What is negative capability and why is it important? 6
In the broadest sense, the word 'capability’ refers to the ability to do something. Negative capability, as put forward by John Keats, is the ability to remain content and undisturbed in the absence of clarity. The relationship between the two phrases, negative capability and creativity, can be explained as follows: most of the time people have a desire, an intention – let’s say it is to draw a flower. As they start drawing, they visualize the flower and in their mind, it appears close to ideal. But in reality, it does not resemble the perfect flower that the person imagined. Thus, it can lead to disappointment. However, it is this disappointment that serves as a source of inspiration and ideas for a new flower. In a way, always wanting something to be or to exist, and never trying to achieve that reality is, for instance, being creative.
Negative capability, a term James Keats brought into hearing, refers to the capacity to hold two contradictory notions or viewpoints simultaneously without rushing to one of them. Such a predisposition of accepting uncertainty of not being swayed is necessary in being creative and in being practical, for it presents a deep insight into complex situations.
Saying " I don't know" is very liberating!
Open mindedness and nuanced thinking are some key things society doesn’t have enough of.
When I was younger (and very stupid) I thought I had the answer to everything. Now with each passing year I gain wisdom and realise how little I actually know, so I keep my mouth shut.
"One of your fellow countrymen from 200 years ago, a gentleman named John Keats, a poet, came up with a concept called negative capability... Negative capability is the essence of being creative. It means you can hold two thoughts in your head at the same time. Two thoughts that apparently contradict each other. But you can entertain them. And not grasp at one or the other." - Another one of your countrymen, a gentleman named George Orwell, a novelist, came up with a concept of doublethink. “Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once.”
Overloaded, numb, and confronted with mind-bending truths = detachment, hopelessness, looming anxiety, and an existential struggle. We're the forgotten generation, caught between the world that came before and the one being thrust upon us. It’s no surprise that the homesteading movement has gained traction—people are yearning for a return to simplicity, something tangible and familiar in an increasingly chaotic world.