Out of the Honey, Into the Brine What is yin without yang? The dichotomy is explained this way, “Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary (rather than opposing) forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts. Everything has both yin and yang aspects, (for instance shadow cannot exist without light). Either of the two major aspects may manifest more strongly in a particular object, depending on the criterion of the observation.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang Without one or the other, our world as we know it becomes skewed, and the imbalance left by the void of the other is filled by its exclusion. I am reminded of an old saying, “You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.” Let us consider this for a moment. For many in business this can be equated to, “The customer is always right.” Both exclude the negative, vinegar and the possibility the costumer as wrong, to achieve some goal the easiest way possible. For business the goal is to make as much money as possible within certain limitations. One of those limitations is to make the customer believe they care about them by granting the customer so from of compromise that pleases them and causes them to come back and spend more money on their product or service. On the surface it appears it is a win, win for the customer and the business owner. Ah, but what about the employee who is forced to endure abuse at the hands of customers who purposely take advantage of this dictum? They are not compensated by the employer for that in any way. And, what often happens, certain costumers abuse of this policy becomes so prevalent, businesses often lose money in pleasing these people. That loss is made up over the long run by charging the more scrupulous customer more, supplying lower quality products and services, and giving the employees less benefits and pay. The people at the top are never willing to take less so everyone else gets to pay for that and nobody questions this for some reason. It is okay with them as long as someone else pays the price. They refuse to look at the negative. The same with catching flies. Does anyone consider flies a disgusting disease ridden creature before taking about how to catch them? No, that is negative. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to catch flies. I want to discourage the behavior that attracts flies so I sprinkle a little vinegar with the honey as appropriate because guess what, “The costumer isn’t always right and those obnoxious costumers turn off the other costumers.” I know what they meant be the saying. They are saying if you compromise and ignore certain behaviors and treat the person nice despite their behavior, you can win them over to your side. In the case of business, you make more money. In the case of people in general, you have more people who like you. But, that ignores the fact all of those situations encourage bad behavior. Different combinations of honey and vinegar work best. That way the fly either doesn’t come back at all, or becomes a butterfly the next time it does. Which is better…more or less? In business and in the lives of individuals, the over emphasis of “being positive” has been taken to the point of delusions through the indictment of anyone who speaks truth because they shed light on an area that makes positivists uncomfortable, thus positivists portray them as negative and undesirable. There exists a place between pure positivism and pure negativism, just outside the extremes of where neither point of view can reach, and it is called truth. This is where truth is found. While inside the extremes of either philosophical world there exists a photo negative of truth, it is merely a dark image of what truth is and requires any individual adopting such a philosophy to live in a form of self-imposed darkness where the darkness becomes their truth. Author Joonji Mdyogolo touches on this issue in her article, as it relates to Business, when she expounds, “The Weakness of Positive Thinking, by David Collinson from the Lancaster University Management School in the United Kingdom, quotes a study that says too much positive leadership is a bad thing. And here is the clincher: it blames positive thinking as being at the centre of the “many miscalculations that drove the Great Recession”. The study coins the term “Prozac leadership” and describes how “it promotes artificial happiness and discourages critical reflection…” mg.co.za/article/2012-10-19-punching-a-hole-in-positivity/ As positivism in Business, as currently practiced and popularly understood, fosters artificial happiness and discourages critical thinking, so people are easily misled and happily look the other way while terrible atrocities are committed around the world in the name of business, the real result of adopting this religion is apathy to the truth and thus humanity in general. The application in the personal lives of people is, while on the outside they wear a bright smile painted on their face and speak many flowery pleasant sounding words, not wishing to upset the apple cart of positivity, within the vacuum created by the exclusion and persecution of anything viewed as negative, including absolute unassailable truth, its real aim is to disguise darkness as light, thus a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This wolf, while appearing as inviting as a new born lamb on the outside, has the effect of devouring the hearts, minds, and souls of those taken in. By castigating and ignoring issues and people who do not adopt the religion of positivism, the practitioners themselves close their eyes to reality, help spread apathy, exclude real love, and act out in selfishness, all of which confirm the source of their philosophy is in fact darkness as opposed to the light they endeavor to portray. The portrayal of patently malevolent practices in business like the type of blatant greed that led to the Great Recession, by bathing certain aspects in positivism to exclusion of the truth because the truth sheds a negative light on the subject at hand, serves not only as a set of blinders for people caught up in the illusion, they also become the tool to persecute of anyone wishing to remedy wrongs in society. But this type of darkness does not exist in a bubble. Instead of neatly containing the philosophy of positivism in a bubble, the bubble itself encapsulates the subject, and exerts its influence over all aspects of the subjects’ thinking. Like one of millions plugged into the Matrix, from the movie by the same name, the individuals no longer exist in autonomy. Each person is now a unit within the collective controlling whole, unable to think or act of their volition, but provided with the illusion they exist inside a world where they do act of their own volition. The illusion reinforces the behavior. One of the necessary ingredients for independent healthy thought the Matrix does not allow for… anything perceived as negative. Instead of ignoring what is termed as negative because it might expose some truth someone doesn’t like, because a consequence is change in the actual right direction, the other side of the equation needs equal time in the light objectivity. Mdyogolo remarks, “A new movement explores the upside of negativity - a profoundly human emotion that has carried a bad name for too long.” Without considering both sides of the coin of human emotion, it is impossible to determine truth. Wherever truth is excluded by the oppression of anything, darkness reigns supreme. People are allowed to harm others and the planet in unspeakable ways because they are unspeakable in the religion of positivism. So watch out for anyone who will only say, “Namaste” and, “bless you” and uses a plethora of hearts and other positive images to the exclusion of all else. Love exists only as far as the reflection in the mirror and to those close to them as long as they stay within certain parameters. Everything is in enmity that is outside the parameters set by the Matrix. Cruelty, greed, and apathy flourish there. They are the main byproducts of positivism and lay just beneath the surface of those most positive practitioners. It is the mask covering the face of the beast. Get close enough to see its soul, and its true face is revealed. In parting, watch out for Prozac Mary and Prozac Joe, behind the mask resides something frightful and dangerous to all things living. Positivism is most effective because Little Miss and Mr. Sunshine are completely oblivious to their condition, and also why the people under its Prozac like influence are so difficult to deal with. In their eyes, and many of the publics’ eyes as well, they are wonderful. But, truth usually is not found inside wonderful because truth doesn’t exclude anything.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 23:01:18 +0000
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