Aminet 48/Aminet 48 (2002)(GTI - Schatztruhe)[!][Apr 2002].iso/Aminet/demo/mag/gods-disc12.lha/D.I.S.C.12/text/thescene-OPTIMISM&NEGATIVITY

Text File | 1980-03-22 | 6.6 KB | 195 lines

discnew.font,8
«»
«s6=166,227,181»
«s7=191,206,254»
«c2»«ac»OPTIMISM VS. NEGATIVISM«»
«»
«c1»By Darkhawk/IRIS«»
«»
«»
«as»«c7»In our scene today I think we have «c6»two
fronts «c7»battling against eachother, and
battling for the neutral sceners in
the middle. These fronts consist of
the «c6»excessively optimistic people, «c7»who
say that the scene is going extremely
well, swapping is alive, diskmags are
plentiful, etc., and the opposite, the
«c6»excessively negative people, «c7»who say
that the scene is dead, that nothing
is as it was, that modern sceners are
lame for trying to do something, and
that it all is hopeless. In between
these fronts, we have what is probably
the majority of sceners, and these
fronts are always battling over these
sceners, to gain more converts.«»
«»
Recently this is beginning to annoy
me; while I think «c6»blind optimism «c7»is
naive, and while I see that some of
these optimists say the things they do
because they really want to convince
themselves and others, and want to
quiet all negative talk, I still find
that position ok, one can smile at
this eagerness to paint everything in
rosy hues, but it doesn't really hurt
the scene. «c6»The opposite front however,
really irritates me, «c7»although, to be
fair, it's that front that motivates
me the most for articles and replies.«»
«»
To mention concrete examples of both
attitudes, the positive attitude one
can find pretty often amongst
swappers, which might strike you as
weird, swapping being in a really..
Let's say diminished state, these
days. But there, one finds «c6»idealists
who love the scene, «c7»who are motivated
and who constantly tell others how
great things are, who downplay the
negative aspects, and who emphasize
the positive ones. This is quite good
actually, «c6»this is what motivates other
people, «c7»a cheery disposition towards
something will infect others to study
and participate in it, no matter how
cheery that 'something' is in itself,
and thus they help this 'something' to
become more cheery, by getting new
blood in, and convincing the people
who are already in, that things are
fine. However, this can quickly strike
you as «c6»a false way of being, denying
realities «c7»and all that. This will of
course mostly strike you that way, if
you have already chosen the more
negative interpretation as to the
state of our scene. Sometimes, I can
get enough of this disposition too,
when it is too cheery and too
oblivious to facts, but it is really a
defensemechanism too, and a quite good
one, so it doesn't bother me that
much, and indeed, I myself am positive
and optimistic about the state and the
future of the scene, as my articles
should hopefully show.. No, this
excessive optimism is ok, aslong as it
is a true feeling from the people who
have it, and not false, like someone
who desperately wants to convince
himself and others. Indeed this false
state comes when you really start to
doubt, and shortly afterwards you
usually quit the scene, so that
charade is no good at all.«»
«»
However, this ungrounded, excessive
optimism is not really that bad. «c6»What
IS bad, is of course ungrounded
negativity «c7»(or even negativity in
general, aslong as it is a passive
negativity, it is only hurtful),
mostly coming «c6»from disillusioned,
disgruntled, cynical people, «c7»who felt
they had a part in a cool scene once,
but who seem to take a perverse joy in
surveying the scene and accusing it of
being much less than before, close to
death, dead already, with unskilled
and unmotivated sceners in it, etc.
How often do we hear these kinds of
statements? Usually from ex.sceners of
course, people who «c6»lost the joy in
THEIR scene experience, «c7»and who thus
seem to need to apply that loss of joy
to the entire scene and all the
sceners, so that they can happily
proclaim that the entire scene is
going inactive, that everybody has
somehow 'seen' that the scene isn't
worth much anymore. «c6»They need that
kind of justification themselves, so
they won't feel like they're missing
out of some fun «c7»we, the active
sceners might still have. And so we
get to know them as the voices of
negativity. Doomsayers, proclaiming
that our scene is in a horrible state,
if not already dead. This can really
get on your nerves. «c6»It never convinces
me that the scene is dead, «c7»since I've
experienced worse periods during my
scenelife, periods where there were
less sceners, less productions, less
enthusiasm, particularely in the years
just before the millenium. But «c6»we're
still here, we survive, «c7»and we still
have people wanting to paint as bright
a picture of our combined state as
possible, and we still have these
people who want to tell us we're
basically fools, clinging on to it
(while they themselves envy us our
spirit). «c6»Truth lies in the middle, as
nearly always.«»
«»
«c7»Now, to be fair, these people who are
negative, are not all like I
described. I mentioned that especially
some swappers I know strike me as
having a real optimistic attitude, as
for the sceners (and not just
ex.sceners) who have a negative
attitude, or starting point for their
opinions, we find people in the
«c6»Devotion #2 staff «c7»(hah, Sane and Wade,
you just knew this would be coming,
heh). I wrote about that in the EC#43
already, and won't go into details,
but Sane and Wade are oldtimers, who
think things nowadays are worse than
before, and their motivation is up and
down. The old productions are best,
the old sceners were better, the
spirit was better, etc., the scene is
basically a shadow of its former self.
«c6»Sane even writes an article accusing
new sceners of killing the scene!
That's really a kind of excessive
negativism, «c7»that closes its eyes to
the positive things, that doesn't even
want there to be positive things, a
kind of optimism that has already
decided what is the truth, and that
doesn't want to discover that things
are not that bad.«»
«»
This «c6»negativity might demotivate other
sceners, «c7»but infact I think that
sceners are pretty resistant towards
this nowadays, and that they take more
sustenance from the optimistic people,
than from the negative ones, and
that's really great, and one of the
reasons our scene is still alive. So,
the point with this article? To show
you why I think most (excessively)
negative sceners/ex.sceners say the
things they do, and to make you choose
to adopt a more positive attitude.
Because such an attitude stimulates
the scene and motivates sceners to
carry on. «c6»More optimism, unfounded or
not please, it will make the scene a
better place, «c7»saying it is, and
having a positive attitude, that rubs
off on other people, and thus it will
be self-fulfilling, just as a negative
attitude will be self-fulfilling.«»
«»
«e»