Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Take caution with negative statements as they often contradict themselves.

“There is no crying in baseball,” is a famous line from the movie A League of Their Own. (My wife says that is a movie about sisters. I say it is a movie about baseball.)

That is a self-contradictory statement. One person is crying tears while another is crying out loud. Both are crying while not crying in baseball.

Most negative statements can be self-contradictory:

• We cannot have cheating on this test. (Why would we have a test where cheating is beneficial. Isn’t that cheating the purpose?)
• We cannot have tests that discriminate. (If a test does not separate those who know from those who do not know, how is it a test?)
• We cannot object to what is said. (If we are saying things that everyone agrees with, why are we wasting time saying things that everyone already finds agreeable?)
• There is no talking in this hallway. (You are in the hallway telling us not to tell anything. Why are you violating your own instruction?)

I could go on with statements and then explanations of why they are self-contradictory. Solution?

Positive statements about what we desire to happen:

• Show what you know on this test.
• Once we enter the hallway, we will all walk silently.

Again, I could go on with positive statements that do not contradict themselves.

Take great care with negative instructions or admonitions. We can do better. Decide what it is we want to say and say that—not a twisted negative statement that attempts to convey our meaning but usually conveys the opposite.