Did you catch the news report that these people in Britain figured out the most popular posts on Facebook/Twitter/the digital world are negative? Generally, the statistical study said, a snide comment will set people off into a gang bang of sniping.
It’s so totally true. I had this great long distance love affair with a man I never met living in LA, who posted biting comments about celebrities and movies throughout the day. He had dozens of people joining in the rag from around the world; people I know he never met. I was completely entranced by the dialogue; we all were. It was great entertainment. I enjoyed adding a sarcastic retort on many of his posts. It was playful. It was fun. It was seductive.
Sadly he moved to a calmer environment and fell in love (he says they’re only ‘friends’) and his negative posts are nearly extinct. I’m happy for him, though miss the repartee.
People love conflict. It’s biological.
Look, I drive by someone pulled over by a cop getting a speeding ticket and I interrupt our conversation in the car to shout “Busted!” and then laugh derisively. I’m so glad it’s that guy getting the ticket and not me, even though I probably warrant it just as much.
Conflict makes for good movies. The bigger the better. We love to hear about it because we hope we’ll learn something that will keep it from happening to us.
This flick I saw last night, which everyone is raving about, is about a chick whose life goal is to dance perfectly but she is thwarted by all these enemies (her choreographer, the other dancers, her mother). But the biggest enemy of all is her own psychotic self that makes her do, or think that she’s doing, insane psychotic things. And she either does or doesn’t kill herself in the end.
People love this movie. It’s got an 8.9 rating on IMDb. It will probably clean up at the Academies.
A movie about someone battling her own mind: There is no greater conflict in the world.
Paul Bright Films 
Love this topic. Go up to different people and ask them what are 5 things they want in their life. 9 times out of 10 you will first hear a list of what they do not want. To do the list of what they want you generally will see uncertainty, doubt, an inner struggle. This shows that most people spend a lot of their mental time on repeatedly observing and listing what they do not want. And they wonder why they have it in their life??? Everything we have in life begins first with a thought that we cultivate, like cultivating the garden to get what you want.
There’s a lot of support in society for complaining and being negative, as you mention different outpicturings of this.
Your last line is so true and why the biggest of the movies generally are a representation on film of our own internal struggles between what our different selves want.