There is no need need to see anything that is negative as a thing that is undesirable or needs to be improved, otherwise altered or done away with. The negative is just fine as it is. There is no need to somehow transform the negative into the positive or make the negative somehow end up as something positive. There is no need to transcend the negative.

The negative is an acceptable state at all times and in all forms (if one is willing to see it as such).

There is no evidence that the primary value of the negative is that it enables one to see the positive. There is no necessary correlation between the negative and the positive.

There is no reason that it is unacceptable or undesirable for a particular individual to choose to value the negativity more than she does the positive. Indeed, there is no reason for a particular individual to refrain from embracing or celebrating the negative if she wishes to. The dark side is not as dark as people make it out to be.

In most cases, there is no strong evidence that the portion of an adult life that remains will be qualititavely superior to the portion of an adult life that has already taken place. There will be strong evidence that life is a positive thing only when there is strong evidence that the conditions in which that life is lived are positive.

A nihilist is an individual who wants all parts of the status quo to cease to exist. Nihilism is a philosophical position; not an emotional valence.

An independent thinker is a person who subjects each statement he thinks might be an abstraction to the maximum amount of analysis of which he is capable. If his analysis of the statement ends in a place where it is inconclusive about the validity of the statement, the independent thinker will withhold judgment about the validity of the statement. Analysis of any statement can be ongoing.

Of course, the independent thinker dismisses as invalid any abstraction for which he can't find strong evidence of validity by means of his analysis. In fact, the experienced independent thinker can often dismiss in great rapidity, in an almost mechnical manner, thousands of received notions and cliches.

To dismiss the validity of these, he need not even always engage in basic logcial analysis. For example, an independent thinker might dismiss the cliche and received notion "Freedom isn't free" on the grounds that it doesn't even meet the criteria of the dictionary definitions by means of which concensus reality definitions of words are established.

To demonstrate ... any definition will state that "freedom" is the state of being free. Likewise, anyone or anythng that is free must, again, by definition, be in a state of freedom. If, then, the dictionary is to be used as a standard of at least concensus reality speech, the statement "Freedom isn't free" must be invalid. The independent thinker could induce that the phrase "freedom isn't free" was generated as shorthand for some phrase such as "freedom entails sacrifice."

The independent thinker, if she is experienced, will analyze the phrase "freedom entails sacrifice" by formulating such questions as: 1. What is the meaning of the term "freedom"? 2. In the unlikely event that "freedom" can be defined, is there strong evidence that "freedom" exists in the United States in a form that is qualitatively superior to that of the "freedom" that exists in other places? 3. Even given that "freedom" can be defined and be demonstrated to exist in the highest qualitative form in the United States, what is the evidence that this freedom requires sacrifice or that it is worth sacrificing for?

In my case, the questions are answered in astonishing rapidity. I think it is very unlikely that any person will ever be able to formulate a precise definition of freedom or to demonstrate that such a state as "freedom" exists. I categorize the term "freedom" as invalid and conclude there is no evidence that the nonexist state justifies any sacrifice at all. I induce that the cliche and received notion "Freedom isn't free" was generated at some time as a trigger phrase designed to indoctrinate adults to willingly, and even enthusiastically, sacrifice adult children whom they claim they "love" in the cause of wars that are started by politicians in Washington, D.C., whom the parents have never met; are started by these politicians for reasons about which the parents know nothing; and are fought in countries about which the parents know nothing.

As received notions make up the framework for organized institutions, experienced independent thinkers will often reject, after a great degree of analytical work, organized religion, organized politics, organized government, organized education and, in theory, at any rate, organized community. (For me, the question of whether an individual can exist outside of community remains open.) As was stated in another blog, the nihilist is a person who wants to see all elements of the status quo cease to exist.

In an effort to generate interest by means of creating a blog entry that will contain a host of potential search terms, I aim to make this entry solely about music. In particular, it is hoped the entry will attract the interest of those with special interests in dark ambient music, doom metal, black metal, experimental classical music and triphop. To maximize the number of potential search terms, I simply list performers (and in many cases, composers or songwriters) who make the kinds of music I've listed. The list includes Emperor, Belphegor, Gorgoroth and their American counterparts Xasthur and Azrael. A stunning Greek version is Rotting Christ. For doom, the earth2 recording has yet to be surpassed for its calming effect; for agitated or frustrated individuals, early Swans is ideal doom. The reach of dark ambient is vast, embracing Lustmord, Metaconqueror, Lull, Robert Rich and the dozens of recordings of Steve Roach. Performers melding all the sounds mentioned thus far, and power electronics as well, are Navicon Torture Technologies and Abyssic Hate: two acts whose recordings can always be counted on for rapturous beauty. Less rigorous, but sometimes as lyrical, is the work of such triphop DJs as DJ Spooky, Coldcut, DJ Shdow and others. Comparable melodies are found in the breakneck drum and bass beats of Kenny Kenn, DJ SS and the David Bowie album Earthling. As for experimental classical composers (whose work often overlaps with dark ambient or power electronics), the very long list includes such names as John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio (hear, for example, "Laborintus 2"), Sal Martirano (for example "L's GA"), Kenneth Gaburo (for example, "Fat Lilly's Lament"), Maurizio Kagel, Luigi Nono.

Such compositions paved the way for the great, early, nonacademic noise music works, such as Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music," the performances and compositions of Diamanda Galas and Joanna Went and what I feel is the greatest recording of noise music to date, Yoko Ono's "Fly." Additions to this very short list are heartily welcomed.