Ayn Rand is one of the world's greatest philosophers. "The Romantic Manifesto" is a book whose thesis runs near parallel to my own. If you want to read the most intelligent and well spoken opinion on the modern world's art crisis, then read "The Romantic Manifesto".

Ayn Rand is a supreme idol of mine. I idolize her mind, soul, and achievements. It is with great honor and joy that I take this opportunity to talk about this remarkable body of work.

"The Romantic Manifesto" is a collection of essays written throughout the sixties for Ayn's newsletter, The Objectivist.

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"As man is a being of self-made wealth, so he is a being of self-made soul. Art is the technology of the soul."

There are three disciplines of art:
1. Metaphysics
2. Epistemology
3. Ethics
Both metaphysics and epistemology form an abstract base to ethics. Ethics is the applied science that defines the code of values which guide man's choices and actions.

Ethics in art? As preposterous as it may sound today, all good art is structured from a rigid code of ethics. Ayn composed "The Romantic Manifesto" forty years ago, just when the "modern art" movement (led by antichrist Andy Warhol) was taking over. Considering her anger at those relatively positive times, she'd certainly be furious if she saw the "art" of today.

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Today, modern art (with its overbearing tone of naturalism) rules all avenues of art. It is programmed into all of our heads from adolescence. Children are told at the earliest possible age that it is ridiculous to dream of a better world and they are rewarded for accepting a low standard of life.

It is easy to convince a child that it is ridiculous to emulate heroes. Ayn uses Buck Rogers as an example:

Parents arrest a child's moral ambition by convincing him that to be like Buck Rogers is only about wearing space suits and blasting aliens. They tell him to give up heroic ideas if he ever expects to be financially suitable, often using FORCE to convince him. The child reacts with fear towards such fantastic notions as living a life of adventure and battling evil in unknown galaxies.

Most children conclude that these ideas (their imaginations!) are dangerously irrational by the time they reach puberty. Only a very small few are strong enough to break the chains of oppression. Most of those that do liberate themselves are pushed so far in the opposite direction that they end up as unusable jerks like The Comic Book Guy on "The Simpsons".

Without being able to truly discover your own desires at the formative years, it is impossible to have a confidant grasp on what is right and wrong. And without that grasp, the harmonious balance of imagination and productivity is also impossible. This is why ethics is essential to art.

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Romanticism portrays man and life as they ought to be. Art is the best means to communicate romantic ideas. With scientific precision, Ayn Rand states HOW she knows the definition of romanticism and WHY it is the standard by which all art should be judged. To anyone interested in progress, it is a moral obligation to produce art which represents an idealistic rendition of reality. Many people resent the idea that art is a reflection of morality, but moral principles in art can not be avoided even by the resentful. Those who attempt to avoid them undergo large amounts of guilt which are then reflected in their ongoing artistic creations.

The result of this denial is the downward spiral we live in today.

In "The Romantic Manifesto", Ayn explains WHY an upward spiral should be preferred and HOW it can be achieved.

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Fortunately for the reader, and unfortunately for the artist, Ayn is an expert on both Romanticism and Naturalism (it's enemy).

Naturalism is an escape from moral judgment. It is a plea for pity, for tolerance, for the forgiveness of anything. "Why is the soul of a murderer worth studying, but not the soul of a hero?"

Naturalistic plots are centered around the lower humans of the gutter...Religiously speaking, they are formed around the sinners of the world. Not sinners to God, but sinners to themselves. According to naturalism, depravity represents man's essence and nature. Virtue is only an exception to man's normal essence.

Ayn states:

"If men hold a rational philosophy, including the convictions that they possess volition, the image of a hero guides and inspires them. If men hold an irrational philosophy, including the conviction that they are helpless automatons, the image of a monster serves to reassure them; They feel, in effect: 'I am not that bad.'"

If there is any doubt that naturalism is the dehabilitating method of choice by the media, then turn on your TV. Today, we are inundated with "reality TV"...countless voyeuristic programs centered around idiotic people arguing and fighting over unimportant issues. This trend has existed for a while, but did not become truly unmistakable until MTV bombarded us with its evil in the nineties. Even our "talk" shows are nothing but excuses for food stamp pirates to set low standards of living for their audience. Men and women who represent the absolute lowest trash in society's gutter are speaking to (and influencing) millions. Such power is only deserved by those who have EARNED it. But these henchmen and henchwomen are the EVERYMEN of the world. The only thing separating them from the zombies is that they are willing to sink to a slightly lower level of depravity than reality, a level that gets lower and lower each season as reality is dragged down with it.

These TV shows are the podium for the naturalistic agenda. While Ayn Rand (thankfully) never had to live with the obligation to crush their influence, she certainly predicted this current state of danger. "The Romantic Manifesto" speaks bravely of the perils of naturalism.

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Many view romanticism as an unreachable ecstasy. They (the Naturalists) condemn it as escapism. It is actually naturalism that is an escape. By making art a snapshot of real life (and focussing on the worst parts of life), naturalism is providing the escape...the escape from choice. The escape from the desire to want more.

By seeing the worst aspects of humankind, the most positive of all negative responses is: "At least my life isn't that bad." If the viewer does not become the slime on the screen, they will at least learn to accept their current status in life, for that status is still somewhat preferred over the ideals given to them. This acceptance of degradation is the desired state of Big Brother.

Many view romanticism as evil because it does not believe in the notion of original sin. In "The Romantic Manifesto", Ayn Rand denounces original sin as a fallacy.

Original sin is endorsed by the Naturalists because it diminishes man's desire to strive and achieve. Metaphysical questions must be asked. They form the basis of all value judgments. Because art is the incarnation of man's values, the belief in original sin has no place in an artist's thesis, unless he intends to condemn it. So much of today's art reeks of original sin. Look at the grunge and hip hop influence of the nineties. They were based on the principles that man is doomed to imperfection.

Ayn Rand insists that romanticism is neither escapism nor evil. It IS a reachable ecstasy. And perfection can be obtained on earth.

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Perhaps the most important ingredient to a man and his art is what Ayn Rand terms his "SENSE OF LIFE". All of her literature deals with this concept. "The Romantic Manifesto" describes how an artist's sense of life effects his art, and of course, his audience.

A sense of life is formed by emotional generalizations and subconscious classifications/integrations of the aspects of art according to the emotions they invoke. The emotions that are invoked depend on the artists self esteem. The sense of life is what drives man's inner mechanics.

An artist's sense of life is the fuel of his VOLITION. If he possesses volition, then the crucial aspect of his life is his values, which he must act upon and create art in their likeness. If he does not possess it, then his art is determined by forces beyond his control. In this case, values will be impossible to obtain. His life will become the product of unknown (and thus dangerous) forces.

To Ayn Rand, the greatest artists are those who show the greatest control over their decisions and those with the greatest values. An artists greatness is determined by the extent that he eliminates RANDOMNESS and UNESSENTIALITIES from his art.

For example, someone who sculpts man to be god-like (such as the ancient Greeks) is aware that men can be ugly and crippled, but finds that aspect of existence irrelevant to the ESSENTIAL nature of man. The RANDOMNESS of acne, deformities, and birth defects are not part of his sense of life.

"The Romantic Manifesto" proves that the best artists neither fake nor duplicate reality...they stylize it.

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Modern art is almost entirely evil. It works by means of disintegration...reducing something (values) to a much smaller size and eventually to nothingness. Modern art disintegrates man's consciousness and reduces it to a pre-perceptual (shallow) level by breaking percepts (data) into mere sensations (emotions). It succeeds in the art world by the same means that irrational liberalism succeeds in the governmental world.

"The Romantic Manifesto" is the most important book ever written on the philosophy of positive art because it challenges the naturalistic tentacles of modern art and provides a blueprint to the only machine that can destroy big brother's army.

Perhaps the only conflict I find with Ayn Rand in this book is her reluctance to promote fantasy art. While I can understand her argument against it, I still disagree. I find fantasy art to be a useful extremity of romanticism. Because of the lawlessness in early sci fi pulp novels and the lazy directorial style of American cowboy movies, Ayn sees fantasy art as drivel. Unfortunately, she did not live to see the greatest works of imagination throughout the last thirty years...or anything from Japan for that matter.

Even with this minor disagreement, I wholly endorse "The Romantic Manifesto" as a compilation of intelligence, logic, and positive vision.

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I'd like to end this review with a wonderful quote from the chapter entitled "The Goal of My Writing":

"It is significant commentary on the present state of our culture that I have become the object of hatred, smears, and denunciations, because I am famous as virtually the only novelist who has declared that her soul is not a sewer, and neither are the souls of her characters, and neither is the soul of man."