“There it was encapsulated, complete, uncut, pure: the symbolic essence of an America that has drifted far from civilization, an America that has grown very, very strange. The America that bumper sticker symbolizes has left behind the world of rational nation-states and slipped off into a sentimental realm of Romanticism. Romanticism is a worldview that privileges strong emotions such as pride, horror, and awe. (The ominous, drum-beating music that opens American news broadcasts today screams ‘War! Terror! Fear! Pride! Revenge!,’ striving to derange the viewer’s senses and conflate these primitive emotions with a feeling of patriotism.) Additionally, Romanticism privileges the individual imagination as the single, unshakable source of truth, which stems from the American insistence on a ‘personal relationship with God’ rather than traditional hierarchical religious practices. When speaking of Roman­ticism, as Baudelaire pointed out, it is not the truth of the thing in question that is important but rather the overwhelming personal emotions that the thing inspires.” (08/26/08)