Monday, March 7, 2011

Sublime

Edmund Burke has been called the father of modern conservatism because he introduced the idea of romanticizing the past to justify political changes in the present. He also wrote an aesthetic treatise that can be considered quite liberal considering that it encouraged the strain of Romanticism informed by radical sympathies. In it, he drew a distinction between the beautiful and the sublime, the sublime being nature in its terrible, awe-inspiring aspect.

And why am I mentioning this? Because I think the eruption in Hawaii is sublime, at least according to Mr. Burke...

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