DO NOT LIE! Are you drawn to negativity?

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

Those of you who won't lie (being the "true to theyself" sort), I ask WHY?

Why are you compelled to be drawn into the negative rather than participate/promote/instigate/inspire the POSITIVE thoughts and possibilities and activities?

Why?

[DS1]

1. Only half the time

[EFerrari]

8. LOL

[Up2Late]

2. NO! What a STUPID Question!

Just kidding, just playing along.

[Raksha]

3. Yeah, sometimes I'm attracted to the negative.

I'll have to do some thinking in order to articulate why, though.

[silverweb]

4. Huh?

Is there some context for this so I can get a clue what you're talking about?

:shrug:

[Mz Pip]

5. Sure

It's like slowing down for car accidents that are already moved to the side of the road. Hard not to try to get a glimpse, even if it's yucky.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[EFerrari]

6. Imho, it's not an attraction to negativity but, people tend to

attend to problems. It's a survival dealie. It may be instinctive -- like responding to the smell of smoke.

It takes concentration to focus on the positive. :think:

[rucky]

7. It's usually more interesting.

:shrug:

Been that way all my life. By realizing it (thanks to Bush, iraq, DU and just reflecting on what went wrong with the USA), i've actually become more proactive and positive - it's a labor sometimes, tho.

[BlooInBloo]

9. I'll share a cigarette with it, but it might be going a bit far to say I'm drawn to it...

... in reality, I'm just drawn flies.

[Gregorian]

10. Yes.

And I don't go to the doctor when I'm healthy.

And I don't spend my time engineering something using positive methods. You engineer using the faults, and then overcome them.

I've always taken good life as a baseline. I don't run around saying how great it is. I just assume that that is life. It's when things suck that I mention it. I mean, I don't say how nice it is to not have a needle stuck in my finger. But I shout in pain when there is one.

Having said that, it depends on the subject. I often am attracted to the positive threads. Shit, I'm no help!

I also have an answer for the glass half full question. But that's another thread. :)


Crap! I think I answered the wrong question. Disregard this post. I feel so stupid. :)

[Donnachaidh]

11. For the past six years everything labeled POSITIVE was done so to distract us

Every time I see someone complain that we don't emphasize the *positive* I quite frankly feel like puking.

I don't want to be distracted from the TRUTH anymore. And if it seems to you that I'm being negative -- I'm not. I'll get back to being *positive* when we start solving the mountains of damage done to our country by the Bush Regime.

[ruggerson]

12. Flamebait!

n/t

[MoonRiver]

13. I'm irresistibly drawn to watching Discovery during "Shark Week."

Does that count?

[MisterHowdy]

14. "Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness"

n/t

[loves_dulcinea]

15. WHY WHY WHY!!!!

Maybe because in my experience, hopes exist only to be dashed against rough granite reality. you then become used to the idea of what "could be" is going to become a mediocre possibility. especially if you have to rely on the efforts of other people.

[spacelady]

16. Answers 10, 11, & 15 do very well to answer this question, because

I see these responses as inherently positive. Being drawn to the negative inspires the problem-solving and caring aspect of the human condition. It is the stuff that makes you THINK. Having everything come up flowers and rainbows tends to have one coasting blithely along without a thought about how change could make conditions better.

[alittlelark]

17. Sounds like a good shrink is in order....

Many people with cognitive dissonance and other politically inspired issues have found solace w/in their own thought processes.

The TRUTH shall set you free (if you choose). You can get help !

You are PROJECTING as we type.... you can overcome this!


PM me if you are in the Bay Area.

[bbgrunt]

18. because every disaster is a "new opportunity" as

every pollyanna can tell ya. At least there is probably a chance of profit through arbitrage.

[FormerOstrich]

19. No, actually I am not....

but I will say that the Bush years has forced me into it more than I ever have been.

However, with that said not focusing or retaining negativity can be problematic.

I tend to "get over" things very quickly. Plus, I don't hold onto it. I jokingly say I have to remind myself to stay mad....but it's not a joke, it is true. The downside to this is you aren't really learning from mistakes or experiences that maybe you should be learning from.

My mom has told me many times (since I was very young) it is as if my brain doesn't have the ability to retain "bad" or "negative" things. Plus, I will almost always find the positive in something deemed as negative.

Bush has been the exception and the awareness I have achieved since 2001 has changed me. It has been a difficult and painful adjustment/transformation. However, but I am still the same on the smaller scale items in my life.

I noticed someone mentioning trying to look at wrecks. I never do that. Ever. I keep my eyes focused on driving with an abundance of caution around the wreckage but I will never attempt to look at the wreck itself. Ever.

About a decade ago I was in ICU. I don't have any recollection of this but I was told (several times) that anytime someone in ICU died (that in spite of how drugged I myself was) that I would become so upset that I would require emergency response as well. They were a little confused about how I seemed to be subconsciously tuned. I have always wondered about that because it seems so contradictory to my conscious being where I tend to block all negative out. I'm not sure why I mentioned it except I thought maybe I might hear some new insights.

The FormerOstrich philosophy is that there is really no good luck or bad luck in life. The perception of good or bad fortune is all based on the time dimension with which you are evaluating the event.

[lvx35]

20. I love this terminology...

Just the words negative and positive, their roots in science. What is drawn to the negative? The positive. What is drawn to the positive? The negative. What does it take to make a complete structure like an atom or wave? Both. The positive implies the negative and vice versa. And the fact is that pretty much anybody will fluctuate. From your post, I gather that you don't like negativity, but your name is sicksicksick_N_tired, which is negative in itself. But I think you are talking about something deeper regarding attitude.

Generally people who don't engage others in those positive ways you mention have tried to do so in the past, and encountered hostility. The inability of others to see our intent hurts us most, and makes us defensive and jaded, which makes us attack others because we do not trust their intent. Negativity of this kind is a virus, it spreads from mind to mind. The thing that crushes this virus, I believe, is when people trust. Trust takes honesty, and honesty can be compromising in a world of secrets and nuance and condemnation.

[WinkyDink]

21. Because I'm a cynic.

[NuttyFluffers]

22. of course, and why not?

seriously, positivity cannot and is not the sole means of change. in fact, a lack of understanding and acceptance to 'the darkness' will only manifest instability, projection, and a consuming self-righteousness when least expected. like a bad paraphrase of sun tsu, 'know thyself first or you shall lose every battle.'

[Swamp Rat]

23. It's interesting?

:shrug:

[Trillo]

24. Why is truth mostly perceived as negative?

The implication in your question seems to be that there's a correlation between those who won't lie, and those who are drawn to the negative.

Why is refusal to lie and or being honest perceived as negative?

[Mutineer]

25. It's the one thing that really bugs me about DU

the negativity and hatred, it's not productive.

[demgurl]

26. No, I am repelled by it.

That is why I have silently given up DU man times when I see so many flame wars break out.

I used to be attracted to it and it almost seemed to sustain me but I went through some spiritual revelations and that is just not me any more. Even when my family started an email war fighting about family photos of the children, I just bowed out.

We are all one and what we do to one we do to many more. Our actions have ripple effects we never truly see or understand. Negativity is toxic.

[Philosoraptor]

27. I'm an Optipessimist, jaded and cynical before it was cool.

[VP505]

28. Aren't we all?

Fact is the squeaky wheel gets the grease, if we don't confront the negative head on, in the long run there will be little or nothing positive as it seems that negative breeds more negative.

[Toots]

29. No and that is why I adore Bill Clinton and despise the Bush* Administration

In fact the entire Republican Party. If I were attracted to Negativity I would be a Republican. Name one instance that Bill Clinton was negative in his assessment of America and it's future.I come to sites like this one that out Negativity and offer ways to counteract it. I vote for Optimism not Negativity. It is one reason Obama is doing so well in the polls. I haven't heard Negativism from his mouth even once..