seen it all

"I've seen it all, I've seen the dark
I've seen the brightness in one little spark.
I've seen what I chose and I've seen what I need,
And that is enough, to want more would be greed.
I've seen what I was and I know what I'll be
I've seen it all - there is no more to see!"

-- Bjork, from "Dancer in the Dark"

So, here's what gets me: negativity. And this seems like a big
conundrum -- what do I get when I say I'm "against negativity"?

It's not as simple as two minus signs make a plus sign --
a better model in this case might be something like a "no
smoking sign".

Then there's the fact that most typically to say "yes" to one thing,
you must also say "no" to many other things. So just what is it
about a "positive attitude" that makes it so positive?

My sense is that this gets into matters of the stateful-mind --
the fact that we are not so much "logical" creatures as "physical"
ones. I think that when we affirm things (whatever they may
be), we are also affirming ourselves.

I believe this is a well-worn philosophical track -- but I find it
to be no less of a conundrum, for what I think are cultural
reasons. We seem to have been brought up in a culture that
is adamant about "no". A "cultural critique" would, at this
point, just be a ridiculous semantic game, so I'm *not* going
to go there...

Instead, I will just suggest an empirical exercise: to look
at all of the uses of the word "not" that one comes across.
Is the process of elimination that this word suggests -- working?
Or is it -- not working? And... where do we go from here?