Episode 96: Criticism, Suspicion And Complaining

Rendezvous with Jamie McGlue

Negative energy is that which shrinks the potential of life for creativity, higher-order complexity, harmonious interconnectedness, and the experience of love, joy and being. Positive energy is that which uplifts, expands, grounds, nourishes and enlivens the living. But there is a time and place for negativity; sometimes it is healthy and even inevitable to feel or express negative emotion, words and actions. Criticising and complaining can be a trap and egoic indulgence in one’s addiction to negativity and its sense of being right; but these can also be done consciously so as to communicate what is fair and so restore order and balance in a system of people or things. Suspicion is more subtle, being the critiquing one explores within oneself as potential grounds for criticism, complaint or resistance. This too is healthy as a response to true danger and injustice – to notice it – but can easily get out of hand. Especially in public communication, we should err on the side of trust, for this will often be jusitified, or sometimes will even be false but paradoxically become true.