Positivity Doesn’t Invalidate Negativity

One coin, two sides. Positivity and negativity will always both exist.

Photo by Alex on Unsplash

I know a lot of people who think that positivity is a toxic notion.

And, misapplied, they’re right. When you use positivity to negate and invalidate negativity — that is a toxic act. We simply cannot exist in a world with zero negativity.

Life is all about dualities and paradoxes. Hence, yin and yang, black and white, up and down, and so on. Between these extremes are vast worlds of grey and color that cannot be ignored. That’s because most of us exist between the polar opposites.

Take politics, for example. There are tremendous false equivalencies on both sides of the American political aisle. The vast majority of the American people exist somewhere closer to the center between liberal and conservative.

While the center doesn’t move, the two dominant parties have shifted dramatically. One party is very much center-left while the other part is abandoning the center altogether and going extremely far-right. A tremendous amount of ugliness has accompanied that shift — and likely will continue to do so. But I digress.

Positivity and negativity are polar opposites. While there is a neutral center point between them, human beings are…