Negativity works

All the characters referred to in the below blog are fictitious and bear no resemblance with anyone living or dead whatsoever. Any co-incidence is purely co-incidental and unintentional.

X: “Hey you know A, she seeing B these days.”
Y: “Oh really!!! how come you know about it?”
X: “I had been closely following the two, and then rounded up A over it, initially she was hesitant but I was insistent, and she succumbed, admitted to having seeing him, but says they are JUST FRIENDS and that’s it.”
Y: “Oh I see. Interesting.”
X: “But it stays between us, right? I’d promised A not to disclose this to anyone, but you know we share everything, so just told YOU.”
Y: “Yeah don’t worry.”

Both of them sign each other off exchanging pleasantries. Exactly similar conversation takes place after some time between X & Z and Y & W.

X: “Hi, blah blah blah”
Z: “blah blah blah”
X: “But it stays between us, right? I’d promised A not to disclose this to anyone, but you know we share everything, so just told YOU.”
Z: “Yeah don’t worry.”
Y: “Hi, blah blah blah”
W: “blah blah blah”
Y: “But it stays between us, right? I’d promised A not to disclose this to anyone, but you know we share everything, so just told YOU.”
W: “Yeah don’t worry.”

so on and so forth, the word spreads. Almost every body comes to know about the on going JUST FRIENDSHIP between A and B. B does not like it. Men never like it and women do not want it to happen but it still happens. And it happened here because A trusted X and confided about her relationship to B but on condition of concealment. X promised but went back on her words. And then the same thing happened with Y, he also went back on his words and so went back all those W’s, Z’s et al. who not only spread the word about the relationship of A and B but also other stories started making rounds. A and B remained the hot topic of discussion in the office for some days until someone said that the VP had been seen at a dinner at the Taj with his secretary and the focus of gossip shifted, a hotter topic was available, but in this case there was neither any element of concealment present, nor its presence justified, but in the earlier case A had told X not to disclose, but still X did, so what prompted X to do so?

Jealousy towards A for having gotten B, excitement, anxiety, some grudge against either of A or B or some other cause. Well all of the above causes do find their respective share of justification in the explanation for X’s behavior, but still all the above are circumstantial, the presence of which might / might not have triggered the spreading of rumors as also all / some / none of the causes might again not apply to the behavior of the Y’s, W’s et al. So there has to be some sort of commonality in the behavior pattern and so arises the obvious question as to what is it?

Well the answer is ‘Its negativity’. The element of negativity in all the conversations is fairly obvious yet unnoticed. Let us have a look at the following statements.

But it stays between us, right? I’d promised A not to disclose this to anyone, but you know we share everything, so just told YOU.

This is the negativity involved. X thinks, why is A telling this to me. And there is an element of forbiddingness in the statement that provokes. As a natural tendency human beings tend to do forbidden things first hand. If history is to be believed then supposedly this element of negativity explains the propagation of human race. Eve was forbidden to eat the APPLE, but the element of negativity in the forbiddingness compelled her to do the FIRST SIN and rest is history and ever since it has been this element of negativity that has served as the driving force between all the major events so far, constructive or destructive.

As a destructive tool it is the easiest method to spread rumors and falsities about anyone. The statement, “DO NOT TELL ANYONE” is a self-provoking one. It sparks a plethora of questions, the first one being, “If it is not meant to be told to ANYBODY, then WHY AM I THE CHOSEN ONE.” and some other obvious questions as well, “What are the implications if I spread / keep mum / or discuss with someone in private. The first two options might seem a little dramatic, but the third option most often rules the roost.

Discuss with someone in private, but the irony here is that paradox involved in the underlying negativity element which slowly includes everyone in the ambit of someone and the word is out. But negativity is not about spreading rumors or a mere characteristic behavioral pattern of gossip-mongers. It has many positive effects as well. The mandate of negativity is to generate curiosity and this can work in a constructive manner as well.

Let us get back to the start of the world. What if negativity did not exist in human nature and Eve had not taken that APPLE, Adam and Eve would never have participated in the first ever creation process and human race would not have propagated. It was the negativity element in Eve’s nature that she, on being forbidden to have the apple, got provoked, had it and then time witnessed expansion of human race. So is negativity a boon in disguise? A question too hard to answer. Even in mathematics the sign for positive ‘+’ is formed by crossing the sign for negative ‘-‘, which clearly shows the endowment of EVIL prior to the bestowment of GOOD.