Negativity does not mean focusing on what is unpleasant. Negativity means focusing on absence rather than presence.

Many people advise one another to not be negative. This is negativity in regard to negativity: wishing the absence of the negative. Negating negativity does not produce positivity.

But why prefer the positive to the negative? Why try to eliminate negativity? Negativity is not necessarily bad. Negativity has positive value in that it makes room for positivity by signaling problems with what is established.

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That all-too-common prohibition against pointing out problems unless one already has a solution is a nasty trick — a self-preservation strategy for the incumbent version of the truth. To cooperate means there can be no collaborative effort toward diagnosing and confronting problems. It is a sentimentally disguised divide-and-conquer move. The power of dialogue is denied to dissent and granted to preservation.

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Those who know only negative responses to “negative emotions” — confusion, anxiety, disorientation — are hermeneutically crippled. One must learn the positive meaning of the negative. The most important thing for a knower to know is that he does not yet know.

The negative emotions are the sense organs of interpretation.

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Who cares if you have all the answers if you’ve failed to see the questions?Seeing the question is the hard part. Answers are cheap.

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A well-formed question practically answers itself. A question is a perspectival field. Along the lines of the question an answer is sought.

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Many malformed answers result from the failure to ask the question thoroughly enough: one coddles bad ideas that need to be asked into oblivion.

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The term no-brainer is ironically apt.

The world doesn’t get simpler the smarter you are.