When most people hear the word “Romantic” or “Romance” they immediately think of romantic love. But the word “romantic” has a broader meaning and I am talking about the broader meaning of “romance.” To understand what “romance” means, I have to give you a quick history of Western civilization.

Up until the Enlightenment, the West was religious. Then the Enlightenment happened around the 1600s and 1700s and basically said that people should think logically and rationally and that science and stuff can solve our problems. There was an undercurrent to the Enlightenment that religion, superstition and magical thinking were bullshit, but nobody could just come out and say that, given the times. The Enlightenment is a big reason why the “West” began dominating the world. When you think rationally about shit you win. Duh.

However, after the Enlightenment, a new movement sprang up called the Romantic movement, which idolized intense emotion. According to Wikipedia, “the movement emphasized intense emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe.” Another important piece of romanticism was spontaneity – “as in the musical impromptu.” Before romanticism, an artist might paint a nice picture of a corn field, but a “romantic” artist would paint a raging storm at sea with huge waves crashing on a ship. Before romanticism somebody might paint a picture of a nice old grandma sitting in her rocking chair, whereas afterwards you would paint a foppish dandy committing suicide.Everything about romanticism was grandiose, intense, hyper-emotional, and worst of all, irrational. It generally became associated with liberalism, the French Revolution, and later, nihilism and fascism. The Nazis even had a slogan that basically said “think with the blood” – forget about rationality, do what feels good! Bertrand Russell’s “The History of Western Philosophy” has a great description of the romantic movement and its history.

As you can imagine, the romantic movement is why girls are crazy cunts in 2015.

You see, nobody in 2015 even knows what the romantic movement was, but our society is mostly romantics. Instead of seeking calm, peaceful, serene, consistent happiness, everybody is out for the next thrill and/or intense emotion. We have become a society of dopamine junkies. Dopamine is the chemical that gives you a rush every time you do something pleasurable and you get a dose of it every time you eat delicious food, have sex, watch crazy movies, speed, listen to crazy, aggressive music, etc...

A dopamine junkie is fundamentally an unhappy person because they are constantly addicted to something: video games, drugs, women, partying, etc... The “high” lasts for a second and they are back to their shitty, meaningless lives. Think about it: no matter how rich or loved you are, there is no possible way to have a constant stream of dopamine stimulation. You are inevitably going to have those moments of downtime – and if you can’t be happy IN THOSE MOMENTS, then you are fundamentally unhappy. And like any addiction, a dopamine rush will never satisfy you – you will always chase the next bigger and bigger rush.

Unfortunately our society has become full of dopamine junkies - nothing is ever enough and nobody is ever really happy because they are chasing the next thrill. Their lives usually crash and burn because they can’t control their emotions and they end up doing stupid stuff to get more dopamine and they end up fucking up at their job/life because they are distracted by dopamine. Another problem with being a dopamine junkie is that you if you are hitting intense highs you are also probably hitting very intense lows. Most dopamine junkies have very bad anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. They may even have bouts of uncontrolled anger, panic, obsessive-compulsive disorder, etc...

A lot of people have “theories” on how to get hot girls, but I can sum it all up for you in one shot: Girls are in 2015 are dopamine addicts – so anything that gives them a dopamine rush will get them interested in you, be it cocaine, fun experiences, a sense of humor, nice things, etc... But of course, for a girl, the thing that gives her the biggest dopamine rush is being with a confident, alpha male who is displaying his alpha-ness.

Of course, as you can imagine, the worst legacy of the romantic movement became the concept of “romantic love.” Romantic love, as you can imagine, is “love” in the form of intense, crazy emotions. A candelight dinner on the Eiffel Tower. A spontaneous trip to the Bahamas on a private jet. A box of chocolates on her birthday (literally a dopamine box to reward her narcissism). The logical conclusion of romance is doing a line of coke off your dick as you are both on a roller coaster. But, as anybody who has ever been in a relationship knows, a real relationship cannot be based on intense emotions. A solid relationship is one that is calm, peaceful, serene and does not need crazy candelight dinners on the Eiffel Tower all the time.

I first realized that the idea of romance was fucked when I saw a lady on the Jerry Springer show justify the fact that she was sleeping with a married man. She said “we just have great chemistry.” “Great chemistry,” here means “even though my rational brain knows that this guy doesn’t give a flying fuck about me and I am doing a terrible thing by fucking him, he really gets my dopamine going and I have been tricked by society into thinking that that is all that is important in a relationship.” If you watch any romantic comedy, they all have the same basic plot – the woman ditches the boring, “regular” guy who is rationally good for her, for the scruffy ragamuffin who isn’t doing very well in life but provides her with some excitement. Romeo & Juliet is the worst example of romantic love – two teenagers who come from rival families “fall in love” (i.e., get dopamine rushes) and end up killing themselves when it goes wrong. Shakespeare intended Romeo & Juliet to be about what NOT to do, but unfortunately, like the movie Scarface, our society has adopted Romeo & Juliet as the model for what love SHOULD be.

Our society kind of sees women as little children who “need” romance. And yes, in a sense, they do. You see, women are by definition more prone to being dopamine addicts. For a variety of reasons that are beyond the scope of this article, women have higher anxiety than men so they have trouble enjoying that peaceful, serene happiness that makes life truly enjoyable. Women also don’t have that conquering spirit men do, so their lives don’t hold the same meaning that men’s do, so they have to content themselves with living vicariously through a man and/or enjoying dopamine rushes. So, yes, women “need” romance. But as a man you shouldn’t fall in that trap and believe that romance is the point of life.