Sometimes
people think that my work leads to a form of negativity in which we find ourselves
lost in a sea of melancholia. The death of the idea that there is something
that can render us whole and satisfied sounds, for some, like it sustains and
supports a type of eternal complaint against life. But the point is the
dialectic opposite: those who constantly complain about their lives are not too
negative, rather they have failed to be negative enough.
To clarify, I
am talking here of a type of negativity that is insatiable. The type of
negativity found in those who are never able to enjoy their existence,
regardless of what happens. Those who find it all but impossible to experience
depth in their material circumstances (as opposed to legitimate protests
against concrete injustice).
In these
situations the problem is not that there is too much negativity, but rather
that the individual has failed to fully enter into negativity. For behind the
claims that ones life is unsatisfactory lies the notion that there is a life,
just out of reach, that could offer that satisfaction.
By redoubling
this failed negativity to the point where one is freed from the idea of a
satisfaction-just-out-of-reach, one is able to enter into a type of material
affirmation of the world that exists beyond the superficial nature of both
optimism and pessimism.
The individual
who is able to loose themselves from the notion that there is some ultimate purpose
to their life frees themselves from the negative melancholy that comes with
being unable to find that purpose (or the naïve optimism that comes from
thinking that they will).
The secret, as
John Caputo would say, is that there is no secret. Instead the challenge is to
discover and deepen love. For love not only affirms the world, it produces a
surplus in that joyful affirmation: acts that enact liberation.
For further thoughtfulness on this topic, see Apophatic theology (via negative)
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