Sabrina Ho--the romanticism of nature

     As I was doing research on Stephanie Kaza for my term paper, she brought up something interesting--in order to find an effective and sustainable solution to the environmental crisis, we need to find the balance between caring deeply for nature and over-romanticising it. In other words, we need to find a way to make the environmental crisis less about the individual, or humans, and more about compassion, caring, and protecting the ecosystem, and acknowledging that we are a part of a larger interdependent web. However, an idealization and over-romanticism of nature can lead to materialistic and less effective solutions, or a complete disregard for larger issues. 

    I'm going to bring up the film, Dead Poets Society, again, since it is so applicable to our class. In a nutshell (with spoilers), the film revolves around Professor Keatings, who represents the romantics poet John Keats, and the downfall of one of his students, Neil. In the end, Neil gets too wrapped up in the romanticism of poetry that he loses a sense of reality, which could be attributed for his eventual death, among other things. I think this clearly exemplifies this fine balance. The initial introduction to this poetic and idealized way of looking through life started off beneficial, but an excess amount led to destruction. The extent to which idealizing life and nature is appropriate, I would not be able to pinpoint myself. There is perhaps a point when someone can acknowledge they've lost touch with reality, in which this would be the point where the romanticism and poetry becomes detrimental. However, it would be interesting to look at the pros and cons of using this type of mindset in the analysis of the environmental crisis.