# Hiding the Negatives By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2024-01-31 People go to extremes to disguise things believed to be negative. People self-edit or ignore their feelings or thoughts within any social construct. This partially defines a functional society as individuals cannot do whatever they please, whenever they please. Organizations and societies would cease to exist if some agreements were not made between individuals regarding roles, responsibilities, and obligations. This implicitly and explicitly defines positive and negative actions or feelings. Thus, one must disguise or minimize the negatives to remain part of the community. Of course, there are times when such things get called into question, and revolutions occur regarding norms and culture. However, there are many things without a clear positive or negative ruling. For example, within business, is communicating failures a positive or negative? One will feel one way or another, but either could be deemed acceptable. One could spin a failure as an opportunity to learn and improve next time. Alternatively, one could spin a failure as the reason to feel shame and spread fear to do better next time or else. With such a range of possibilities, one may eventually realize one's agency to sway the group. Here, one's effectiveness is defined by one's explicit or implicit position in the hierarchy. Executives of the organization tend to have more weight, whereas the common worker has less. Or, at least, that is what many tend to believe. Inevitably, there will always be more workers than executives such that a united workforce has the power to present an overwhelming force. Within one's organization, are such ideas and feelings positive or negative? In all likelihood, they are viewed as negative, so we collectively hide them. Part of life is learning to show up and play the game. Another part of life is growing up and changing the game. These conflict, but if one does not ask why one hides the negative, one will never know oneself and the meaning of solidarity. #### Related Items [[Culture]] [[Society]] [[Power]] [[Organization]] [[Solidarity]] [[Understanding]] [[Perspective]] [[Reflection]]