As I have said, no one escapes from romanticism. I'm not sure that there is any way out of romanticism. Romanticism is modern culture. I don't see any means of escape.
That said, there are, directionally, some paths forward that we can recognize.
The first is to admit that you are a romantic. As the 12-steppers say, first, admit that you have a problem. Romantics tend to think that they are not romantics. They see others as being the romantics. "He's the romantic, not me." So, by recognizing that you are a romantic, and taking full responsibility for that, you take a step forward.
Another is to accept that there is no escape from romanticism. So long as you are looking for an escape, you are still a romantic. Once you reach some kind of acceptance, this can be a kind of step forward. Call this the Kafkaesque strategy.
A third crucial strategy is related to the first two: the recognition that everyone else is also a romantic. A romantic tends to be convinced that it's him against the world, or at least him against the powers that be - that there's a conspiracy of (inauthentic) jerks trying to manage him, to repress him, to not let him be himself, to make him inauthentic - and that he has to do anything and everything to avoid selling out to this conspiracy - that is, that they have to stay true to their romantic principles - and often, in the most egregious cases of romanticism, the romantic will be convinced that they are the only ones who are being true to the true principles, that everyone else has sold out. (Though they may also have some vague sense of the authentic masses, out there somewhere, who are the real salt of the earth and haven't been corrupted by the conspiracy.) But recognizing that the supposed conspiracy members are also walking around struggling with their own romantic ideals is a major step forward.
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