is in actual, colored by our peaking and fluctuating emotions. These emotions are what romantics captured in their master pieces.
I think the role of romantics is often neglected, because of the peoples’ deteriorating ability to surf these emotional waves, and just drown in their subtle mild joys, neglecting the aspect about the people who faced life with these waves and surfed them to achieve what seemed very romantic to them, due to the efforts, debilitating pain and struggle they have to grow through. Look at the eastern ancient literature, the sages who wrote epics and other great stories, tried their best to sew up something which is really romantic at its core. How can kings be made without such stories? How can one give his life to serve others? — without these stories. Romantics taught us that there are not ‘mere facts’, like what history offers us, but there are ‘perspectives’ of people, their lives and their hardships.
Great achievers always have a romantic idea in their mind. Because only powerful emotions has this ability to turn a moth into butterfly — to go through the prolonged metamorphosis, intern achieve something which is inhuman. The vocabulary is rich with such words, just to give you a taste of what romantic life is, full of these bursts. Look at the DC or Marvel superheroes for a moment, they all are somewhat romantic at their core, they all fall in love with tendency to sacrifice themselves in their service to the mankind. This sort of vigor, is unparalleled. Even if we look at the Real Life heroes, like Teddy Roosevelt — said to be ‘the last romantic’, his life is a delight to read for someone drowning in self-esteem-issues.
Authority and power derive their prints in our subconscious from its romantic flavors. Power, dominance, and authority just feels right, from the self-centered point of view, the constant tussle among individuals for it showcases that. It isn’t very easy to forge a hero, without teaching him some romantic lessons, which he can recall and recollect strength on the face of adversity, to not mere come out of it, but mark a great victory.
An authority without a romantic element, just gets dull, and loses its effectiveness over time. Look at the apex of the authority, if there is not someone romantic, then he can’t actually take decisions which might offend many, hence would always drive his power from the superiors, won’t stand on his ground and tackle the resistant by sheer will.
I say if we didn’t had romantics — writers, admirers, we wouldn’t have any heroes in our society. The mere idea of a hero, comes under the ambit of romanticism. Romantics thrive on adversity, where an ordinary person would just give up. Romanticism is the real picture of life, colored by emotions and our will powers. It is our necessity to cherish it, to be a romantic, to fall in love with our lives, to take a taste of reality, not the one with grey dullness but the with a million-colored spectrum of emotions.
For a romantic, having principles is very critical, otherwise one would be deteriorated by emotional bursts. The more emotional a person gets, more he loses the big picture, hence focusing whole of attention on now, often leading to bad decisions. So, the drivers of people should be a romantic idea, seldom one should drown in it, but not on a regular basis.
Concluding, if you are a romantic, then your bread and butter should be the application of principles like Fairness, Equality, Honesty and Duty.
