Romanticism — erupting in literature, art, politics, and architecture — may have been the original notion that humanity went too far into modernity, which we might describe as the society that has become successful enough to restyle the world in its own image.
The artists and thinkers who worked in this genre emphasized an appreciation for nature, a melancholy outlook instead of “happiness,” a sense of being inspired and animated by events instead of repetition, a strong affinity for the organic including nationalism, and hints of pagan morality.
Black metal fell handily into this camp, several hundred years later and after Nietzsche revitalized it by explaining it as celebration of natural variety instead of universal interchangeable parts human lives, but so did death metal, although it embraced the darker more Poe, Lovecraft, and Tolkien edge.
Metal may have in fact created postmodern Romanticism by explictly embracing power, in a Nietzsche-Redbeard-Aurelius sense, instead of trying to reinvent morality as a political construct:
4. Heavy Metal as postmodern science
Heavy Metal, as a form of art, is postmodern science. Accepting the
precepts of postmodernism and countering them with science, it has
produced a logical, anti-materialistic, Romanticist philosophy which
encourages reduction of mercy, pity, self-pity, solipsism,
sentimentalism, morality and other intellectual errors. Its culture is
a tight-knit group of people joined by an ideology transferred by sound
who have made changes in the “public culture” more prominent than the
hardcore, metal, gothic and industrial “sub-cultures.”Objectivism is seen as Romanticist in heavy metal, which by nature of
its exploration of the ambiguous, unknown and evil hopes to decode
“aesthetic,” or appearance and categorical position, as a process of
“structure,” or underlying logical conditions in material or
intellectual space. This objectivism is romantic in that it posits a
level at which humans can interact with their world wholistically
through design, and in doing so, can build themselves an externality to
reflect the inner peace they seek. (Metal does not stop there, but its
recommendations for inner peace are best decoded by practice – the
secrets will not be given away here.)
Perhaps this gives us a path for the future. Christianity is dead and diversity is dying; wealth transfer (socialism, entitlements) need to die because they are the basis of consumerism, and humanity needs to pare itself back so our environment can survive. But that is still missing something.
This species first struggled to survive, then to thrive, and now it struggles against its own narcissism. It needs a positive goal instead of lots of rules about what not to do. Until we rediscover this spirit, we are lost, but metal shows us somewhat of a path.
Tags: alt.fan.goat, objectivism, postmodernism, Romanticism
