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# Romanticism Versus Enlightenment
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Two portraits of Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini, top by Delacroix (romanticism), bottom by Ingres (enlightenment).

"One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can."
— William Wordsworth, for team Romanticism

"People aren't going to change, for better or for worse. Technology's going to be so cool. All in all, the future will be okay!"
— Randall Munroe, for team Enlightenment, xkcd #603: Idiocracy (Alt Text)

"Let the truth of love be lighted; let the love of truth shine clear
Sensibility, armed with sense and liberty
With the heart and mind united in a single perfect sphere"
— Rush, arguing that the conflict is a False Dichotomy and that both are necessary, "Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres"

Some Eighteenth century people believed that reason and science are good and therefore things would just go on improving forever. This optimism characterized a period that came to be known as the Age of Enlightenment. At the end of this period, mass movements in America and France, and the Industrial Revolution in England, changed the world forever, making people realize that society in the 19th Century was the first that could conceive itself to be radically different from the past. This led to a sense of disillusionment and alienation began to spread, and the Romanticist movement rose up as a backlash. Romanticists believed that the advances made by The Enlightenment were creating an oppressive and conformist society — and that science and rationality could never hope to truly understand the world and the human personality and that the modern world's progress came at the price of cherished values from the distant past which was slowly dying out. A similar movement occurred later, in the wake of the World Wars, which left people strongly disillusioned with the promises of modern progress after seeing to what ends the fruits of human civilization had just been turned. Although the Enlightenment and Romanticist movements are long gone, the general ideas behind each — the dialectic, if you will — survives to this present day.

Romantic and Enlightened themes are very common in fiction. For example, Enlightenment-flavored science fiction might portray the future as a world of progress, friendship, brotherhood and Crystal Spires and Togas, with barbaric forces threatening the new utopia (e.g. Star Trek). Romanticist-themed science fiction might portray the future as an unpleasant Crapsack World, with high technology but low social quality, full of depression, dehumanization and alienation (e.g. everything Cyberpunk) with the happy souls being those who escaped to the countryside, if possible (like in We and Brave New World). Looking in the other direction, Englightenment writers tended to look at the Middle Ages as a time of rampant ignorance and superstitious zealotry after the fall of learned Rome and Greece, while the Romantics viewed them more nostalgically as a time of chivalry when the rise of industry had yet to alienate man from nature.

A similar dichotomy exists in how Romantic and Enlightened traditions view rural and urban life and environments. Romantic works tend to depict cities as crowded, oppressive, and soulless places, where spirituality, hope and joy are smothered under the constant rat race of progress, rampant corruption, and the soulless clinicality of science. By contrast, rural life is lovely, spiritual, and unburdened by artificial complications, and joy and understanding can best be found in the pastoral life or the glens of an ancient forest. In the age of exploration, tropical islands in particular became something of an emblem of this concept, with the idealized concept of an isolated, lush landscape of flowers and creatures found nowhere else becoming seen as something of a modern-day Eden. Enlightened media, by contrast, leans towards idealizing city life as a hub of convenience and progress, where easy access to hubs of information and study — or, in modern works, the internet — fosters learning and understanding. The rural landscape, by contrast, is seen as a land of unnecessary toil and unpleasant privations, and home mostly to backwards and supersitious hicks.

Real life, of course, is usually just a touch more complex than these dichotomies.

Note that 'enlightened', used in such context, is sometimes a loaded word, often used to indicate a higher or better state or level of understanding. In this context the 'enlightened' approach isn't intrinsically better, just as it isn't intrinsically worse — it's a different way of approaching a concept that utilizes different methods and produces different results. Romanticism and Enlightenment are also tied to the Dionysian (wild, visceral, ornate) and Apollonian (restrained, cerebral, classicist) ideals of aesthetics in the arts. Compare the Apollonian/Enlightenment style of Neo-Classicism with the Dionysian/Romantic neo-Gothic revival, or, say, the Apollonian/Enlightenment style of Stanley Kubrick with the Dionysian/Romantic style of Steven Spielberg.

Bear in mind that contemporary invocations of the Enlightenment and Romanticist theme do not quite conform to the original Enlightenment and Romanticist movements. The works of Rousseau, Voltaire, Locke, Hume, Gibbon, Wordsworth, Byron, Keats and Shelley have greater instances of continuity, Unbuilt Trope and nuance than the modern perception of that era. The general perception is that writers and artists gravitate towards Romanticism, while scientists and businessmen favor the Enlightenment. Politicians (in most places) favor the Enlightenment while appealing to Romantic sentiments of nationalism, traditions (real and invented) and culture. Seeing as Most Writers Are Writers, Romanticism is generally overrepresented in media, with the exception of Science Fiction writers (and even there most well-known classics usually have a Romanticist message).

Compare to: Brains Versus Brawn, Character Alignment, Clarke's Law for Girls' Toys, Mother Nature, Father Science, Elves Versus Dwarves, Emotions vs. Stoicism, Harmony Versus Discipline, Magic Versus Science, Nature Versus Nurture, Scientist vs. Soldier, Soldier vs. Warrior, Technician Versus Performer, "Cavemen vs. Astronauts" Debate.

## Teams:

open/close all folders

Team Enlightenment

## Tropes usually associated with Enlightenment:

- Ancient Grome: Resulting in more sandpapering off of its traits than usual. It was during this period, however, that philosopher Giambattista Vico argued against glorifying Ancient Greece and Rome, pointing out they were diverse and complex societies, whose values were totally alien to medieval man, let alone early modern man.
- Androids Are People, Too: Based on the general idea that "The whole is the sum of its parts"; human intelligence, like all other aspects of existence, can (eventually) be artificially replicated.
- Appeal to Novelty: The newness of an idea or belief adds to its currency, on the basis that knowledge accumulates progressively over time, and therefore current ideas are drawn from more accurate and detailed knowledge. Works claiming or implying this to be true are more common amongst the idealistic, Continental strains of the Enlightenment tradition. If the fallacy is exposed, it's more in line with Romaticism.
- Art Deco: Mostly of its progressive, Euclidean and futuristic appearance.
- Beleaguered Bureaucrat: Bureaucracy isn't actively corrupt or malicious, simply overworked.
- Belief Makes You Stupid: Enlightenment supporters are more likely to view religious belief as being irrational and leading people to fanaticism or ignorance, though exceptions can exist.
- Benevolent A.I.: An AI who is friendly rather than hostile to organics, showing yet another way how science and technology can improve everyone's lives.
- Black-and-White Insanity: Enlightenment stories will almost never feature a clear battle of good and evil, viewing such a stance on conflict as childish. If Rousseau Was Right, then the villain ought to have numerous redeemable traits. If Hobbes Was Right, then the heroes themselves will have some moral ambiguity as well to preserve order and progress.
- Clones Are People, Too: To avert Clone Angst, The Enlightenment believes that clones deserve the same respect as other sentient life forms.
- Creating Life Is Awesome: A good portion of the Enlightenment approves of creating artificial life for the benefit of currently existing life, as long as artificial life is treated well. note However, other Enlightenment-based individuals oppose creating sentient life out of negative utilitarian/anti-suffering logic.
- Crystal Spires and Togas: Societies with this aesthetic are usually high-tech utopias, with the togas alluding to the Classical society that the Enlightenment saw as its role model.
- Doing In the Wizard: Every event has a cause that can be explained by the interaction of fundamental laws of the universe, even if it seems "magical" because we don't know what all those laws or interactions are.
- The Dung Ages: The belief that the Middle Ages is dysfunctional compared to modern day.
- Enlightened Antagonist: Technology, scientific progress and transhumanism are good, so someone who professes unity with God and the Universe and the abandonment of earthly desires would naturally be an antagonist (in this trope, "Enlightened" is actually understood in the Romantic and spiritual sense, and is the exact opposite of "Enlightenment" in the 17th-18th century sense).
- Enlightened Self-Interest: Doing good things for others can be good for your own agenda.
- Evil Luddite: In Enlightenment works a technophobic character is more likely to be insane, a terrorist and using technology to further their cause.
- Evil Reactionary: Reactionaries in enlightenment works tend to be trying to bring back a past Utopia that never existed in the first place through any means possible.
- The Federation: The Enlightenment has been known to advocate democracy as a preferred form of government.
- For Happiness: Jeremy Bentham, regarded as the founder of modern utilitarianism, lived during the Age of Enlightenment. Even today, utilitarianism is often seen as one of the most "logical" ethical systems out there.
- For Science!: Greater knowledge of the universe and its workings allows us to better understand our place in it — and to carve out a new place if our current spot isn't comfortable.
- The Future Will Be Better: A general faith in the idea of progress, specifically that the next generation will be better and wiser than the last often figures into or permeates many Enlightenment philosophies. Some even posit an end of history, where the ultimate social, political, scientific system, etc. will have been reached.
- Good Republic, Evil Empire: The Enlightenment can be justly criticized for overly romanticizing this trope, in all opposition to actual history.
- Great Detective: This archetype is deeply rooted in the Enlightenment by relying on logic, reason, and rationality to shine a light onto evil deeds and dark passions. A classical (Holmsean) detective is a Science Hero who works tirelessly for the betterment of the society by bringing its stray elements to public justice.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: If the story is Enlightenment-themed and has a War at its center, expect horrible people and saintly ones on both sides. Bad things done in the name of good intentions, and good things achieved for mercenary motives.
- Hanlon's Razor: Among some strains of thought, most of the ills that plague humanity and cause conflicts come about through simple ignorance, not premeditated malice. Thus, promoting a breadth and depth of knowledge through a better education actually makes us better people.
- Hard on Soft Science: How it appears in science-fiction. Ironically, as Stephen Hawking pointed out in A Brief History of Time, during the actual Enlightenment, philosophers and scientists exchanged notes all the time, and indeed it was during this period that "natural philosophy" was phased out in favor of Science with a Capital S, while parts of Philosophy evolved into social sciences like economics, sociology and psychology.
- Heroic Bystander: The difference between a "hero" and a "bystander" is more one of circumstance than ability. Anyone has the potential to become great, not just a privileged few. After all, it was a bunch of anonymous people who stormed the Bastille.
- Hero of Another Story: As important as The Hero is, if he has come far it is because he is merely standing "on the shoulders of giants".
- Hobbes Was Right: Predominantly among the British schools of Enlightenment thought, historically.
- Ignored Expert: If Cassandra Truth appears in an Enlightenment-leaning work, the character who speaks it will have plenty of knowledge and training to back it up.
- Immigrant Patriotism: The period that birthed nationalism was also a golden period for cosmopolitanism with philosophers travelling across Europe and America and sharing ideas.
- A Lighter Shade of Black or the Anti-Villain: Enlightenment villains will usually be misguided in their goals or have their ways be a product of society. Villains are not inherently evil in Enlightenment works.
- Living Forever Is Awesome: While this is not a universal belief among Enlightenment-leaning authors, they are likely to regard immortality as yet another achievement of science, and therefore welcome it. This branch is also vital for the Transhumanist philosophy, desiring the right for all to live as long as they like without the burden of aging, and everyone is allowed the right of euthanasia.
- Lovecraft Lite: To counter the Romanticist Cosmic Horror Story, the Enlightnment proposes that such seemingly undefeatable horrors can truly be conquered through knowledge, science, and technology.
- Medieval Morons: Resulting from (or in) ignorance of the fact that the medieval period was actually a time of great social upheavals and mechanical innovation.
- Morality Kitchen Sink: Not always, but a frequent feature of post-WWII-Enlightenment-styled works of sufficient scale is that the world is sufficiently complex, and people have sufficiently varied motivations, that any Black And White classification is going to be flawed—you either are going to have shades of grey, or areas where Black and White overlap.
- Nature Is Not Nice: The Enlightenment idea that the outside world is indifferent, or even very dangerous to humans.
- The Needs of the Many: Utilitarian works may sometimes emphasize the majority needs outweigh the needs of the minority. Some may emphasize that if sacrifices need to be made, it will be on the minority.
- Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Since religion is commonly seen as an irrational system of beliefs, Enlightenment utopias often discard it as a relic of old pre-scientific societies.
- The Paragon: Protagonists in Enlightenment stories will usually be this.
- Patrick Stewart Speech
- Post-Cyberpunk: Enlightenment's answer to the Romanticist Cyberpunk.
- Pro-Human Transhuman: Transhumans do not to have to be enemies of unmodified humans.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The legitimacy of an authority figure in an Enlightenment work depends on their competence and on how adequately they respond to their challenges.
- Reluctant Mad Scientist: The pursuit of knowledge is in itself morally neutral; what other people choose to do with that knowledge is their responsibility.
- Robinsonade: The Trope Namer, Robinson Crusoe, was one of the key literary works of the Enlightenment. Its idea of a lone human being (or a small group) using science to survive and eventually thrive in a hostile wilderness is very much in line with Enlightenment thinking.
- Rousseau Was Right: Predominantly among the Continental schools of Enlightenment thought, historically.note Though it's worth noting that is also something of a Proto-, and thus this trope can show up in Romanticist leaning works (e.g. )
- Science Hero: Science is seen as a force of good by the Enlightenment, while ignorance was seen by many Enlightenment thinkers as the root of all evil.
- Science Is Good: Science as a whole is portrayed in a positive light. The only real bad from science is simply the abuse of it for selfish gain, but the good that science brings should never be overlooked, especially if responsible use of it benefits all of society.
- Screw Destiny: The Enlightenment puts no stock in prophecies, preferring instead to let science and reason to guide them.
- Shining City: Civilization, science and technology are good —therefore, an ideal society would look like this.
- Solar Punk: Science and technology can give people all the comforts of an advanced civilization and also save nature.
- The Spock: A character who relies on logic in all decisions would be portrayed in Enlightenment-leaning works as an ideal to aspire to.
- Strawman Emotional: The more anvilicious Enlightened works may feature such characters.
- Transhuman: Or more specifically, optimistic portrayals of it
- The Unchosen One: The power to change the reality lies not in the hands of a few chosen, but in the hands of every ordinary person.
- White-and-Grey Morality: Since Rousseau Was Right, the enlightened heroes are motivated by a desire to bring as much good as possible, and the villains that they encounter are humanized in some way, along with having logical reasons for their antagonistic upbringing. The heroes believe that the villains can be redeemed, especially if said villains are well-meaning but misguided, and the heroes can teach the redeemed villains how to contribute to good without hurting others.
- A World Half Full: No matter how bad the world gets in an Enlightenment story, there will always be hope for improvement.

Team Romanticism

## Tropes usually associated with Romanticism:

- Advanced Civilization, Hollow Imagination: A civilization with high technology but little to no creativity would be seen by Romanticism as a danger of excessive rationality.
- Agent Scully: A strawman portrayal of a skeptical and scientifically-minded character.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Creating AI is on the Scale of Scientific Sins because Creating Life Is Bad according to Romanticism, therefore, A.I.s in general are very likely to be evil.
- Anti-Intellectualism: Even though romantics can be considered intellectual philosophers.
- Appeal to Nature: Works claiming or implying it to be true generally fall on the side of Romanticism. If the fallacy is exposed instead, it is more in line with Enlightenment.
- Appeal to Tradition: There is nothing new under the sun, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, etc. More common in the conservative strains of the Romantic tradition.
- Arcadia: In contrast with the Enlightenment Shining City utopias, a Romanticist utopia usually looks like a Garden of Eden untouched by civilization.
- Art Nouveau: Due to being flowy and nature-themed.
- Ban on A.I.: Related to Robot War, Artificial Intelligence is illegal because A.I. Is a Crapshoot.
- Barbarian Hero: Such a hero is likely to be portrayed to possess some kind of "primeval wisdom" that the more civilized characters have lost.
- Black-and-White Morality: Since a lot of adventure and fantasy literature tends toward romanticism, they will usually have a clear set of well-defined heroes and villains by default. This is especially true in books targeted towards children, which usually have a romanticist slant. Edutainment Shows targeted towards children, however, lean more toward Enlightenment.
- Book Dumb: A character relying on their intuition rather than formal training is very much in line with Romanticist thinking.
- Byronic Hero: THE Romantic Trope. A strongly individualistic figure who is driven by passion, misunderstood by society, and rebellious against conventions.
- Chivalric Romance: Differs from actual medieval chivalry and romances, in that it's more idealistic and nostalgic than its inspirations.
- The Chosen One: Truly heroic feats can only be accomplished by one who is "destined" to do so.
- Clone Angst: Cloning is on the Scale of Scientific Sins, so it is bound to have some bad consequences in a Romanticist work.
- Cosmic Horror Story: A grimdark backlash against humanity's trust in eternal improvement.
- Creating Life Is Bad: One of the deeds on the Scale of Scientific Sins. Frankenstein, one of Romanticism's classic works, has this trope as its central premise. note However, other Romanticists feel that procreation is a virtue to be celebrated, because to them, life is a gift.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Modifying oneself is on the Scale of Scientific Sins, as Romanticism sees any interference in one's biology as evil and dangerous.
- Cyberpunk: Another grimdark backlash, this time against the techno-utopianism of the 40's and 50's.
- Doing in the Scientist: Scientific explanations are undermined or found wanting, possibly to emphasise that there are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know, or that in fully comprehending reality, there are limits to what we can rationally explain.
- Downer Ending and Sudden Downer Ending: A story has a very cynical ending, a common trait for the romanticist storyline.
- Founder of the Kingdom: Looking over the founder of a country as a larger than life figure.
- Gaia's Lament: The Enlightenment belief that Nature Is Not Nice may tempt the villains to destroy the environment, and the Earth suffers the consequences.
- Gaia's Vengeance: Earth (and its biosphere) is often a sentient entity in Romanticist works, and any attempt to interfere in it will hurt it. Therefore, as soon as Earth is hurt badly enough, it will fight back, with disastrous consequences for civilization.
- Ghibli Hills: Beautiful, peaceful scenery features heavily in Romanticist works.
- Good Old Ways: Romanticism has been known to idealize the past, especially pre-industrial societies.
- Gothic Horror: The Gothic genre as a whole belongs here even though the genre's heyday actually coincided with the tail end of the Enlightenment. This is because, much like the Romantic movement itself, Gothic literature—with its themes of irrationality, supernaturalism, fear of the unknown, and a fascination with the feudal past—was in many ways a backlash against the prevailing Enlightenment values of the day. note Though some Gothic writers also incorporated a fair amount of Enlightenment rationality into their books as well; 's supernatural phenomena always turn out to have grounded explanations, and is credited with creating the ultra-rational genre of alongside his more fantastical writings. The Gothic and the Romantic movements often overlapped, with writers likes Mary Shelley and Lord Byron happpily dabbling in both, and overall the Gothic genre has always been firmly on the Romantic side of the scale.
- History Repeats: Far from universal, but a general rejection of the Enlightenment idea of progress made some Counter-Enlightenment philosophers adopt a cyclical theory of history, positing that each generation thinks itself smarter than the one came before them, and wiser than those that come after, but are in fact not that different from one another except perhaps in appearance and living quality.
- Hollywood Atheist: Some flavors of this trope appear in Romantic works, with atheists portrayed as having lost something essential, being nihilists, arrogant and even villainous if they embrace supposedly more "rational" ideologies that cause great harm.
- Humanity Is Insane: And they are proud of it.
- Humans Need Aliens: Similar to Cosmic Horror Story (as noted above), it is a Romanticist backlash against the Enlightenment's belief in Humanity Is Superior, where humanity is instead powerless and insignificant and has to rely on out-of-planet beings to get by, ones that are fundamentally above mere humans.
- Immortality Immorality: Achieving immortality is on the Scale of Scientific Sins.
- Industrialized Evil: It is common of Romanticist works to portray machines as cold, callous, and creepy, so using them as a tool for evil is fitting.
- In Harmony with Nature: Romanticism is known to idealize nature, and it is a common sentiment in Romanticist works that the best path is through, well, living in harmony with nature, rather than trying to expand and develop civilization.
- Intellectually Supported Tyranny: Intellectuals are not inherently good, and can sometimes back oppressive regimes.
- Knight in Shining Armor: The ideal hero in Romantic works, especially those set in the Middle Ages.
- Labyrinthine City: This town is very old, and was allowed to grow and thrive organically in lieu of being centrally planned or renovated.
- Ludd Was Right: Romanticism is distrustful of the social changes that come with technological progress, which is exactly what the Luddite movement was about.
- Mad Oracle: in Romanticist works Cassandra Truth is more likely to come through supernatural means and be voiced by a nameless Cloudcuckoolander rather than an Ignored Expert.
- Mad Scientist: A direct consequence of The Spark of Genius (often mixed with Science Is Bad), scientists are very commonly portrayed as not entirely sane (if not outright evil) in Romanticist works.
- The McCoy: The most ethical decisions are based on emotion rather than logic.
- Measuring the Marigolds: Stereotyping scientists' insistence on order and rationality as inhibiting creativity and destroying our appreciation of the world around us for what it is.
- The Middle Ages: Resulting in more sandpapering off of its traits than usual.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: As mentioned in Mad Scientist, an evil maverick scientist is a common Romantic archetype.
- Nature Hero: If wild nature untouched by civilization represents the ideal state of life, it makes sense that the best heroes would champion this ideal.
- Nature Lover: See Nature Hero.
- Nature Spirit: Romantic works tend to glorify Paganism.
- Noble Savage: See Barbarian Hero.
- No Transhumanism Allowed: Because modifying onself is on the Scale of Scientific Sins, even in futuristic works, humans seldom, if ever, do any kind of modifications to themselves and thus remain the same-old flesh and blood as before.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Bureaucracy is usually portrayed as inherently bad, stifling and even oppressing people.
- Older Is Better: Romanticism was known to idealize the past, and treats the very possibility of progress with skepticism.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: Romantic works will often portray things like this as a criticism of Enlightenment utilitarianism.
- The Power of Love: If one's love is strong enough, it can drive one to accomplish feats that are literally impossible otherwise.
- Prince Charming: The royal Ideal Hero.
- Punk Punk: In general, the entire idea of "-punk" is about a reaction against ever-more pervasive technology, authority and dystopian social structures, with heroes who are cool badasses who refuse to conform to the Crapsack World they live in.
- Robot War: Since A.I. Is a Crapshoot, creating an AI is asking for war.
- Scale of Scientific Sins: Portraying some branches of science and technology as inherently evil. This runs counter to the Enlightenment's idea of knowledge being inherently good.
- Science Is Bad: While individual Romanticists' attitudes towards science may vary from simple caution to outright rejection, Romanticism in general is characterized by a very skeptical attitude towards scientific progress and the change it brings, or rather the utopian idea of science the Enlightenment possessed.
- Science Is Wrong: Romanticism saw science and logic as inferior to emotion, and therefore science alone would come to wrong conclusions.
- Skeptic No Longer: An Enlightened scientific skeptic is often shown as being in the wrong and admitting the error of their ways (e.g. regarding ghosts, God etc.) in Romanticist works.
- The Spark of Genius: Romanticism often portrays all creative activity as something defying all rational explanation - and science is no exception (when scientists are not portrayed as Straw Vulcans).
- Straw Vulcan: The more anvilicious Romanticist works may feature such characters, portraying characters that are supposed to be epitomes of logic as shallow caricatures, who ironically are not very logical.
- Supernatural Elite: Romanticist utopias are often led by supernatural characters, ones that are fundamentally above mere mortals.
- Techno Dystopia: A dystopia caused by the introduction of new technology is fundamentally contrary to the Enlightenment's idea of technology in and of itself being a force of good.
- Technophobia: In a world where technology cannot be fully trusted, it's better to stay with the Good Old Ways. A milder version of Ludd Was Right.
- Theory Tunnelvision: A character adheres to their theories, rejecting conflicting facts that are even truthful. That character is expected to be emotionally broken, or worse, if they are in a situation where maintaining their filter is impossible.
- These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Again, stating that it is best to stay away from some knowledge runs counter to the Enlightenment's ideals.
- Three Chords and the Truth: That one does not need a thorough formal education to produce good music - or that "good" equals "raw" and "unpolished" - is a very Romanticist argument.
- Totalitarian Utilitarian: Romanticists are usually Naturalists who portray Enlightened Utilitarians as willing to go to extremes for the sake of Utopia.
- Transhuman Treachery: Transhumanism is on the Scale of Scientific Sins, and creating a transhuman (much like creating an AI or any other form of artificial life) is likely to result in them being evil.
- True Art Is Incomprehensible (and how science destroys our interest in it)
- Turned Against Their Masters: Related to Robot War and A.I. Is a Crapshoot, because Creating Life Is Bad, artificially-made life will turn against their creators and go rogue.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: As noted in Immortality Immorality, achieving immortality (just like transhumanism as a whole) is on the Scale of Scientific Sins, so immortality in Romanticist works, if achievable, will carry a number of unpleasant consequences.
- The World Is Not Ready: Science must not progress too quickly, otherwise disaster will follow.
- World of Ham: A setting in which everyone is highly emotional.
- Ye Goode Olde Days: A past era is often lionized and portrayed as better by Romanticists (if not ideal in comparison to modern society).
- You Can't Fight Fate: Romantics believe heavily in prophecies, saying that they will occur no matter what.

Common Tropes

## Tropes shared between them, but handled in different ways:

- All-Loving Hero: Both Romantic and Enlightened works on the idealistic end of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism have heroes with this belief. The difference is in how their beliefs are handled. The Romantic may assert that human nature of love must triumph over "totalitarian" rationality of utilitarianism, while the Enlightened hero embraces rationalism and utilitarianism and proves his or her love and compassion for other beings through them.
- The Anti-Nihilist: These are found on both sides. Enlightenment existentialists like Randall Munroe tend to take a For Happiness approach, focusing on the needs and wants of humanity in the absence of a higher morality. Romantic existentialists (most famously Friedrich Nietzsche and Soren Keirkegaard) reject rationalism as just as meaningless as anything else, and tend to suggest embracing a personal Blue-and-Orange Morality.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Cynical Romantic works against the foundations of society will usually portray this set of morality, showing that Humans Are Flawed or Humans Are the Real Monsters. Expect any form of remote goodness to come from a decidedly heroic and above-society entity. In more cynical Enlightenment works, heroes will be shown as flawed beings who are not above the laws of their society (or if they are, it's not a good thing).
- Blood Knight: Generally approved of by Romantics, due to their associations with bravery, honourable combat, glory, individual prowess and a Dying Moment of Awesome. By contrast, the Blood Knight is generally rejected by the Enlightenment due to a lack of discipline and respect for law and order, and encouraging a War Is Glorious attitude they view as dangerous.
- Captain Patriotic:
  - The Enlightenment invented nationalism, because the nation, in theory, was opposed to the kingdom and The Church, and it was a consensual secular identity around which one can build The Republic, which until this period was contained only in city-states but now governed over areas bigger than Kingdoms and with more central authority than any King before. This led to the idea of creating national institutions and cultural centers (museums, science institutions, art galleries, monuments) built to celebrate the nation, but it must be emphasized that the nation as defined by the early Enlightenment thinkers was about involvement in the community—meaning that outsiders could join the nation if they pitched in and got involved. Team Enlightenment blames romantic sentimentality towards folklore and Rose-Tinted Narrative for having corrupted nationalism from its radical origins.
  - The Romantics who later came around to nationalism, were obsessed with folklore emphasized cultural heritage as the definition of national identity, and essentially invented the culture wars about which values and which individuals are the true representatives of the nation.
- Crapsack World/Dystopia:
  - Romanticists love deconstructing Enlightenment dreams into Dystopias themselves. In Romanticist dystopian fiction (cf, Ayn Rand) a Dystopia will usually be portrayed as an Enlightenment society that runs on Intellectually Supported Tyranny where He Who Fights Monsters becomes the same dystopia that it was trying to solve (see also: Reign of Terror, Big Brother Is Watching, Crapsaccharine World, Full-Circle Revolution, and so on). Romanticists are also more likely to point out that "it is not too much ignorance, but too much conformity, that causes Dystopia".
  - Enlightenment advocates will usually believe that "widespread ignorance causes Dystopia" (sometimes bringing up the era that they called the "Dark Ages") and squabble about how education will save us all from it. They also point out that for all that romanticists trump up non-conformity, their glorification of "a lost Golden Age" rather than building something new, is conforming to the past, which was in most cases a Dystopia for a greater portion of the population who were kept ignorant, oppressed and stiffled. While Enlightenment will confess to a Full-Circle Revolution and other failures, they will also try and invoke What the Romans Have Done for Us.
  - The solutions to dealing with such scenarios differ. Enlightenment advocates believe that such times can be overcome and ultimately improve for the better. Romantics, on other other hand, believe that they're immutable and will only worsen, or at best ones that have to be burned to the ground before they can regrow.
- Creating Life Is Awesome: Enlightenment works are theoretically okay with this, skeptical in practise, whereas Romantics argue against playing God. The very first science-fiction, Frankenstein tackled this very concept, and it was a romantic work. It must be noted that Enlightenment-inspired revolutions, especially the French and the Russian one, had the idea of creating "a new man" which they meant to be a citizen with values and references entirely different from the past, but which in the eyes of critics amounted to be similar to treating man as tabula rasa with new values inserted like a program given to a robot. Mary Shelley's book argued that in taking the role of God, man is likely to repeat the same mistakes to his creations and the consequences it creates.
- Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: Romanticists believe that Curiosity Killed the Cast, or at least make us Go Mad from the Revelation and turn us into nihilists. The Enlightened do recognize that curiosity does have its flaws, but overall it can be used for further learning and self-improvement.
- Democracy Is Bad: You can find arguments for this among both Enlightenment and Romantic schools, though more in the case of the latter. Although democracy tends to be an Enlightened philosophy, many early Enlightened works and philosophers pondered a technocracy (e.g., Plato's The Republic) or a plutocracy. Romanticists are more varied in their positions; some want to return to old-fashioned feudalism, others advocate for a democratic system, and often their chosen form of government is whichever form is not in place in their society.
  - Basically, Enlightenment hates democracy because it puts truth to a popular vote rather than using reason, while Romanticism hates democracy because it becomes a bureaucratic mess where leaders care more about winning elections than ruling.
  - It should be noted that what is considered Democracy as we live it today (where everyone can vote, no discrimination to minorities, no slavery and exploitation of other people) is quite different from what many Enlightened and Romantic writers thought vis-a-vis democracy (Enlightenment thinkers were content with limited suffrage, while Voltaire would probably insist that a secular France remain anti-semitic) with the exception of Rousseau, Diderot, Condorcet and a few others.
- Emotions vs. Stoicism: The Enlightenement saw themselves continuing the Greek, specifically the Socratic tradition of using logic and critical thinking to discover truth and question the foundations of the society they were in, rejecting emotion as an impediment to seeking truth. The Romanticists saw themselves either questioning the value of the truth found by Enlightenment, or looking for alternative sources in emotion or intuition. Schopenhauer, despite following on from the very Enlightenment Kant, argued how humans were motivated by a desire to live and procreate, rejecting the Enlightenment notion that humans actually desired the truth, while Nietzsche, despite criticizing Romanticism, noted how many seemingly rational philosophers like Plato, Socrates and Spinoza were influenced by their own psychology in determining what they considered to be "true", and emphasised that human beings were really constituted by many motives that are rarely interested in what is objectively true, arguing that what we considered reason was ultimately illusory.
- The Extremist Was Right: Both Enlightenment and Romantics feature this in their works.
  - invoked The smartest person in the room would not face opposition in any story if authority or the people saw their ideas as reasonable. An Enlightened figure, either a critic of government, a scientist, a reformer, will be seen as an extremist until Vindicated by History. Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People plays it straight, Bertolt Brecht's Galileo is a parody.
  - Extreme solutions are more glamorous than mundane solutions and Romantic works often favor situations and settings where characters believably move into extreme phases of behavior, act disproportionately but in the end are praised by everyone as visionaries who were bold, decisive and had the gut instinct. And of course, because the person can only act in an extreme measure, there is No Place for Me There after the world is saved.
- Fantastic Racism: Even though enlightenment works address the issue of racism a lot more than romantic ones, there have been some romantic works that address this as well. Enlightenment works would often argue that maintaining the societal status quo is the cause of racism, as maintaining society's traditional values leads to a society that will not accept races or cultures of different kinds. Enlightenment works often argue that it is necessary for society to change for a greater good in order to maintain a racially diverse and tolerant society. Romantic works will argue that racism is caused by the enlightenment's side need of sacrificing the few for the sake of majority and argue that races considered as "inferior" are often sacrificed. Romantic works argue that man's natural ability to love will always triumph over man's tendency for hatred and prejudice.
- Fictional United Nations: It can be portrayed as either useful or useless in much the same way as Democracy Is Bad. The Romanticist sees the Fictional United Nations as hamstrung by the realities of international politics where powerful nations will still run riot over weak ones (see the League of Nations). The Enlightened depict the job as tricky but not impossible, with the participants more inclined towards Enlightened Self-Interest and willing to work together for the greater good.
- Genre-Busting: The idea of a writer as a creator of original stories and new characters comes from this era and both the Enlightenment and the Romantic eras contributed to contemporary literature:
  - The Enlightenment invented realism; works by Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding and Jane Austen created an appetite in the public for the novel of contemporary life. There were also genres such as the philosophical parable and satire (Jonathan Swift, Voltaire) and the Gothic horror and romance by Walpole and Ann Radcliffe. Before Romanticism, the idea was to use classical and Biblical myth (Paradise Lost and most of Shakespeare's plays) as source material for plots, characters and themes. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Werther and Wilhelm Meister became bestsellers of its day and put across the idea of youth as protagonists, Tragic Hero and the bildungsroman as genres.
  - The Romantics like William Wordsworth tackled everyday life and nature as themes and subjects for poetry. Coleridge used poetry to represent fevered stages of psychological stress: guilt/despair/lust and romance. Lord Byron's poetry created the new character archetype of the Byronic Hero which inspired Stendhal and Alexander Pushkin. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein (subtitled the modern Prometheus) to show that it was entirely different from the older myths. Walter Scott and Alexandre Dumas created the new genre of Historical Fiction, while the Gothic Romance genre, already parodied by Jane Austen, got revived towards the horror genre and even infused in realistic stories like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.
- Godwin's Law: Both sides have arguments that the Nazis belonged to the opposing side. Romanticists point to their racial pseudoscience and use of modern industry to organize mass killings, the Enlightened point to their reactionary blood and soil ideology and mythology of race. Social Darwinism is mentioned below.
- The Government: The Enlightenment values states and nations as ways of ordering society and curbing our more dangerous natural instincts; Romantics skeptically argue that nations and states are inevitably self-serving and corrupt at the expense of the people they claim to serve, and unnecessarily coddle and leash humans to a degrading degree.
- Green Aesop: Both sides are fond of these, though the Romantic version gets a lot more play in media. The Romantic Green Aesop is that humanity must live in peace and harmony with the natural world, often adding "or she'll kill us all." The Enlightenment version agrees that humanity must help the environment, but argues for scientific and technological solutions to environmental issues, often amounting to deliberate re-engineering of the global ecosystem. In other words, they believe that humanity can win against Gaia's Vengeance while averting Gaia's Lament through science.
- Humans Are Flawed: Both sides have this to a degree.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: With the decline of religion in the philosophical mainstream, such ideas as Good and Evil gradually shifted to a non-religious conception:
  - The (mostly British) Enlightenment acknowledges wholeheartedly that humans (especially the working classes and colonized barbarians) are incredibly selfish, materialistic, pleasure-obsessed, aggressive, impulsive, short-sighted, miserable, and otherwise...bastard-y animals (just see Hobbes Was Right), and this selfishness is biologically and neurologically immutable (e.g. pain, fight-or-flight, fear, hunger, sex, and such). The classical British Enlightenment (and its American progeny, as well as some of its Continental friends like Lafayette and de Tocqueville) therefore emphasized building political, social, and economic institutions whereby these impulses could be channeled and moderated to serve the public interest. In this theory, private ambition is made to serve the public interest through elections (because the path to power is therefore to protect the rights and serve the interests of ordinary people), and private greed is made to enrich the nation as a whole through free-market capitalism (because in a free-market capitalist society, the best way to get rich is to make or do something everyone else finds useful, or at least entertaining or interesting). To later and more cynical Singularitarian Transhumanists, the only method that will abolish this selfish gene is through evolution into The Singularity where pain is nonexistent (e.g. Assimilations).
  - The Romantic school argued that humans were capable of being monstrous but this might not be such a bad thing. After all, civilization is hypocritical and deluded about how noble it is, and ignorant and blind of the harm it unleashes in the name of "progress" (for the very few). Self-proclaimed goody two shoes are boring, usually prudish and lousy in bed, and actually not really all that good once you get down to it. People who are monstrous or bad at least admit it. This was the theme of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and it was partly as a result of this trope that Villain Protagonist and Byronic Hero as in Wuthering Heights' Heathcliff came to be prominent and influential. It also underpinned Friedrich Nietzsche's criticism of conventional morality and a restricted view of human nature as "good" and "evil".
- Humans Are Special: The Enlightenment argued that humans are rational and that it was possible for human reason to build a better society and a more equal society. The Romantic would argue that humans are special because Humans Are Flawed and our flaws and weaknesses make us individuals, unique and give us the strength to stand against the conformity of both conventional and utopian groups. This largely stems from the the (mostly French) Continental schools of Enlightenment which, unlike British Empiricism, argued on Cartesian ideas of "first principles" i.e. starting from scratch and building something new from ground up, rather than fixing and refining what worked in the past.note i.e. and — that is, humankind is a blank slate which is mostly influenced by its environment, and thus not inherently "selfish" or "selfless" inasmuch as simply interested in self-preservation and seeking comfort. This is why they advocate and democracy. This ultimately derives from distinct historical experiences. England could count on the wisdom of experiences because they had diverse experiences such as the Barons War (that gave them the Magna Carta), a Hundred Years War, a religious reformation, and an led by aristocrats, that provided them strong institutions. France had no such experiences of diverse governments to count on and so they, and other revolutionary nations, start from scratch and first principles and build new institutions on brand new ideals
- Inherent in the System: The Enlightened response is to say "And so, we should make a better system" (or, for the more optimistic, "...make the worst aspects of the current system better"), and then start squabbling about what "better" means. The Romantic response is more variable, but very often tends to be "And so, we should destroy the system."
- Just Think of the Potential!: The Enlightenment usually prefers the optimistic version of this trope, with the potential benefits of a new technology outweighing the dangers. Romanticism does the opposite, and the character uttering this line will be almost universally regarded as either foolish (unaware of the dangers) or outright evil (not caring about the damage the new invention would cause).
- Knight in Sour Armor:
  - The Enlightenment is A Lighter Shade of Grey version of this trope: the anti-hero will usually be a cynic, but will ultimately strive to do the right thing for the good of all because rationally, it is the right thing to do.
  - The Romanticist is a more... well, romantic version of the trope. Their convictions usually will sound like this: "The world is harsh and cruel, and I've accepted it, and the "rational" thing to do may be to give up, but dangit I'm fighting anyway!"
- Liberty Over Prosperity: Enlightenment tries its best to combine the two. Romanticists say the Enlightenment basically went He Who Fights Monsters and is slowly sacrificing Liberty for Prosperity (see the bit about Crapsack World below).
- Living Is More than Surviving: It is not enough to survive using practical skills; there are other things that we should live for as well. However, the while Enlightenment is about improving our lives with science and technology, Romanticism values living in harmony with nature and human connections.
- Loners Are Freaks: Both the Enlightenment and Romanticism note that society is alienating and artificial.
  - Where the likes of Goethe would treat this alienation as tragic or the beginning of the path to knowledge (as in Werther and Wilhelm Meister), Romantics glorified the state of being an outsider and rejected by society, and some, namely Fyodor Dostoevsky, saw the ability of some individuals to refuse assimilation in a perfect society (as in Notes from Underground) as a heroic endeavor. Basically, both groups agree that Humans Are Flawed, but Enlightenment is about acknowledging and getting over it and being a better person, while Romanticism is about rejecting social conventions in favor of personal authenticity (cf, Byronic Hero).
  - Much later Jean-Paul Sartre created Existentialism which took an enlightened approach to reclaim the romantic yearning for "authenticity". He claimed that life and society was essentially meaningless and that it was up to human beings to give meaning to their existence and take responsibility for that self-defined ideal, and that "Bad faith" was all around us which means there's no one definition of authenticity that anyone can follow, rather they must follow their reason and their conscience.
- Nature Is Not a Toy: Whereas the Enlightenment would agree with this trope in the vein of Nature Is Not Nice, the Romantics would point out that this trope is true in the sense that abusing nature is not nice.
- Order vs. Chaos: An Enlightenment would favor order for society while a Romanticist would adore the chaos of nature. Sigmund Freud, who saw himself in the Enlightened tradition, argued that Humans Are Flawed and since actions are driven by unconscious decisions, attempts at order (at home or in society) will fail, but by being honest with oneself, self-critical and being more tolerant of human weakness it would be possible to contain and prevent chaos. Surrealists however, inspired by Freud, saw the unconscious and human flaws as an inherently good thing, since without it life would be boring.
- Perfection Is Impossible: Both sides tend to argue this (and accuse the other of seeking the impossible perfection), but with different alternatives. Enlightenment prefers to use laws and philosophy to make society better than it was before, confident their descendants will repeat the Reconstruction. Romanticism rejects this assumption, and often states that even attempting to make society better will make things worse.
- Postmodernism: Both the Postmodern and Romantic movements basically emerged as a backlash against modernity and the Enlightenment. However, Postmodernism registers about equal skepticism towards both Romanticism and the Enlightenment, questioning the reality of Romantic concepts like authenticity, naturalness, and truth, while also questioning the usefulness of Enlightened concepts like progress, value, and objectivity. Postmodernism is thus viewed unfavorably by both groups, while it in turn views each as interesting and useful when taken with a grain of salt, hence the famous Postmodern infatuation with Irony. For an example of how this works, consider the important proto-postmodern text Dialectic of Enlightenment, which critiqued modernism and Enlightenment as being nothing other than an extended, totalitarian form of the same (Romantic) primitive world-mythology that grips all people - "[M]yth is already enlightenment; and enlightenment reverts to mythology."
- Punk Punk: In general, anything with "-punk" in its name has a strong tendency towards Romanticism, due to the genre's cynicism about human advancement, preference for older and more visible machines, and strongly antiauthoritarian tendencies. However, this isn't a hard-and-fast rule, and many "-punk" works actually lean towards Enlightenment in their embrace of the possibilities of their setting's unique technology. For example, Steampunk works tend to have an idealistic and nostalgic view of the steam-powered technology of the 19th-century while ignoring the oppression that occurred during this time period. Post-Cyberpunk, being a reaction against the extreme Romanticism of the Cyberpunk genre, is another obvious example.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Romanticism tends to be the Red Oni, Enlightenment tends to be the Blue Oni.
- Science Fiction Versus Fantasy: While there are many exceptions, science fiction (glorious future) tends towards Enlightenment, fantasy (glorious past) towards Romanticism.
  - This occasionally leads to some Fandom Rivalry between the two, particularly SF readers (and writers, most notably including David Brin) who perceive fantasy as inherently reactionary. Seen historically, the first work of Science Fiction, Frankenstein, was very much a romantic work. Mary Shelley's work had tropes like Noble Savage, the Byronic Hero (she was living in a house with the original—who, incidentally, had knocked up her stepsister—when she wrote Frankenstein, and her husband fit the trope too) and angst over man becoming God in creating life, and scientific endeavor as an exercise in hubris. Likewise, a work that heavily influence fantasy fiction, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, was very much about math, word puzzles, and Logic Bomb, while William Morris' Medieval European Fantasy romances used a Constructed World to put in social criticisms.
  - As Alan Moore argued in Dodgem Logic Science Fiction in the 19th to early 20th Century was essentially skeptical and ironic in its treatment of progress and the likes of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne argued that new technology could be used for abuses and saw the development of technology less as evidence of man's rational progress and more as an arms race for powerful nations. It was only in the early 20th Century, and largely in American fiction, that the idea of science fiction as Enlightenment rather than Romantic flourished.
- Sliding Scale Of Free Will Versus Fate: Generally speaking, Enlightenment argues in favor of Screw Destiny, with its focus on progression, idealism and science, while Romanticism favors Because Destiny Says So, with its focus on mythology, and philosophers like Schopenhauer emphasizing how humans are driven by non-rational motives that make any long term improvement at best temporary, and at worst an illusion. However, there's a lot of variation, with some Enlightenement philosophers such as d'Holbach and some scientists arguing that free will is an illusion, and many Romanticists like Byron glorifying political or individual rebellions, and philosophers like Søren Kierkegaard giving incredible weight to the subject of individual responsibility.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Romanticism tends towards the cynical, but with a large amount of deviation. The Enlightenment is more complicated:
  - Enlightenment figures from the European continent, particularly (for some reason) Germany, really were idealistic and optimistic (take Immanuel Kant and Leibniz as examples). Other Continental Enlightenment types (like Voltaire—no, not that one) were willing to admit that most Humans Are Bastards, but trusted in the virtue of some people to keep things improving.
  - Rousseau, who was the one figure both Enlightenment and Romantic writers claimed for their own, was idealistic about social progress and believed it was entirely achievable with a positive vision of society, as opposed to a negative one like Hobbes. He also believed it was realistic, citing the influence of Niccolò Machiavelli (whose reputation Rousseau played a role in reviving).
  - Enlightenment figures from the British tradition tend to assume absolute cynicism—Humans Are Flawed animals and Machiavelli Was Right, in their opinion—and then proceed to create institutions that guide that cynicism to public benefit (think of Ethical Hedonism, Hobbes and Lord Mandeville's The Fable of the Bees). In other words, it's a position that transcends the Sliding Scale: they're idealistic about the big picture (society) because they're cynical about the small one (the individual). Though in regard to Romanticism, a case could be made that it can be idealist, though in an anti-rationally different way than how an Enlightenment leaning individual would define Idealism.
  - Romanticism was largely idealistic about individuals but cynical about institutions and governments, while Enlightened were idealistic about institutions, laws, government and ideologies but cynical about individuals working outside or entirely escaping the influence of these systems.
- The Social Darwinist:
  - Romanticists warn about the Enlightened's descent into amoral Evilutionary Biologists obsessed with Evolutionary Levels (Nazi comparisons galore). On the other hand, the Enlightened denounce Romanticists (more specifically, the Luddites) as savages glorifying the dog-eat-dog the-weak-get-killed-off brutal Crapsack World of the past (The Dung Ages comparisons galore).
  - Team Enlightenment points out that Romanticist glorification of The Hero, their fetish for "great men" and "the natural man" who rises from Rags to Riches and then remodels the world is essentially a romantic dressing up of this concept, noting that it argues that such exceptional people (mostly Napoléon Bonaparte fanboys) deserve to conquer and rule others because they have a higher understanding than the lowly mortals who should be content to remain subjects.
- Society Is to Blame: The Enlightened response is to say "And so, we should change society," and then start squabbling about how to do it. Conversely, Romantics are more likely to see social problems as stemming from inherent human nature, and can only be managed at best rather than abolished.
- Soldier vs. Warrior: The Soldier mindset is more in-line with the Enlightenment crowd, while Warriors are more subscriptive to Romanticism.
- Still Fighting the Civil War: Enlightened see refusing to admit that your side lost as pointless, whereas Romantics see continuing in a long-over fight as glorious.
- Straw Nihilist: Romanticists see the Enlightenment as converting humanity into a race of nihilists, thus in Romanticist works such nihilists are usually portrayed as Enlightened people who failed to find an objective proof for a "meaning in life" (for a contemporary version of this, see Cyberpunk, with high technology but existential angst). The Enlightened tend to see nihilists as Romantics who have abandoned rationalism but failed to find anything to replace it with (Friedrich Nietzsche while critical of Enlightened rationalism in general, agreed with this view). Existentialists, incidentally, are found on both sides.
- The Theme Park Version: More associated with the Romantics, as this is often described as a "Romanticised" view of something. However, as noted above, the Enlightenment would sometimes use this trope.
- War Is Glorious: More common among the Romantics, who view war as a way of testing a people's strength and proving the worth of an individual warrior. At the very least, passions run high in war, and conflicts are intense and bloody, both of which make for good stories. However, even the Enlightenment may find War Is Glorious, especially in regards to highly advanced societies defending civilization from the Always Chaotic Evil horde, and may find something beautiful in the order and disciplined involved in the military, and a common enemy giving a single purpose for people to unite behind.
- War Is Hell:
  - More common among the Enlightenment figures, but war involves the tragic deaths of the noble, the splitting of families by death or divided loyalties, and Worthy Opponents who could have been friends killing each other simply for being on opposite sides - all causes for misery for Romantics. In Enlightenment stories, the emphasis is on What a Senseless Waste of Human Life and resources, due to war exacting a high cost on a nation's wealth and the civilian population.
  - Romantic works often portray war as becoming hell specifically when the sides take advantage of modern industry and weapons.
- Wild Child: The Enlightened side sees feral children as having suffered horribly for missing out on rationalism and civilization. Romantics celebrate the feral child as a form of Noble Savage. Notably, the Enlightened approach is used for dealing with feral children in Real Life, but almost all fictional depictions are based on the Romanticist angle.

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Arts

- Academic Art is The Enlightenment's artistic offspring. Its main characteristics are idealism (portraying reality at the high end of the Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty and through muted emotions), Strictly Formula, and favoring allegorical artworks (i.e., with religious, mythological, or historical themes). Notable exponents of this movement are Alexandre Cabanel, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, and Jules Joseph Lefebvre.
  - The only time where Cabanel rebelled against the Movement's conventions was during his formative years. When he painted The Fallen Angel as a student, his technique was not yet the absolute perfection the Academy demanded and his imprinting of emotions was deemed more appropriate for Romanticism than for Academicism.

Comic Books

- Aquaman and Sub-Mariner are an Alternate Company Equivalent to one another and occupy opposite sides of the Romanticism vs Enlightenment spectrum. Aquaman is Enlightenment and was originally conceived as a human adapted to underwater life via scientific means, and while his origins have changed since, he more often than not showcases the beauty and wonder of the sea and its inhabitants, with Atlanteans being humans adapted to living undersea in Crystal Spires and Togas. Namor, by contrast, was a Half-Human Hybrid and a Villain Protagonist from the start, his Atlanteans were merpeople hostile to outsiders, and he represents the lurking terror and unknown quantity of the sea, functioning as Romantic. This also extends to their personalities, especially early on, with Aquaman being written as a curious bookworm and trickster who did things for the sake of it, while Namor was always a hot-tempered Byronic Hero who did things out of duty or because he'd been crossed — as well as their respective portrayals of Atlantis and the scope of their franchises, with Namor's backstory being a relatively straightforward Child of Two Worlds tale who rules a minimalistic Atlantis often Out of Focus, while Aquaman's mythos and origin stories have been usually more complex, featuring flawed leads, morally ambiguous villains and an ever expanding Ensemble Cast in all kinds of different underwater civilizations.
- The Authority: Strongly Pro-Enlightenment. This is typically expressed in that they tend to have a strong degree of cynicism along the lines of British tradition, but it is born of their disappointment towards society failing to meet their Ideals. Team Romanticism is usually represented by Marvel Comics ersatzes who get thoroughly beaten.
- Broadly the difference between Alan Moore's Watchmen and Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Watchmen is on the Enlightenment side, exploring superheroes Warts and All but ultimately criticizing What Measure Is a Non-Super? and Deconstructing the idea of superheroes as power fantasies. Miller is Romantic, believing that even in a modern post-apocalyptic Reaganite America, Batman can have a great deal of appeal as an anti-Establishment myth and figure despite the changing sociopolitical landscape.
- Within DC Comics, Superman is usually the embodiment of the Enlightenment (Rousseau Was Right, Humans Are Special even if Humans Are Flawed) while Batman is the Romantic figure, a Knight in Sour Armor protecting a Wretched Hive and Crapsack World in The DCU.
  - Superman's enemies are generally motivated by rational (if evil) goals such as Take Over the World/Take Over the City/despotism and representative of some form of tyranny which Superman wants to oppose. Batman's enemies however are largely Insane Equals Violent who commit crimes for no rational reasons and render any attempt to reason or reform them a complete joke, with that most romantic of tropes, Bedlam House becoming a Cardboard Prison.
  - Likewise, Batman is largely a loner who broods in a castle with only a loyal retainer as his near-equal (in other words not quite equal), fitting the Byronic Hero archetype well what his messy self-destructive love life and passive-aggressive arm's-length dynamic with his sidekicks, whereas Superman is extroverted in both his superhero and civilian identities, usually engages in long-term relationships and friendships and is loyal to his roots and community.
  - Of course Superman is bestowed with the Superpower Lottery from birth and is a Romantic figure of optimism and progress, while Batman despite being a billionaire (and essentially as advantaged as Superman in the eyes of the ordinary man) is a Badass Normal who mastered all known physical and scientific skills and stands out across all comics as the only major hero without superpowers or Powered Armor, or other gimmicks (Enlightenment). Likewise, Batman is a detective, someone who uses reason to pursue the truth.
- Marvel Comics was itself usually more Pro-Enlightenment than DC Comics. The Marvel Universe had relatively more complex origins and villains, many of them lived in a real-life city like New York, whereas DC had simplistic stories, villains and Empathic Environment like Metropolis (the Home of Superman, bright, cheerful and optimistic) and Gotham (the Home of Batman, dark, dingy and pessimistic).
  - Captain America is Captain Patriotic in the Enlightenment tradition, he defends values and ideals and embodies them as best as he can in a rapidly changing world and commands leadership by consent and consensus rather than simply being the most powerful and charismatic of them all.
  - The Vigilante heroes of Spider-Man, The Punisher and Daredevil are as a rule more romantic than Marvel's Team Heroes. Within them, Spider-Man is more Enlightened than the latter two, since he sees superhero careers as responsibilities and a daily struggle to balance both to the best of his abilities, while the latter two see crime-fighting as a personal crusade, rooted in trauma and personal demons.
  - While X-Men have an Enlightened crusade of equal rights and social justice, their appeal as outsiders who are different from society attract many Romantic types. Wolverine is perhaps the most romantic figure in the Marvelverse, with his Dark and Troubled Past, Heathcliff-like looks and charm and Byronic Hero Lone Wolf nature. Magneto is likewise a Tragic Villain in the Romantic mould.
  - In the Fantastic Four, the conflict between Reed Richards and Doctor Doom. Both are brilliant scientists but the latter is a Mad Scientist dictator who combines magic with sorcery and promotes Intellectually Supported Tyranny (Romantic) while Reed Richards represents the Enlightenment.
- Olivier Rameau: The land of Reverose is at the extreme end of the romantic side - to the point that incursions by elements of the Enlightenment side are often treated as existential threats.

Fan Works

- The Conversion Bureau can go both ways. In one way, it's the High Fantasy-oriented ponies with their sing-song idealism, magic and value-based society that may seem like the Romanticist faction opposing the advanced, yet environmentally decrepit and immoral 20 Minutes into the Future Enlightened humanity, but the variation comes at a second glance when the humans try to defend their own idealistic, though conservative and debatably outdated values against the progressive but terribly pragmatic process of ponification.
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is a huge advocate of Enlightenment. The protagonist, Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, is a rationalist who grew up with enlightenment ideals. The writer, Eliezer Yudkowsky, is the founder of Less Wrong, a blog dedicated to rational thinking. Within the fanfic, Dumbledore represents the Romanticism, while Harry represents Enlightenment. Harry drifts away from the modern form of Enlightenment to the classic one over time; his goals stay the same, but his methods change from free thinking and experiment to revelation and epiphany.
- The Last Ringbearer has the democratic, technology-using and highly-enlightened human civilisation of Mordor vs. the backwards, arrogant, racist elves who want to enslave/exterminate humanity and stop all technological progress forever. You'll never guess which side of the dynamic the writer is on.
- Legends of Equestria: The conflict between the Emperor (Enlightenment) and the citizens of Equestria (Romanticism) is one of these. The Emperor favors a completely technology-driven society, built on the principles of mechanization and a rigid social structure. The inherent ideals of the ponies instead favor a more communal and friendly society.
- Nosflutteratu: Pinkie Pie helps Twilight resolve her dilemma by tricking her into thinking with her heart, not her head.
- Pokémon Untamed: The legendaries embody the struggle between tradition and change that serves as the main theme of the game's story.
  - Hylarmos represents traditionalism. It's a powerful apex predator that wants to keep things the way they are and maintain a status quo that favors it, and its followers distrusted change and upsets to tradition. Physically, it's designed to resemble a monstrous, primordial predator depicted in the style of ancient Mesoamerican statuary and resembles a reptile, creatures that begin life as tiny versions of their adults and simply become larger as they age.
  - Maripome represents modernism and change. It's a frail and hunted prey animal that wants to move away from the system that harms it, and its followers focused on adaptability and on using change to make a better world. Physically, it's an insectoid being, resembling the creatures that change the most often and the most drastically over their life cycle, and resembles an artificial, almost mechanical being.
  - Elorimanda embodies the struggle between the two. It's a creature that has already radically altered itself in response to the arrival of humans, and modern society hotly debates whether it already achieved perfection this way or whether its ultimate form lies in the wake of still further changes to come. Physically, it's a creature of unclear nature, half-covered in coils of its old shed skin, on the verge of deciding to either keep its beautiful covering or taking the risk of shedding it aside to reveal something new.
- Prodigal Son: In the first natural philosophy class Hiccup attends, Artemisia brings up the idea that the world is round, while one of her more fundamentalist students Linus surmises that the Earth is flat because the Bible says as much, only for Artemisia to dismantle the notion through geometry. She then goes on to correctly assume that the Sun and stars are millions of times farther away from the planet than the planet's circumference, a notion that baffles even Hiccup. She is then hounded on by the impudent student after class, only for Artemisia to use his very talking points (quoting St. Augustine) against him.
- Scar's Samsara is heavily focused on this philosophical conflict, just like the above. Here, Scar is the one who's trying to bring enlightenment ideals into the Pridelands, while Mufasa and the established order try to resist him. Most rational stories feature this to some extent.

Films — Live-Action

- Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese both made deconstructions of the gangster genres from two different views:
  - Coppola's The Godfather is Romantic, painting the Gangster family as modern day Renaissance Princes and their crime business in a benign light. The Corleone family is shown as a loving family despite their criminal enterprise. The Don has a code of Neighborhood-Friendly Gangsters and he wants good kids. Michael Corleone asserts to Kay, the Audience Surrogate, that fundamentally gangsters are no different from politicians, businessmen or any other man who is responsible for other people. The Corleone crime enterprise is used as a dark metaphor for The American Dream and the overall contradiction of immigrant families assimilating, symbolized by Michael's desire for the family to get into legitimate businesses, which elevates him into a Tragic Villain and Byronic Hero.
  - Scorsese's vision is Enlightenment. He sees gangsters in Mean Streets, GoodFellas and Casino as hoodlums with Delusions of Eloquence, poor street kids who fall into the criminal life because of poor homes, Abusive Parents and lack of opportunity. The Mob bosses seem Affably Evil and Neighborhood-Friendly Gangsters but that's just for show, in the end, everyone is Only in It for the Money and for the sake of it they will kill their friends, rat on each other, destroy themselves. The most violent street hoodlums will be the first to be disposed and often in the messiest of ways to Make an Example of Them, while the ones with cleaner hands, walk away with absolutely nothing to show for themselves, at the end of it all.
- Star Wars:
  - For the most part, the franchise is a thoroughly romanticist work: while nominally a science-fiction story, it is heavily inspired by high fantasy, with its Wagner-flavored music and the focus on larger-than-life heroes that are far above the common man thanks to an innate superpower (Force sensitivity). This is no more sharply contrasted than in the lush, vibrant Scenery Porn of the Old Republic and the cold, utilitarian appearance of The Empire.
  - However, the franchise is also one of the most well-known examples of Good Republic, Evil Empire (an Enlightenment trope), and when it comes to the Jedi and the Sith, the roles are reversed: the Republic/Rebellion-aligned Jedi preach stoicism and rationality (Enlightenment), while the Empire-aligned Sith preach letting one's emotions, especially anger, run wild (Romanticism).
  - In the Star Wars Legends continuity, Luke decides that both sides have a point, and seeks to unite both Enlightenment reason and Romantic emotion into the New Jedi Order, most notably by lifting the old Order's ban on romantic love.
  - It's unsurprising that Star Wars straddles the divide so thoroughly, given that it's based on a Japanese story (The Hidden Fortress) and Chinese philosophy (Taoism, which strives for balance, not one side over another), thus distancing it (somewhat) from the European heritage this page is focused on.
- Jurassic Park. The owner was a believer in Enlightenment reason with the cloned dinos, while the Romantic heroes sensibly pointed out the various problems in his park. This is purely an invention of the films; in the books the owner had no apparent philosophical stance at all and the Enlightened heroes sensibly pointed out the various problems in his park.
- Fight Club is Romanticist, as befits anything based on the heavily Nietzschean-influenced work of Chuck Palahniuk. Palahniuk's novels often uses a Crapsack World to show the flaws of Team Enlightenment, have some Team Romantic protagonists show up and reject it, then break the protagonists into bits by the end of the novel. This certainly happened to the narrator of Fight Club, everyone in Haunted (2005), and the protagonists of Choke and Invisible Monsters. In both the film and book of Fight Club, the narrator ultimately rejects Tyler Durden's hyper-romantic goals, though the denouement is radically different in the film and movie.
- Demolition Man has Dr. Raymond Cocteau on the side of Team Enlightenment, as a totalitarian technocrat creating the city of San Angeles as overly sanitized, rational, morally upright, detached from base passions, and politically correct. On the other hand, La Résistance leader Edgar Friendly, as well as both protagonist John Spartan and antagonist Simon Phoenix, are all Team Romanticism, opposing Cocteau's totalitarian technocracy as a fight for freedom (Friendly), on Classical Liberal principle (Spartan), or out of sheer disgust (Phoenix).
- I, Robot (2004) has Romanticist elements. The hero bemoans the replacement of the cottage industry by robotic industry, and muses that he might be the "last sane person" on earth. The robot apocalypse is written to be the result of logic. The goal, ending humanity's wars and self-destruction, is noble, yet the only reason given for the particular choice of solution (totalitarian uprising) to that problem is the word "logic".
- The Bridge on the River Kwai features this clash, although it is thoroughly subverted: Colonel Nicholson of Team Enlightenment believes so passionately in law and order that he ends up turning to Honor Before Reason, and collaborating with his Japanese captors in order to stay in command of his men. The wild, defiant Warden, representing Romanticism, ultimately behaves more rationally. At least compared to the Colonel. But the other contrast in the movie is between Nicholson and Shears. In this contrast, Shears represents the Enlightenment as he pursues his goals of survival and defeating the enemy by whatever rational means are effective. Nicholson, on the other hand, is the Romantic who puts the concept of honor ahead of those other goals.
- Sherlock Holmes (2009) has Sherlock being largely pro-Enlightenment, in favor of reason, logic, and democratic government, and the movie's villain, Lord Blackwood, being largely pro-Romanticism, in favor of mysticism, monarchism, and a return to older ways of doing things. Seeing that Holmes is a hero protagonist, it seems obvious to say that the movie is pro-Enlightenment. However, Holmes is a freewheeling Bohemian who enjoys the arts alongside his other pursuits, while Blackwood is a fraud who wants to impose a new order of his making over the people of Britain. The actual answer is more complex than it at first seems.
- The Skin Game: The central theme. The Hillcrists are the Old Money aristocrats who want their village to stay the way it is, quiet and peaceful, and they dislike Hornblower building factories, and how the workers who are coming to town are causing traffic jams in the village and how the old forest next to their property might get cut down. But of course Hornblower, the Nouveau Riche industrialist, is bringing jobs to the village, and as one villager notes he's bringing electricity too. (Notably, the Hillcrists have electricity in their fancy mansion but aren't interested in bringing it to the town.). Hornblower makes this explicit when, while talking about how he's going to build his factory, says "I've no use for sentiment and that sort of thing."
- True Grit (2010) is a movie about the End of the West, and Mattie firmly takes the side of Enlightenment. Rooster Cogburn is very Romanticist, as are most of the Ned Pepper gang, and La Boeuf is somewhere in the middle, trying to be Enlightenment but with a few Romanticist hang-ups.
- Equilibrium is a clearly Romanticist work, as it is about an evil futuristic society where emotion is outlawed, and the extreme Enlightenment idea of suppressing all emotion through technology is definitely shown as wrong. However, the ending, while portrayed positively, never exactly comes clear on whether restoring human emotion is a good thing.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl has an odd case of this (let's ignore the fact that the setting is actually when Enlightenment was just getting into its stride and Romanticism hadn't been born yet — the series is famous for its Anachronism Stew in more obvious ways). The very Romantic Elizabeth and Will struggle against the Enlightenment mentality of her father and presumed future husband, and... actually comes out the winner. The implication of the whole story is that Enlightenment is sensible, but wrong, and Romanticism is silly, but happens to be right (a Sparrowvian sentiment if ever there was one...).
- Johnny Mnemonic is romanticist even for cyberpunk. Electronics are giving people neurological disorders and a pharmaceutical megacorp is withholding the cure, which the LoTeks want to steal and distribute. And then there's Johnny's own goal of having his wetware removed so he can regain his childhood memories.
- Interstellar: the teaser trailer presents a rather Romanticist view of space travel - "because our destiny lies above us."
- An element of Into the Storm (2009). For example, it is the gist of the Halifax VS Churchill debate. Halifax (pro-enlightenment) is proposing a pragmatic way out for the British Empire to remain, while Churchill (pro-romanticism) is priorizing honor and duty instead of survival.
- The American Civil War, as seen by Gone with the Wind, is all about this conflict. The movie is on the side of the Confederacy, which it associates with Romanticism, and title cards glory in comparing the quasi-feudal Old South to an idealized view of medieval Europe (in full Purple Prose, of course). As Gone with the Wind would have it, the Civil War was all about the Enlightened North bringing modern, industrialized destruction to the fragile Romanticist South with its Good Old Ways. The ironic tragedy of it all, from the perspective of the film, is that it was precisely because of their outdated Romanticist view of war that the Confederate soldiers rushed off to fight an Enlightened enemy whom they could not have possibly defeated.
- Ghostbusters comes down hard on the side of Team Enlightenment.
  - Monsters and fear can be conquered with technology, knowledge, and guts. When a literal Physical God comes back and threatens Armageddon, it gets its ass handed to it by four guys with tools they made themselves and knowledge they gathered for themselves. There's no attempt to use magic against Gozer; it is defeated by science and reason. The subtext here is almost inescapable.
  - Furthermore, the technology involved doesn't require you to be special to wield it. The boys aren't the chosen saviors of mankind; they're three scientists and the hired help who figured out something through study, developed a technology, and used it to solve the problem. Once they come up with the central technology, a normal guy like Winston can use it and even develop himself (in the Expanded Universe) to become an expert and invaluable teammate.
  - The premise itself is very much Team Enlightenment. Gozer isn't beaten with mysticism or magic. Knowledge, courage, and technology will suffice. Gozer represents the romantic view, with its ancient past, the terror dogs, the symbolism pulled from myth, and its mystic plot to return via an over-convoluted fertility rite.
  - The busters themselves only passingly reference religion, with Ray saying of God only he's "Never met him." Winston alone professes faith, but he confronts Gozer with technology, not religion or magic.
  - The Real Ghostbusters expanded on the idea that enlightened ideas of reason and knowledge beat back our fears. Egon is the primary brains behind the technology. Why did he do it? Because he was menaced by the Bogeyman as a kid, motivating him to apply his intellect and reason to understand and best the things that scared him.
- Zig-Zagging Trope in Brotherhood of the Wolf. The titular Brotherhood are Catholic aristocrats using the Beast of Gévaudan as a way of putting the fear of God back into the French populace and increasing the power of the Church over the King. The Hero, Grégoire de Fronsac, is a naturalist fighting for Enlightenment principles, and is able to deduce the real nature of the Beast early on. However his sidekick Mani is a legitimate Magical Native American whose healing powers turn out to be real, and the Brotherhood ends up being brought down by the Vatican itself. The Bookends also shows an older Marquis d'Apcher about to be guillotined by a mob during the Reign of Terror brought about by those same Enlightenment ideas. He accepts his fate with fatalism as a casualty of the death of the old world that The Conspiracy tried to preserve.
- Gattaca's soulless eugenicist dystopia represents the Enlightenment run amok, but the plucky hero manages to succeed where "science" says he should fail due to his inferior genes. The tagline, "There Is No Gene for the Human Spirit", sums up the Romanticist message.
- Pacific Rim wears its Team Enlightenment badge proudly on its sleeve. The very first opening lines could serve as the team anthem, in fact:
  "There are things you can't fight, acts of God. You see a hurricane coming, you have to get out of the way. But when you're in a Jaeger, suddenly, you can fight the hurricane. You can win."
- In the Polish book and movie series Przygody Pana Kleksa (Eng. The Adventures of Mr. Inkblot) this is the conflict between Mr. Inkblot and the Grand Electronic, the former is essentially a cross between Dumbledore and Mary Poppins while the latter wants to turn the entire universe into a Mechanistic Alien Culture.
- Nightfall (1988): Aton represents Enlightenment through his optimism and scientific devotion, while Sor represents Romanticism through his doomsaying and religious devotion. The film itself pulls firmly towards Romanticism by having Sor be unquestioned in his authority while Aton's supporters undermine him by insisting science is fiction and betraying him to Sor. It also shows Aton's over-indulging in lust/love through his obsession over "that woman".
- The Sun Is Also a Star: This roughly describes Daniel and Natasha's views. He believes in fate and just going with your feelings. She believes you should analyze things and go by what science shows to be true. Despite this, they both find each other attractive, and seem to learn from each other.
- The Mask of Zorro does some interesting work with this;
  - At first, the premise is fairly Enlightenment. The villain, Rafael Montero, is a Spanish colonial governor and aristocrat, wedded to the old ways and firmly believing in his right to rule the peasants, who's chased out of office by the Mexican War of Independence. The hero, Diego De La Vega, opposes him, fights for the people he oppresses, and seems supportive of said revolution - at any rate, he expects that it'll allow him to hang up his cape, since there'll be no more need of Zorro once the Spanish are gone. However;
  - The villain actually takes to the new system fairly well. On his way out, he gifts the Crown's lands to the local gentry, ensuring the survival and dominance of his social class into the new order. Upon his return, he hatches a plan to buy California from the Mexican government that very nearly succeeds. Whether as a Crown governor in New Spain, or a budding robber-baron in Mexico, he generally finds ways to manipulate the system for his own ends.
  - The movie pretty much confirms his cynical view that nothing changes ("the Spanish oppressed you, the Mexicans ignored you, the dons seem content merely to cheat and lie to you"). The California we see in the 1840s is as class-ridden as ever, the few soldiers we see are corrupt or incompetent, and the Mexican government seems to have no presence there. All in line with the Romanticist skepticism of progress.
  - Finally, while Diego's concern for the peasantry, opposition to aristocratic oppression, and sympathy for the revolution can all be viewed as Enlightenment values, the way he expresses that is purely Romantic - as an outlaw, an individualist, and a folk hero, single-handedly doing what's right to defy the corrupt system.
  - The sequel follows the same example. Once again, it's set against a major historical change (this time the admission of California to the Union as a free state) which teases the possibility that Zorro might be able to retire and leave things in the hands of a newer and more just government. Once again, that hope is proven wrong and Zorro needs to pick up his cape again to stop a new threat to California. Notably, when the representatives of the new system (the Pinkertons) show up, it's a disappointment - they're on the side of the "good guys," but still villainous and ultimately ineffective, requiring Zorro the Romantic outlaw hero to clean up after them.
- Clara: Clara is spiritual, carefree and sees meaning in the universe's patterns, a positive Romantic view. Isaac is a strict materialist, uptight and insists such patterns are random, as a negative Enlightened view.
- Love at First Bite has this as its central conflict. It is first represented by the Count (Romanticism) being kicked out by the government (Enlightenment). Thereafter Enlghtenment is represented by Van Helsing. This being a movie that sides with Romanticism, the Enlightenment side is presented as dry, dull, and passionless.
- My Dinner with Andre: If the film can be said to have a Central Theme, it is this. Andre is Romantic, talking about a taking part in a series of experimental theatre projects that facilliated a spiritual awakening in him. Wally is Enlightened, prefering a more calm, comfortable life bolstered by science (especially electric blankets). Neither is presented as being right, but the last moments of the film suggest Wally has taken Andre's words to heart.
- The Last Samurai: Combined with Soldier Versus Warrior. Katsumoto and his followers fight for a traditionalist and spiritual worldview as an Elite Army of Samurai against materialist, Repressive, but Efficient Westernisers (personified by the wealthy merchant Omura) who use armies of conscripts with rifles and artillery. All of Katsumoto's followers besides Algren die in the final battle but they are successful in proving that classic Japanese values must be respected. Which was probably their goal all along.
- Ford v Ferrari: Surprisingly nuanced.
  - When it comes to the two companies, Ford is a highly successful modern enterprise, carrying on in the tradition of a founder who was the Trope Codifier for the modern assembly chain. Ferrari, by contrast, is run by a man who's more of a craftsman than a businessman and views building cars as an artistic pursuit more than a way to make money. The problems with the latter approach are on full display, as Ferrari is now flat broke and reduced to selling itself to another car company. However, it has allowed Ferrari to field the winning team at the Le Mans endurance race for years, something Ford has shown no talent for. Ford's determination to change this kicks off the plot of the film.
  - The entire process of creating the winning car, however, involves an enormous amount of friction between Team Romanticism and Team Enlightenment. On the former side are Carroll Shelby (former racer, now high end car designer), Ken Miles (current racer), and their team, all hands-on car enthusiasts and hardheaded individualists who don't have much time for rules or bureaucracy. On the latter are Leo Beebe and the entire middle management at Ford, rule-following corporate men who thoroughly dislike the driver and designer for their stubborn refusal to fit into the company culture. The latter are portrayed as control freaks and Obstructive Bureaucrats, who nearly tank the project multiple times: it's only because of Shelby's repeated appeals to Henry Ford himself that they're overriden and the Le Mans race is finally won. On the other hand, it's only because of the Ford Motor Company's success in the market that the money even exists for Shelby and Miles to keep trying until they've perfected the winning car. Making this effectively a case of Enlightenment-backed-Romanticism.
- In Johnny Guitar, Vienna represents the Enlightenment, an independent woman with strong business acumen who welcomes the arrival of the railroad and associated industrialization as an opportunity for personal, social and general advancement, treats her employees fairly and against her is Emma Small and the Posse, who are fearful of progress, dismissive of laws and legal precedent and fear the end of their ways.

Live-Action TV

- Star Trek:
  - Very Enlightened, particularly with the Vulcans. Who were, in turn, occasionally proven wrong by more romantic types. Which conveys, if clumsily, the idea that both are right in the right place and wrong in the wrong and the problem is deciding which is which.
  - Klingons and Romulans in some interpretations (as edgy-but-not-necessarily-evil Proud Warrior Races rather than Always Chaotic Evil races) are more Romantic whereas Vulcans are more Enlightenment, yet they have some surprising Romantic traits like mysticism and dark tribal traditions as was shown in the episode Amok Time (this was even more so in the past, when they came close to destroying themselves, taking a more Enlightened philosophy in response). The humans may actually be the best examples of Enlightenment in the Trek verse.
  - The Borg are a heavily dystopic take on Enlightenment, speedily adapting to every new technology they see and subsuming individuals to make their race stronger. Of course, they're the bad guys, so Romanticism gets its turn in the sun whenever the Borg are the Monster of the Week.
    - It's been argued that the Borg embody both capitalism (Romanticism) and communism (Enlightenment). The Borg dispel any notion of individuality, to the point that all Borg drones are mere cogs in the greater machine totally lacking in any free-will, while the Collective also sees anything and anyone as a mere resource to be consumed, no matter the consequences.
    Q: The Borg is the ultimate user. They are unlike any foe your Federation has faced. They're not interested in political conquest, wealth, or power as you know it. They're simply interested in your ship, in its technology. They've identified it as something they can consume.
  - If Michael Eddington is anything to go by, the Maquis breakaway from the Federation has elements of Romanticism in conflict with the prevailing Enlightenment ideology of the Federation. Though their initial grievance was the handover of their colonies to the Cardassians, they also value the rugged frontier lifestyle above the utopian society of the Federation.
    Eddington: Why is the Federation so obsessed with the Maquis? We've never harmed you. And yet we're constantly arrested and charged with terrorism. Starships chase us through the Badlands and our supporters are harassed and ridiculed. Why? Because we've left the Federation, and that's the one thing you can't accept. Nobody leaves paradise. Everyone should want to be in the Federation.
  - For individual characters, Spock represents Enlightenment with his logical approach and McCoy represents romanticism with his Hot-Blooded, emotional, sentimental nature.
- Gene Roddenberry's posthumously produced series Andromeda has the heroes trying to rebuild a democratic interstellar Commonwealth while fighting Social Darwinist Nietzsche Wannabes, environmental extremists, and other enemies who are harder to place. In one episode the captain convinces a newly crowned feudal monarch to abdicate in favor of a democracy.
- Bridgerton: Especially in season 3, Violet, mother to the Bridgerton children, and Portia, mother to the Featherington girls, directly contrast each other in this regard, as informed by their own experiences. Violet had a loving marriage to Edmund, and therefore wants her children to experience the same (even if she sometimes has difficulty looking outside her perspective). Portia, whose husband was financially irresponsible, encourages her daughters to forget about love and prioritise security.
- The X-Files: Mulder is on the Romantic side (being willing to forget Ockham razor in many circumstances) and Scully is on the Enlightened one (always searching for a scientific explanation). However, they swap roles when it comes to religion, since Mulder is agnostic while Scully is a staunch Catholic.
- Firefly is a deconstruction of this entire trope, with Enlightenment being the major driving force of the 'verse, but Romanticism being an ever-present part of the less developed worlds, like the ones the main characters find themselves on. The episode "Safe", though, seems to be a slap at Romanticism. One of Simon's insults to the crowd that wanted to Burn the Witch! was "ignorance". Simon himself, being a doctor who went to the best Alliance-sanctioned schools, leans hard toward Enlightenment. His (eventual) love interest Kaylee leans very Romantic, which complicates their relationship. The Film of the Series ultimately lands on the Romantic side, as the Enlightenment-minded Alliance attempts to create peace by deliberately destroying the human emotional spectrum, and succeeds in killing 90% of the population of the planet Miranda, condemning the rest to a Fate Worse than Death as the first Reavers.
- Doctor Who:
  - Most of the Doctor's chronic enemies are Enlightenment thinkers — the Daleks and the Cybermen had a sort of "Utopian" goal of destroying everything not Dalek or Cyber, the Sontarans are imperialists who have used technology to overcome their biological limitations and the Time Lords are corrupt politicians who put so much faith in history's inevitable development that they never help anyone or change.
  - Yet the Doctor isn't purely a creature of Romanticism either, usually being positioned as following elements of both viewpoints while the villains of the week always overprofessed one or the other. Individual incarnations of the Doctor sometimes tend more towards one or the other; for example, the Tenth Doctor being quite an Enlightenment-centric believer in the power of science and reason, and the Eleventh having more of a Romantic streak with a propensity to make it up as he goes along rather than make logical detailed plans for action. The Third Doctor is probably the most Enlightenment, criticising Linx in "The Time Warrior" for giving humanity technology it hasn't progressed enough for yet and fighting a conspiracy of reactionaries trying to return the world to a "golden age" in "Invasion of the Dinosaurs", but even his philosophy involves a certain amount of pop-Buddhism; then he's succeeded by the Fourth Doctor, a Doctor aesthetically inspired by Romantic poets and a spreader of individuality and chaos, who nevertheless makes a point of schooling Leela in the logic and reason her society was not yet developed enough to know about.
  - Romantic enemies tend to show up as one-shot enemies and were especially common in the more science-positive '60s and '70s. A few notable examples are Mehendri Solon from "The Brain of Morbius", a Mad Scientist, Mad Artist and fascist in a strongly Byronic mold whose attempts to build a body for a Time Lord dictator are arranged around sentimental, aesthetic motives; the Mandragora Helix in "The Masque of Mandragora", which was targeting Earth around the beginning of the Renaissance with the goal of preventing the Enlightenment from happening and keeping Earth in a perpetual dark age of ancient superstition; and any number of villains from the William Hartnell "pure historicals" who would call the Doctor's science witchcraft or attempt to sacrifice his companions to the gods. note Although, on that last point, it should be observed that the villains in the Hartnell historical "The Reign of Terror" are the most literally Enlightenment villains the Doctor ever faces, being that they're French Revolutionaries.
  - "The Face of Evil" is about Xoanon, an all-powerful A.I. driven insane by having the Doctor's personality implanted into it, attempting to resolve its crisis by socially engineering a culture based on each half of its personality and having them fight to the death. The "computer" race is the Enlightenment Tesh, who have high technology, view the expression of emotions as taboo, hide their women, wear identical clothes and use psychic powers to manipulate each other. The "Doctor" race is the Romantic Sevateem, who have low technology, wear skins and follow ancient superstitions but value emotional self-knowledge and freedom, and have equal gender roles. When the Doctor himself enters, he's able to teach the Sevateem warrior Leela some principles of scientific rationalism, before having a long talk with Xoanon about its feelings.
  - What is interesting to note about the various incarnations about the Doctor is that the various incarnations alternate between Enlightenment and Romanticism, with the odd-numbered Doctors being Pro-Enlightenment and the even-numbered Doctors being Pro-Romanticist.
- Babylon 5:
  - Romantic in spirit, with high pitched Melodrama, fantastic scale, prophesies, fate, and Good Old Ways. Moreover Delenn who was one of the most central characters was The McCoy and she didn't really have The Spock to balance her (Franklin was the closest thing to a Spock and he didn't interact with Delenn much).
  - On the other hand, B5 also presents a struggle for a better, more rational future, and emphasizes the importance both of backward-looking rootedness (in the Minbari) and of forward-looking independence (in the humans). In the other words, a happy marriage of Romanticism and Enlightenment, embodied in the similarly happy marriage of John Sheridan and Delenn.
  - From a Doylist perspective, J. Michael Straczynski is an emphatic liberal, a deep-seated believer in science, and a thoughtful atheist (i.e. all Enlightenment) who nevertheless clearly has deep respect for thoughtful conservatives/traditionalists and people of faith even as he criticizes the excesses of religion. In other words, Enlightenment respecting Romanticism and giving it its due-and given that much of B5 is at least partly an Author Tract, this comes the closest to expressing the show's overall tone.
- NUMB3RS might be a poster boy show for Enlightenment but Larry Flinhardt is a romantic and often has friendly tension with Charlie about this.
- Lost has this as a central conflict with Jack representing the Enlightenment and Locke (ironically, given his namesake was a pillar of the Enlightenment) representing Romanticism. Ultimately Romanticism wins, as Locke turns out to have been right about everything, as Jack admits.
- Person of Interest has groups that represent extremes of both ends:
  - Vigilance believes in a glorious past, even giving themselves names of figures from the American Revolution. They believe that privacy has been stolen from them by the government, though the privacy rights they believe in were never really constitutional rights, they were merely the result of the practical difficulties of collecting information in the pre-digital age. When they put the government on trial, Collier says the defendants were only entitled to the rights given in the original constitution, clearly forgetting that as a black man, he would have had no rights whatsoever under the system he was espousing.
  - Decima, and Grier in particular, believe that nation states are obsolete and humanity should be united under the rule of a Benevolent A.I.. Grier has lost faith in humanity to the point that when presented with the possibility that an AI would destroy humanity, he still thinks it would be preferable to the slow path to destruction humanity has already put itself on.
- Top Gear (UK):
  - The Presenters tend to be a mixture. Jeremy is quite strongly Romantic but has some Enlightenment moments, the ever-practical James is strongly Enlightenment (but is himself not immune to Romantic harkens), and Richard is perhaps the most firmly Romantic of all.
  - Perhaps best shown in this one episode which pitted the American-made Corvette ZR1 against the German-made Audi R8. Even though he considered the R8 to be far superior in almost every technical respect and gave the ZR1 a verbal thrashing, he eventually came to the conclusion that given the choice, he'd take the ZR1, because the R8 was too joyless.
  "Be in no doubt, then. that the Audi is a better car. It's better built, better to look at, better to drive, more comfortable, easier to park and - in the real world - faster. You'd have to be bonkers to buy the Corvette. And that is why you should. "
  - This feeling also applies to the automotive industry as a whole. Even James is saddened whenever a company releases a new model that sacrifices fun or speed for things like eco-friendliness and safety features. Given the choice in any "old versus new" comparison review, they will happily take nostalgia and purity of the driving experience over improved technology and practicality.
  - Stereotypically, nations build cars in different ways. Italians make soulful works of art that would win everytime if the show was a beauty contest, but reliability and build quality are secondary considerations. American and Australian cars are built by rough blue-collar types and they make up in sheer speed and wild styling what they lack in fancy technology or sophistication. German and Japanese cars are built in laboratories by precision engineers and bristling with high-tech gadgets, but their obsession with practicality means anything that doesn't serve a purpose besides aesthetics comes off and they simply do not have the spark other makers have. British cars that are high marknote Aston Martin and Jaguar, are also build by artisans but build quality is a top priority, so depending on your interpretation they could be firmly in the middle, or both extremes at once.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Variant. It turns out that HYDRA is split into two major factions: The descendants of the original ancient cult that worships the Inhuman Hive and wants to bring it back from exile, and Red Skull's splinter group. While both factions work together on a regular basis, the religious HYDRA derides Red Skull's faction as cowards and faithless for refusing to participate in their sacrifices, while the Red Skull faction sees the cult as fools for trusting in an ancient religion instead of science and reason. Both sides are still equally evil.
- The main character of MacGyver straddles the line.
  - On the Enlightenment side, he's the ultimate Science Hero, to the point that he not only refuses to carry a gun but genuinely never needs one: between his scientific knowledge (not just in theory but as it applies to everyday items) and his ability to think on his feet, he can jury-rig an escape from just about any situation imaginable. He's also a firm rationalist, to a degree that borders on Flat Earth Atheism (since the show would often leave the door open to supernatural explanations that Mac himself refused to accept).
  - On the Romanticism side, he's a freethinker who embraces both the rugged individualism of his small town background and the bohemian lifestyle of the big city he lives in. He's notably suspicious of authority, bureaucracy, and government: he's served in Vietnam, but doesn't remember it very fondly, and while he's an intelligence officer in season 1, he quickly moves on to a private organization with a lot less red tape and whose values are compatible with his own.
- Stargate SG-1 comes down firmly on the Enlightenment side of things: it's a saga about military and scientific teams from Earth gradually freeing the galaxy (and then other galaxies) from the rule of aliens who use superstition to enslave people by posing as their gods.
  - Even when benevolent deities like the Salish or the Asgard appear, it's made clear that they, too, are aliens rather than gods, and SG-1 will often either encourage them to tell their followers the truth, or explain it to their followers themselves.
  - This reaches its peak in the last two seasons, during which the villains are the Ori, a race of ascended beings on a different plane of existence who seem nearly omniscient and omnipotent and could very well be argued to be, in fact, literal gods by the standards of many religions. The main characters, however, maintain that their powers do not make them gods, simply beings with greater knowledge and resources than themselves, as well as arguing that even if the Ori do have the power of gods, the way they use it makes them unworthy of worship. It should also be noted that even the Ori draw power from the worship of their followers, which isn't far from the Enlightenment trope that human beings create their own gods.
  - Finally, the powers demonstrated by the beings worshiped on the show are never described in divine or supernatural terms. All of them exist either as a result of technology, or, in the case of godlike beings like the Ancients and the Ori, evolution.
    Daniel Jackson: Just because I don't know how the trick is done doesn't make it magic.
- The Librarians (2014): For a fantasy show, fairly on the Enlightenment side, though never completely so. After all, the main characters are librarians, a rationalist and academic profession if there ever was one, and a sizable amount of their job consists of restraining and cataloging magical phenomena before they have a chance to harm the world. Most clearly expressed in the duel between Jenkins and Dulaque at the end of the first season, which has centered on Dulaque's attempts to loose Wild Magic onto the world and restore the old days.
  Dulaque: I'm bringing back the shining city.
  Jenkins: Camelot fell. That was its fate.
  Dulaque: But we had magic then. The world was a better place.
  Jenkins: Really? Wild magic? Cruel kings? Mad wizards? Yes, it was a pip!
  Dulaque: The people need to be ruled by wisdom! The stupid little humans need to be ruled by kings!
  Jenkins: No, no. They have earned the right to rule themselves. The time of kings is passed!

Music

- An interesting example of Romanticism harmonizing with the Enlightenment: Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, especially its final movement (the famous "Ode to Joy"). The music is by Beethoven, who defined Romanticism in music, and the Ninth Symphony is very much a Romantic work. However, the sentiments Beethoven expresses are firmly Enlightened, and indeed the text of the "Ode to Joy" is a barely-reworked version of a poem by Schiller, one of the few indisputably Enlightenment poets, with the theme of universal brotherhood and peace and people coming together in joy.
- Cat Stevens:
  - "Father and Son" portrays both the Enlightenment, with the rational, restrained father, and Romanticism, with the passionate son who feels restricted by his father. Since the son seems to be a more sympathetic figure, the song is decidedly Romantic.
  - "Where Do the Children Play?" is strongly Romantic too, as it laments the destruction of nature that comes with "development."
  - On the other hand, "Peace Train" is definitely Enlightenment, with its focus on progress and a good future.
- The Beatles (Romantic) and The Rolling Stones (Enlightenment).
  - The Beatles sang songs about friendship, life, love and desire, and often sang it from the persona of good-natured Nice Guy and pivoted on an image of idealized love.
  - The Stones sang songs about how hard, painful and nasty relationships could actually be, sung from the persona of womanizers, sleazebags, and Fetishized Abusers.
- Heavy Metal tends to be Romantic, with its dramatic style, over-the-top Epic Riffs, and lyrics about dark, emotionally-charged topics, including history and fantasy/folklore.
  - Metal can run the gamut from the extremes of both ends of the spectrum, however. Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Black Metal, and Power Metal tend to be at the extreme Romantic end of the spectrum, while some other styles like Progressive Metal can often fall at the extreme Enlightenment end of the spectrum.
- Even by the standards of metal, Rammstein are remarkably far over on the Romantic side of the spectrum — as one might perhaps expect of a German metal band that draws heavily from German literature when writing its songs. Most notably, they have recorded two songs that are rewrites of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: "Rosenrot" (of "Heidenröslein") and "Dalai Lama" (of "Der Erlkönig").'
- For music listening, vinyl fans tend to lean toward the Romanticism side, with claims that vinyl records sound "warmer" than digital music, as well as citing large album artwork along with the "ritual" of putting on an LP and flipping it over. CDs and other digital files are very much on the Enlightenment side, with their lack of surface noise, distortion, and playback degradation as well as greater portability, but proponents of vinyl claim that digital audio sounds "cold."
- Rush: "Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres", from the album Hemispheres, is about this conflict nearly tearing the Greco-Roman pantheon apart. The song argues that both are necessary for a healthy society; a purely emotional society will descend into hedonism and do dumb things like not storing food for the winter, but a purely logical society lacks social glue and is doomed to stagnate. The resolution of the story happens when the explorer from "Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage" appears out of nowhere, the eponymous Unrealistic Black Hole having ripped his soul out of his body, and advocates the coexistence of both, with Apollo and Dionysus tasking him to maintain this balance as Cygnus.

Myths & Religion

- In addition to Apollo and Dionysus cited above, a famous rivalry that perfectly encapsulates this debate in Classical Mythology is Athena versus Poseidon. Poseidon is the older god, ruler of the sea and storms, famous for being moody and passionate. Athena, however, is the goddess of strategy, wisdom, justice and peaceful arts, who is perfectly at home in the cosmopolitan city of Athens. Also a pretty nice inversion of Mother Nature, Father Science.
- The Arthurian Legends, while predating both movements by centuries, can be considered Proto-Enlightenment in that they involve efforts by Arthur and his Round Table to create a more perfect society, Camelot, in a time of Chaos and Darkness that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire. This is especially applicable to the early Chronicles (e.g. Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britainniae) as a way of showing what authors believed to be model societies in the face of ravages of Barbarians and other afflictions in the Post-Roman era.
  Ironically the Arthurian Legends have also been an inspiration for the Romanticist movement, of which it derives its name from the Medieval Romances, and also brought about a revival in interest in the Arthurian Mythos starting in the Nineteenth Century. Though that is arguably due to the fact that the Romances did not have to address the same issues as earlier authors.

Tabletop Games

- Traveller hit both, depending. But it was probably more enlightenment.
  - The Forever War between the Sword Worlders and the Darrians is a war of hats of Romanticism versus Enlightenment, as the Sword Worlders are a Proud Warrior Race and the Darrians are For Science!. Each thinks the other barely sane. The Third Imperium is more enlightened in its ideology on the whole, it is feudal on the interstellar level but only because it is too large to expect anyone to climb to the top in one lifetime, individual planets are largely left to themselves and can have any local government from democracy to dictatorship.
  - Aslan, though, are more Romanticist than the Imperium, having much more in common with the Sword Worlders save that their social structures have barely progressed beyond tribal levels.
  - In the Interstellar Wars, the Terrans are mostly Enlightenment, being For Science! and thinking Good Republic, Evil Empire. They do have some romantic traits like glory seeking and Space Cossacks. Vilani are harder to place; they are closer to strains of thought that existed long before either romanticism or enlightenment, resembling Confucianism in some ways.
  - The Hivers are quite firmly enlightenment, having a society that can be best described as "anarchic socialism" and being not only highly technologically advanced but also quite willing to share it with less fortunate races.
  - The Zhodani don't fit neatly into either position; they have an Orwellian police state that's apparently a fairly nice place to live, if you have psionic abilities or don't mind having your mind read by the authorities.
  - The Reformation Coalition following the fall of the Third Imperium has two major voting blocks, Centrists advocate a more centralized government along the lines of the feudal technocracies that govern most of their worlds, while Federalists prefer it more decentralized and democratic.
- In Warhammer 40,000, enlightenment ideas are basically deemed as heresy by the Imperium of Man which is ripe with religious fundamentalism and xenophobia. This comes across as extremely ironic as the Emperor of Man tried to squash superstition in favor of the ideals of reason and logic in order to starve the chaos gods, only for his Imperium to degenerate into what he fought against after thousands of years.
  - Emotions are what also feed the chaos gods. As a mater of fact, it was the excess indigence and pleasures of the Eldar that gave birth to a chaos god and led to their fall.
  - The only "enlightened" might be the Tau, who are idealists that believe in spreading the enlightened ideals of the greater good across the galaxy. The Tau are also the only major race that will consider diplomacy.
  - All in all, while the excess of Romanticism is NECESSARY for the survival of the galaxy (enlightenment won't help much in this setting), 40K can be looked at as a Take That! towards the ideal, showing the Crapsack World that can result in a universe not based upon progress and reason.
- The Old World of Darkness is heavily Romantic. Civilization is essentially decadent and corrupt and just a tool for this or that Ancient Conspiracy of supernatural beings to manipulate or feed upon Apathetic Citizens. Elder vampires use their awesome power to maintain their autocratic authority against their rebellious younger childer. Brutal Noble Savage werewolves rage against evil corporations in league with Eldritch Abominations trying to pollute and destroy Mother Earth. Mages engage in a centuries old battle of Magic Versus Science with the heroic player characters struggling against the technocratic conspiracies. Changelings long to return to Arcadia but never can and must face dying out from the lack of belief in the supernatural among the humans. The Fallen have broken out of Hell only to find a world (which they helped to Create) utterly devoid of faith, God, and Her angels.
  - At the same time, whenever the authors start to explore the default antagonists, it often turns out that the Strawman Has a Point and the Enlightenment-themed opposition isn't so Obviously Evil after all. Each group of antagonists will generally Kick the Dog enough to avoid becoming a mere Designated Villain, but the only Always Chaotic Evil enemies in the universe's otherwise Grey-and-Gray Morality tend to be more Romantic in disposition: Baali deliberately embrace classical evils, Earthbound demons lack the capacity to move beyond their Torment, and there are various other Leaking Cans of Evil that were natural parts of the universe dating back to antiquity... or through all of time.
    - Civilization might serve the Ancient Conspiracy of the vampiric elders, but the advancement of science and technology are frequently presented as the first and final hope for overcoming the oppression of these old monsters that cannot change or adapt. The Sabbat are only effective at their stated goal of opposing the ancients when they leverage their flexibility and capacity to think in new ways.
    - The Werewolves have fared miserably in their war against the Wyrm largely due to hidebound traditions and old grudges (the /newest/ of which are still centuries old). Meanwhile, the Wyrm only started lashing out once it had been driven mad by the Weaver... who bound it up in hopes of creating a world where nothing ever changes.
    - The Technocratic Paradigm has provided humanity with wonders that had previously been accessible only to the Awakened few and is also the single greatest source of strength for the spiritual barriers that hold back the worst of the game universe's Cosmic Horror Story and allow mankind to live in a "mere" Crapsack World. Plus, they support an army of Space Marines whose main objective is the defense of Earth against all manner of supernatural evil and who (depending on the source) are more or less friendly towards traditionalist Mages. Of course, this comes at the cost of the mass murder of everyone who doesn't fully follow the Technocratic Paradigm...
    - If the winter of the changelings were to find its way to a new spring, The Fair Folk they would then become would be a blight on mankind.
    - The Fallen only exist because a faction of angels led by the Morningstar wanted to reach out and free humanity from ignorance despite God insisting that they let Eden remain exactly as it was (and subsequently being a spiteful dick about it).
  - One theme in Mage: 20th Anniversary Edition is that both the Traditions and Technocracy missed a trick when it came to the increasing empowerment of ordinary mortals in the 21st century, which is a highly Enlightened idea.
- By contrast, the New World of Darkness tends to take a far more Enlightened turn when it touches on these themes, though it generally tries to avoid taking an overt side between the two (because the oWoD was seen as overly-politicized, to the detriment of the line). Mage: The Awakening appears to be Romantic at first glance with its longing for a lost Atlantis and its focus on the power of symbolism, but the Seers of the Throne rely on anti-rationalism for temporal power, and serve their masters by preventing humans from looking for something greater and achieving their true potential; in other words, the villains draw upon Romanticism for power. Similarly, the Pure Tribes' ideology is based on looking back to a fallen Father Wolf and trying to resurrect a lost Pangaea. However, while the villains are nearly always Romanticist when they have an ideology, the heroes tend to include both Romanticist and Enlightened viewpoints in their ranks (and squabble over them).
  - In Vampire: The Requiem the Invictus and Lancea Sanctum are Romanticist while the Carthians and Ordo Dracul are Enlightenment. The Invictus and Carthians are particularly opposed, being vampiric aristocrats and revolutionaries who seek to try out virtually every other form of government. Curiously in Invictus-run cities the Carthians tend to be the least amoral vampires, while Carthian-run cities tend to run downhill at record speeds.
- Exalted does a lot with these opposing ideals despite it not being a core theme. If there are two factions trying to do the same job but with different means and goals, there's a very good chance that they'll be divided along this line.
  - In the Time of Tumult, the Gold and Bronze factions are divided about the return of the Solars. The Gold Faction wants to restore the Solars to power so that their peerless genius and innovation can make for a better world. The Bronze Faction opposes the Solars' return, trying to keep Creation as it was for the whole of the Second Age: safe from the wild, dangerous extremes of Solar overlords.
  - The Realm and Lookshy is largely about this. Lookshy held to the old, lingering ways of the Shogunate while the Scarlet Empress forged a new path for the Realm out of the Shogunate's ruins, challenging even the Sidereals with her audacity.
  - The Scarlet Empress' two most probable successors are much the same: her centuries-old daughter Mnemnon is a Sorceress known for pushing the mystical envelope as far as she possibly can, reaching great advances in power through often-sketchy means. When the young, charismatic Roseblack finally resolves to return home with her army, meanwhile, she plans to seek a return to the ways of the Shogunate rather than move forward with the Realm's empire.
    - Though this conflict can be approached from the opposite direction: Mnemon believes that her right to rule comes in part from being the oldest Dynast currently extant and, all things considered, hasn't changed much about her House's incredibly rigid social structure for centuries. Roseblack, on the other hand, has shown somewhat of a populist streak and is supported by an Army of Thieves and Whores.
  - Even the returning Solars sometimes divide along this line, between those that simply wish to return things to the way they were in the First Age and those who wish to forge an entirely new world of their own design.
- The old Planescape Dungeons & Dragons setting had the Blood War, a genocidal conflict between two different races of demonic beings. One side supported tyranny, order, infernal justice, conformity, and iron discipline. The other were Axe-Crazy maniacs who believed individuality was so important that letting hordes of their own die trying to prove individual worth was better than forcing them to actually act like their more disciplined enemies. Given one side would remake the cosmos into the fantasy version of Dante's Inferno, and the other into Milton's Hell, neither is right. Then, on top of that, there are philosophic "guilds" players can join which grants them power and access, provided they believe as the group does. These groups range from the far-Enlightenment Fraternity of Order to the completely Romantic Society of Sensation. Not only is no one portrayed as right, but even allegiances frequently transcend the conflict. The Athar are Deists in the Jefferson/Locke vein, and their greatest allies are the thoroughly Romantic Believers of the Source - who worry about past lives and ascension.
- BattleTech has the Inner Sphere, feuding nobles houses who have been in a state of Space Age Stasis for nearly four centuries ever since they nuked each other back to the 20th century. And invading them the Clans, genetically engineered Social Darwinists who have actually made improvements on their tech, even though their Warrior caste act like Bronze Age savages.
- Magic: The Gathering has this dichotomy between the colors of mana. Generally (though not uniformly), red and green are romanticist with a focus on emotions, freedom, instincts, tradition and so forth, while white and blue are enlightened with a focus on order, law, curiosity, intelligence and so on. Black uses traits of both sides to further its own goals.
- Mutant Chronicles: This is a convenient way to boil down the conflict between the Brotherhood and Cybertronic. The Brotherhood is Romantic, espousing spirituality and Psychic Powers as the path to a united humanity and step forward as a species. Cybertronic is Enlightenment, and equally interested in seeing humanity unite and advance, but as Enlightenment advocate creating a mass-collective consciousness through use of Brain Uploading instead.
- Castle Falkenstein: The heroes are cartoonishly Romantic, consisting of "mad dreamer" kings, swashbuckling adventurers, craftspeople of transcendent skill and magicians straight out of a Disney movie. The villains are industrialists, criminal masterminds, mad scientists and military leaders. The heroes' stated goal is to either slow or halt the progress of the Industrial Revolution. Yep, the game swings a mean "Romanticism good, Enlightenment bad"-anvil.

Theatre

- Athenian Drama:
  - Aeschylus's The Oresteia explores the fall of the House of Atreus from an Enlightened perspective, focusing on the inevitability of fate, and the laws of family and Cycle of Revenge, the finale explores the theme of forgiveness and redemption, and when Orestes takes refuge at the Agora and appeals to Athena against the implacable Furies, depicts a transition from the harsh judgment of the Gods to the rational working of Laws.
  - Sophocles is generally Romantic, emphasizing the cruel workings of fate as in Oedipus Rex, emphasizing that the pursuit of knowledge can be destructive. His Antigone likewise is a tragedy of a young woman choosing the laws of family and blood over that of the state and custom.
  - Euripides is generally Pro-Enlightenment with some Romantic streaks. His plays focus on the horrors of warfare, the suffering of women and generally portray Gods and deities in a manner that makes them human and accessible.
  - Aristophanes is a Romantic satirist criticizing the pursuit of knowledge, parodying democratic assemblies and generally suggesting that Democracy Is Bad.
- Over the years, the works of William Shakespeare have been read, edited, and interpreted to better reflect the prevailing philosophy of the time.
  - The English Enlightenment-era theaters in England and the Continent emphasized the perfection of the language, and would recut and restage his works to better reflect Aristotle's Rules of Drama. Later Enlightenment writers such as Samuel Johnson in England and German Idealists however regarded Shakespeare as a true original for his violation of the unities. The Enlightenment critics generally, but not exclusively, favoured the history plays, the tragedies but neglected and/or rejected the "problem plays" such as The Tempest which didn't fit in as either comic or tragic.
  - The Romantics heightened the aspects of passion, horror, and raging emotion to be found in the plays and latched on to those "problem plays". They also regarded Hamlet as Shakespeare's masterpiece, a judgment that has generally held up and admired Othello, King Lear (which before them was generally seen as a controversial play).
  - The Henriad has been especially susceptible to this. The prevailing interpretations before the 20th Century was that it was a Coming of Age Hero's Journey (avant-la-lettre) of a dissolute Prince who tags alongside a Corrupt Knight Falstaff who gradually comes to fulfill his Kingly father's ambitions and eventually becomes a great Warrior King (Romantic). Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight sees Falstaff as a Lovable Coward who represents the End of an Age (Merrie England of Rogues, Taverns and Minions of the Moon) while seeing Prince Hal as a machiavellian Manipulative Bastard who uses Falstaff and gradually becomes a warmongering tyrant. (Enlightened)
- When compared to his contemporaries, Shakespeare is more Romantic in form and content than Christopher Marlowe who is essentially Enlightened.
  - A good example is to compare the highly problematic anti-semitic masterpieces of The Merchant of Venice and The Jew of Malta. The former play presents a Jewish stereotype who has sympathetic motivations and voices them in eloquent speeches but ultimately remains the villain to be sidelined by the pious Christian heroine (Portia) who appeals to the mercy and the spirit of the law rather than its harsh letter. The latter play presents a Jewish stereotype as Villain Protagonist in an Evil Versus Evil situation where every other authority (Christian and Muslim) are amoral backstabbers who use "religion as a childish toy" and who eloquently argues that all his evil actions come out because Society Is to Blame and nobody can claim any idea to be inherently merciful.
  - Shakespeare's history plays and tragedies (Richard III, Macbeth) tend to be highly individualistic character pieces with some amount of moral commentary about Order Versus Chaos and usually ends with the Rightful King Returns (Romantic). Marlowe's Edward II on the other hand is a Hyperlink Story with many characters that shows feudalism to be inherently chaotic, filled with Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, good characters dying unheroically in piteous circumstances, villains dying nobly, and the rightful boy king (Edward III) left cold, alone and Lonely at the Top while lamenting his loss of innocence.(Enlightened)
  - Doctor Faustus likewise is a much darker and colder look at the occult and the supernatural than Shakespeare's The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Marlowe realistically shows what a thinking person would react to the existence and arrival of the supernatural, the loss of faith and finally even hints at a Cosmic Horror Story that Hell could simply be the world we live in.
- Henrik Ibsen was Enlightened, emphasizing social criticisms, problems with traditional roles of women and family and difficulties faced by reformers in works like Hedda Gabbler and An Enemy of the People. August Strindberg however was Romantic, dealing with dreams, difficult and painful relationships and self-destructive individuals.
- Bertolt Brecht was Enlightenment in form: critical of narrative, story and advocating Viewers Are Geniuses and refusing to allow audiences to identify with his characters superficially. His Galileo is fascinating for the fact that it is critical of traditional ideas of a science's responsibility to society while at the same time mocking romantic attitudes of Holding Out for a Hero.
- Cesare - Il Creatore che ha distrutto takes the enlightenment side of things, like its source material. It focuses on protagonist Cesare Borgia realizing that prayer alone can't save anyone, and that if he wants to create a more stable future for Italy, he must defy his father and leave the church. He also spends a lot of time admiring Medici Florence, and the rule of Lorenzo the Magnificent.
- What's interesting is that during the development of Cesare in 2020, composer Ken Shima and lead actor Akinori Nakagawa were the music director and lead actor in a production of Brandon Lee and Wang Yong Beom's Frankenstein (2014), which leans even harder to the Romanticism side than its source material. In his Establishing Character Moment, Victor Frankenstein tells Henry Dupre that humanity needs to use science to become its own savior. Henry tells Victor that that's a forbidden fruit and against God, but in the course of this duet, he's so dazzled by Victor that he switches sides and becomes Victor's research partner. But after Henry sacrifices himself to save Victor and Victor tries to use science to bring him back, the resulting Creature who is not Henry, and like in the source material, he proceeds to kill everyone Victor loves to punish his creator for his transgression. Victor comes to believe that Henry was right in the beginning. This Frankenstein is part of a "God Trilogy", the second installment of which is Ben-Hur. Composer Brandon Lee says that Frankenstein is about a man who wants to become God (and is therefore furthest from God); and Ben Hur is about a man who meets God (that is, Jesus. The subtitle of the original novel is "A Tale of the Christ"). The third installment will be based on Dante's The Divine Comedy — which, interestingly enough, plays into Cesare as well. Cesare has a very enlightenment-style debate with a vision of Dante himself.

Webcomics

- xkcd is Enlightened. As the Existentialist says, "The future's pretty cool!"
- Gunnerkrigg Court. The Court is Enlightened; Gillitie Woods is Romantic.
- Girl Genius is a strange hybrid. It's about science fiction and solving problems with machinery, which is sort of Enlightenment... but it's "adventure, romance, and mad science!, with tones of gothic, Frankenstein, and Lovecraftian mythos... but all the Sparks have a strong manic streak, so they're happy and cheerful amid the doom, destruction, and tentacled horrors. It's just that kind of a story.

Western Animation

- In The Legend of Korra, the Avatar's purpose is maintaining balance. This tends to put Korra at odds with both sides.
  - Season 1's antagonists are the modern, technology-using Equalists and their leader is Amon.
  - Season 2's antagonist is the far more Romanticist and spiritual Unalaq, attempting to open the gates between the spirit and physical worlds.
  - Season 3's antagonist is Zaheer, who, while an Enlightened Antagonist, is actually Romanticist, an anarchist attempting bring back the era of true freedom before governments.
  - Season 4's antagonist is Kuvira the Great Uniter. This one's more complicated; while Kuvira's position is largely Enlightened in her rejection of an obsolete monarchy in favor of a modern Empire, the series makes it clear that she's almost completely correct in her worldview, and her evil comes from the means she uses to take and keep power.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender has Romantic heroes (led by a messiah from the past, no less), while the Fire Nation used to represent the Enlightenment, but that has long since devolved into mere propaganda. Eventually, Zuko learns to spread the Enlightenment ideals of the old Fire Nation peacefully, instead of through conquest.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) is Romantic with the villain's industrialized city and roboticised minions while the heroes live in the forest and are led by royalty.
- The message of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is decidedly romantic at first glance; emotions and friendship are important, and the Enlightened main character must learn that lesson repeatedly. However, it's not quite that simple; Twilight Sparkle's perspective is shown as having its flaws, but she's far from "always wrong," and her task-oriented character, intelligence and logical skills help save the day at least as often as they cause problems for her. The actual moral tends to be that the Enlightenment needs to give Romanticism its due, but that doesn't make it a bad thing.
  - The Inspiration Manifestation spell is waaaaaay on the side of romanticism, turning anyone that casts it into a Visionary Villain. It slurps up any practicality in the vicinity and and transforms it in favor of flashy style. Think of any trope with the word "Improbable" in its title, and you have anything this spell makes. Except it's ACTUALLY improbable. So, it actually makes sense that a single sentence of Brutal Honesty would snap the caster out of it, since the most loftiest of ideals are more easily subjective to someone pointing out their obvious faults.
    - Foreshadowed by the opening, where Rarity makes a puppet stand and it's completely unusable by the very puppeteer it's made for. The following events are a series of that very formula one-upping itself.

Real Life

- The Romantic movement produced a lot of good poets, like John Keats, Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, William Wordsworth, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, even though Goethe tried to distance himself from Romanticism.
- On the other side of the coin, the Anglo-American and early French Enlightenments (in contrast to the German and late French Enlightenments) tended towards the Humans Are Bastards perspective, which led to a fair number of good satirists, such as Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin.
- The Enlightenment also produced a few poets, the most notable of whom were Germans: Friedrich von Schiller is more or less entirely Enlightenment, while Goethe's work has shades of both.
- Søren Kierkegaard, considered the first existentialist philosopher, was overwhelmingly Romanticist in outlook, going so far as to openly scorn Enlightenment philosophy, which is ironic because 20th Century existentialist philosophy e.g. Jean-Paul Sartre was largely Enlightened.
- Friedrich Nietzsche is known, among other things, for defining this conflict; his terms were "Dionysian" for Romanticism and "Apollonian" for Enlightenment. He was highly critical of both sides, but his writings (as well as misreadings of them) remain a major influence on Romanticism.
- The late 18th century saw two major Enlightenment-inspired revolutions, The American Revolution and The French Revolution, both resulting in experimental republics showcasing Enlightenment ideas on governance.
- World War II. On one hand, Fascism, Nazism and nationalism have roots in Romanticism and an emphasis on folk bloodlines, love/worship of the Fatherland, anti-cosmopolitanism, and an embellished/heroic-epic view of history (Hitler in particular had a Wagnerian Opera-like worldview), while communism and liberal democracy are cosmopolitan philosophies created by rationalists, empiricists, utilitarians and other Enlightenment scientists, making the conflict a case of Romanticism vs. Enlightenment.
  - Despite being a communist nation, the USSR actually had extensively Romantic undertones, albeit underlined in the rhetoric of communism. Given the dominance of Romanticism in Russian culture around the rise of communism and not having undergone the same level of Enlightenment-based reforms as Western Europe (a very prominent example is how Russian serfdom was abolished in 1861 when having done so several decades if not centuries prior in the west though a large part of that was serfdom being introduced much later in Eastern Europe than Western Europe.)
  - In a similar sense, the Spanish Civil War between the Nationalists (conservatives/monarchists/fascists) and the Republicans (liberals/anarchists/communists/socialists) could be considered a conflict of Romanticism versus Enlightenment.
- Both representative democracy and communism are different spins on the same Enlightenment ideas, equality for the masses, with some ethical hedonism and meritocracy thrown in. The result being that the Cold War was an uncommon case of Enlightenment vs. Enlightenment, or as it later came to be articulated, moderate reform based on representative institutions (US, Skeptic-Enlightenment) and radical, sudden transformation of institutions and societies from the ground up (USSR, Utopian-Enlightenment). But then again, almost all Political Ideologies on the political spectrum are different characteristics of Enlightenment thought, since these debates first played out back then.
  - Libertarian capitalism and classical liberalism is rooted in Skeptical Enlightenment ideals since it asserts that all humans are good at heart, and so sudden changes are too much too fast, and its better for a more moderate system that encourages education and meritocracy.note That being said, libertarians are against most forms of order, including using central government to enforce civil rights, even when those moments are driven by gradual reforms and legal petitions and protests, i.e the same gradualist change they encouraged yet oppose when the moment finally arrives for the changes to take effect. Social democrats, social liberals and moderate socialists generally wish to bring about a more egalitarian society which to its critics tends to anti-individualism. They are usually secular and scientific (natural and social sciences) take part in protests and believe in a strong central government that regulates the economy, and promotes progressive reforms as and when necessary (Enlightenment). Conservatives might be known for their yearning of the past and strong religious views (Romanticism), but this is coupled with their support for free markets and strong militaries (Enlightenment). European conservatives tend to be more explicitly Romantic, especially when they advocate the restoration of monarchy and aristocracy, or in modern times the sustenance of a strong bureaucratic and technocratic elite (Enlightenment Values for Romantic Ends).
  - Fascists have been known for their anti-intellectual rhetoric and support for traditional values (Romanticism), but also support loyalty to the state and discipline (Enlightenment) which is fair since modern fascism began as an attempt to co-opt the features and forms of socialist organizations of the past and present, including loyal partisan identity, strong ideological coherence and efficient organization. Conservative parties were not as effectively organized and ideologically coherent in the past.
  - Anarchism as a whole, to paraphrase the founder of anarcho-syndicalism Rudolf Rocker, can be thought of as a synthesis of an Enlightenment philosophy (classical liberalism) with a Romantic philosophy (socialism), incorporating the belief in progress and individual liberty from the former, and the support for social egalitarianism and cooperation from the latter. Hence the alternative name for anarchism-libertarian socialism. Though different strands of anarchism lean more towards one or the other. For example, individualist anarchists, post-left anarchists, and anarcho-primitivists are Romantics who tend to dislike the ideals of the Enlightenment and think that on the whole it's made the world worse and not better. On the other hand, social anarchists, anarcho-communists, and social ecologists see their ideas as originating in Enlightenment humanism and dismiss Romantic influences on the left-libertarian movement as mere "lifestyle anarchists", more interested in personal rebellion than effective social change.
  - The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street can be thought of as Romantic movements. In terms of actual ideologies, the Tea Party is more romantic, with its strong love of the past and traditional values. While Occupy Wall Street has been likened to the Hippie movements of the 1960's, its criticisms of capitalist accumulation, tax breaks, unemployment are far more specific towards economic inequality than the vague invocations of "free love", as noted by Noam Chomsky. Both are critical of states, but each have opposing attitudes towards capitalism.
- Winston Churchill was closer to being a Romantic while Roosevelt was more Enlightenment.
- In current United States party politics, Republicans (Romanticism) versus Democrats (Enlightenment): The Republicans, now calling themselves the Grand Old Party, stand for the traditional values that defined the United States of the past. They exalt ideals like States' rights, Family Values, Religion, and the belief that with Hard Work and ambition you will succeed and achieve the American Dream. On the other side, the Democrats, now defining themselves "Liberals," are cosmopolitan and globalist-minded in their policy-making based on Scientific discoveries (e.g. Climate Change and the campaign for Alternative Energy), Gender and racial Equality, and the proposal of a Welfare State where an advanced economy should be capable of providing for the basic needs of all its citizens. The ideological contrast is further emphasized in the slogans of the contemporary presidents of each faction (Barack Obama's "Hope And Change" implicating greater progress for the future, versus Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" giving prime emphasis on America's almighty and more virtuous past). However, this is just a tendency; there are plenty of strands of conservative thought that appeal to reason and cite scientific studies, just as liberal or leftist thought has sometimes favored emotive arguments (these tend to emphasise compassion and empathy, contrasting with the conservative emphasis on duty and honor).
- Organic Farming (Romanticism) vs. Genetically-Modified Farming (Enlightenment). Science based medicine (Enlightenment) vs. complementary/alternative medicine (Romanticism). Nuclear Energy (Enlightenment) vs. Renewable Energy (Romanticism)note This one's a bit more complicated. While hostility to nuclear energy be motivated by Romantic ideals, there are also perfectly Enlightened reasons to support renewable energy. This is a matter of pragmatism versus idealism more than anything else; nobody really opposes renewable energy. The pro-nuclear camp, however, argues that current renewable technologies can't meet the needs of society (except in rare places-such as Iceland, which is well situated for geothermal power). While these technologies catch up, it is best to use the available cheap nuclear power. Those who strongly favor renewable energy often argue that a drastic switch is absolutely necessary as soon as possible. The camps split along the same lines covered under 'inherent in the system', i.e. one side argues for a gradual change of the current system and the other wishes to change the system radically. Although there is Romantic opposition to renewable energy, in the form of wind turbines: they look ugly, and there are claims that they kill local birds and cause health problems to people living nearby.. Traditional Architecture: Neoclassical (Enlightenment) vs. Gothic Revival (Romanticism). 20th-century Architecture: Modernism (Enlightenment) vs. Post-Modernism (Romanticism). And then there is Traditional Architecture (Romanticism) vs Modern architecture (Enlightenment).
  - The traditional-architecture form of this is one of the more fascinating examples, in part because of its political overtones: do you ever wonder why the US Capitol and White House or the French Palais Bourbon (seat of the National Assembly), look like Greek and Roman temples while the British Houses of Parliament and Canadian Parliament Hill look like medieval cathedrals? Because in the first half of the 19th century, the Neoclassical style was associated with Enlightenment republicanism, while the Gothic Revival style was, being Romanticist, associated with monarchism. Indeed, Neoclassical designs were seriously considered for both Westminster and Ottawa, but then dismissed on the grounds that they were too republican. (Everybody quietly ignored the fact that the seat of the actual monarch, Buckingham Palace, is emphatically Neoclassical.)
    On the other hand, both Parliament Hill and Westminster, while Gothic in style, have balanced, Neoclassical-style floor plans and other elements of Neoclassical design (e.g. an emphasis on symmetry). To facilitate this, they purposely used as inspiration the austere and relatively geometric "Perpendicular Gothic" architecture, a sober, post-Plague late medieval style characterized by lots of right angles and relatively little ornate stonework tracery (which also had the advantage to 19th-century Brits of being a distinctively English style not found on the Continent). You'll further notice that the Commons chamber and meeting rooms on the north side at Westminster are more or less reflected across the Central Lobby on the Lords side to the south, with only a few things fiddled with to accommodate the slightly different duties of the Commons and the Lords (for one thing, the Lords has to host the State Opening of Parliament, meaning that an assortment of rooms are necessary for the procession of the monarch) and to accommodate the inclusion of Westminster Hall (which had survived the 1834 fire and had been part of the palace since the reign of William II; they weren't about to knock it down).
    The symmetrical construction rather annoyed Romantic/Gothic true believers. For instance, Augustus W. N. Pugin, the devoted Romanticist Gothic architect brought in to assist the more classicist Charles Barry in the Westminster project (particularly respecting the decorations), famously despaired of the structure, "All Grecian, sir; Tudor details on a classic body." Had he lived long enough, Pugin would have been even more annoyed with/depressed by Centre Block in Ottawa, which is almost completely symmetrical, with the Senate chambers on the east side of Confederation Hall being a mirror image of the Commons chambers on the west side. However, both Westminster and Centre Block arguably present, in architectural form, the character of liberal-democratic constitutional monarchy: a "crowned republic," with traditional, Romantic trappings to bring grandeur, majesty, and magic to an emphatically modern, efficient, and rational Enlightened form.
- The most common stereotype of the environmental movement consists of liberal Romanticist hippies fighting against industrial titans. However, the movement is actually strongly divided between Romantic and Enlightened wings over issues like nuclear power and genetic engineering (supported by Enlightened and opposed by Romantic environmentalists). The opposition is even more complicated; the messages usually take Enlightened forms (such as questioning the science behind climate change), but in America in particular, anti-environmentalism often consciously draws upon conservative elements (Romanticism) for its support.
- The debate on abortion could be viewed this way, with pro-life advocates generally appealing to Romanticism and pro-choice advocates to Enlightenment.
- Sigmund Freud saw himself as a man of The Enlightenment, extending the scientific method to the realms previously relegated to philosophy and literature. Although a trained neurologist himself, he regarded existing methods and tools to be inadequate in articulating the mental process, and so resorted to methods like Talking Cure, analyzing language and dreams, memories and other features that led many to regard psychoanalysis as pseudo-scientific and heterodox.
  - In practical terms, Freudian psychology was individualistic (Romantic), articulating that every person was messed up in a specific way that there was no one single method to cure trauma, and that a cure might not even be desirable since those neuroses actually shaped some of our positive attributes, but also deterministic (Enlightenment): shaped by family, society and other environmental factors, and the ultimate goal is self-understanding and dealing with your past and present and accepting that we are less rational than we believe ourselves to be. Marxists (enlightened advocates) were critical of Freud for his emphasis on the individual self's innate non-conformity and they saw Freud as essentially Romanticnote Freud was largely pessimistic about civilization and progress, believing that man was inherently self-destructive that any advances that come would invariably be twisted for disastrous ends, but at the same time, .
  - Psychiatry with its reliance on pills and more visible scientific grounding, and overall positivismnote i.e. cures can lead to improvements and control of our flaws rather in Freud's case understanding and dealing with them runs on a kind of utopian Enlightenment, i.e. the idea that our problems can be solved permanently. Neuroscience led by Erich Kandel on the other hand uses modern scientific study and greater access to brain studies, to essentially reframe many of Freud's ideas about the unconscious in scientific terms, since technology had caught up to test Freud's ideas.
  - Carl Jung, who disagreed with Freud for leaving out the more spiritual and mystical archetypes in human psychology, was more Romantic, which is the main reason Freud criticized him. Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces about comparative mythical traditions is naturally more Romantic given its subject and its Jungian inspirations.
  - Of Jung's own modern disciples, there is Jordan Peterson, a psychologist who analyzes narrative archetypes and interprets them from a Jungian perspective (Enlightenment) vs. Jonathan Pageau, an Orthodox icon-carver who interprets the symbolic meaning of images and archetypes (Romantic).
- Analytic Philosophy (Enlightenment) and Continental Philosophy (Romanticism) at least in the eyes of Bertrand Russell. Continental philosophers on the other hand see themselves very much in the spirit of Enlightenment, and their emphasis on argument from first principles and constant engagement with society lead them to form the social sciences.
- The '60s had a mixture of both. The "hippie" counterculture, with its wild, passionate lifestyle, its rejection of society and materialism in favor of more bohemian ways, and its glorification of nature, was decidedly Romanticist. Meanwhile, the civil rights movement occurred at the same time, and that movement leaned toward the Enlightenment, with its focus on equality and progress. Many people were involved in both the counterculture and the civil rights movement, proving that Enlightenment and Romanticism can coexist peacefully, at least until the counterculture fell out for its Double Standard on women's rights, tended to cults led by Charles Manson and Jim Jones, and generally fractured over inevitable disillusionment rather than long-term commitments.
- One of the more common justifications of European colonialism is that the imperial powers were spreading the benefits of the European science and technology (the Enlightenment) while at the same time seeking to explore and preserve the traditional cultures of the colonized (Romanticism) while degrading the real people who lived there at the same time by abusing their use of the media to the rest of the world. This hollow justification when measured against the reality of what happened on the ground (brutal destruction of local businesses with no compensation, eroding their market base to create support for their goods) tended to be submerged thanks to the Adventure Archaeologist derived from a Romanticist longing for adventure in distant lands, finding artifacts from locales and bringing it to the mother nation of these powers. This romanticizing of exploitation was gradually exposed in post-colonial writings by Edward Said, who worked in the tradition of the Enlightenment to criticize Orientalism, a predominant trope in Romanticist painting and literature.
- Currency: Some Romanticists claim that gold is a historically sound form of currency while many Enlightened see it as Worthless Yellow Rocks, preferring a fiat currency. Some Romanticists oppose all currency in general as dehumanizingly bureaucratic, elitist, and the root of all evil. They may instead prefer a group where necessities had to be shared for mutual survival, a la "barter" or "primitive communism". Some Enlightened people oppose fiat currency and the Federal Reserve system in general, seeing it as nothing more than paper printed and falsely loaned away to unsuspecting people, causing inflation and making the people think they have to repay debt when there is nothing to repay. Some Enlightened people prefer communism, others opt for energy-based currency because they believe that Equivalent Exchange cannot suffer inflation. Still other Enlightened people think that things such as class and currency are nothing more than necessary evils brought on by scarcity and hunger, that can be disposed off once technology and robotics become advanced enough to eliminate the need for labor (this was a point championed by Karl Marx himself; today, this highly Enlightened position is somewhat tongue-in-cheekly called "fully-automated luxury communism"—including if not especially by its proponents).
- You would think that software developers would tilt completely toward Enlightenment, but this thing also crops up there with the free and open source movements on the Romantic side and proprietary developers on the Enlightened. Open source developers generally avoid things like detailed software designs, documentation (when they can get away with it) and testing. Proprietary developers produce a lot of useful software as well, but their development processes tend to be very bureaucratic and their programs very large.
- The relationship between Russia's two main cities, Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, reflects this dynamic in both ways.
  - During Tsarist Russia era, Saint-Petersburg stood for the Enlightenment, built by European architects as a pinnacle of Peter The Great's modernization efforts, dubbed "The window to Europe". Moscow was the Romanticism, a stronghold of old Muscovite culture, traditionalism and Orthodox Christian spirituality.
  - In The New Russia, Moscow is a gleaming and shiny modern city full of shallow and stupid but rich people, a Mecca for Russian businessmen, politicians and celebrities. Saint-Petersburg is a gothic and decadent City Noir, populated (according to Russian stereotypes) by tortured artists, gangsters, drug addicts, and wannabe-intellectual hipsters. (Oh, and liberals and Jews.note Technically correct on both points; the city's politics are relatively hostile to the government, and the proportion of Jews in Pitr is about .8%, as opposed to about .5% in Moscow.)
- Around the middle of the 19th century, an ideological dispute erupted among the intellectuals of the Russian Empire over the nature of Russia and how it should develop further. The Slavophiles, insisting on the uniqueness of Russia's culture, traditions, and historical path, argued that Russia should develop without regard for others, for it would ruin its character if it decided to copy someone else's way of life; consequently, they condemned the reforms of Peter the Great and refused to imagine Russia without the tsarist autocracy and the primacy of the Orthodox Church. In contrast, another philosophical trend, the Westernizers, believed that Russia as such was not unique and was following the same path as the countries of Western Europe, from which it lagged significantly and thus needed to catch up as quickly as possible through full-scale modernization, ultimately becoming either a constitutional monarchy or a parliamentary democratic republic and going as far as reshaping Russian society and culture to meet European norms. Despite their differences, both the Slavophiles and the Westernizers agreed that Russia could not allow its technological backwardness to continue (especially after the catastrophic loss in the Crimean War), nor could it move forward without the abolition of serfdom. Additionally, both movements opposed any form of revolutionary transformation and were somewhat skeptical of the policies of the Russian Empire itself, as the tsarist regime exhibited features of both trends without fully committing to either.
- The American neoreactionary movement and the French archeofuturist movement both break the dichotomy. Both envision a cross between extreme traditionalism and scientific rationalism, which often results in a fantasy of a new middle ages where kingdoms use modern tech like nuclear power and genetic engineering. In case of the archeofuturists, it has to be said, that, like the name suggests, they see themselves as the successors of the futurist art movement rather than the enlightenment. Futurism can be seen a a form of romanticism embracing technology.
  - Isaac Newton was actually, besides being an enlightenment philosopher, a forerunner to that. He imagined a new society ruled by a cleric/scientist hybrid caste, who rediscovered the old past technologies and sciences like alchemy. (Basically a cross between a theocracy and a technocracy.) Every temple should become like a university, and should perform scientific research.
- John F. Kennedy's Rice University Moon Effort oozes Enlightenment. Seriously, you could make an enlightenment motto out of the iconic lines: "We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too." The sheer pomp and circumstance, idealism, and unwavering courage gives it the Enlightenment stamp of approval.

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## Laika

Danielle and Orlov talk about the fate and legacy of Laika: with Danielle thinking of Laika as a hero who pioneered spaceflight for Humanity due to her sacrifice, while Orlov saw her as a scared dog that wanted only to return home and died scared and completely alone in space.

Sobeck vs. Faro

### Alternative Title(s): Romanticism Vs Enlightenment

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