There seems plenty to worry about these days. And yet perhaps it has always been so. The difference is that now we seem to know more and more about which we can do less and less. That is a recipe for despair and complaint. In casual conversations, the topic frequently veers toward a strange attractor of negativity, drifting “naturally” toward a horizon of worrisome new threats.

What is the problem, anyway? Why are we so drawn hypnotically toward the negative? Perhaps it’s our animal heritage, where threats to the herd were of urgent common interest. Alarm calls alerted all to immanent predators or other lurking dangers. Otherwise, we were busy munching away with no need or time to comment on the tasty fruit or leaves, the splendid day. No news was good news, and goodness is not news when things are working well.

Of course, things have changed a bit since the savannah. Indeed, the so-called news is rehashed for us daily by professional purveyors of negativity. (When is the last time you heard a report that inspired cheer?) Threat elicits fear and impotent anger. Yet, despite the litany of disasters, the ark of Spaceship Earth is not yet sinking. Yes, it’s having growing pains and a problem with the air conditioning. A long time coming, the very fact that the now-blatant symptoms find their way into official recognition is a hopeful sign. It’s like our global brain, still groggy and confused, is finally arranging its synapses into something resembling consciousness, capable finally of planning ahead.

Perhaps it is oddly embarrassing to our sophisticated modernity to dwell on success stories, even more on dubious promises of good things to come. With reason, we’ve learned to mistrust ideologies and pollyannas. The critic has a far easier lot than the creative: for the one has a ready-made target while the other must invent from scratch what will inevitably become a target of criticism.

Here’s a simple remedy to the chronic imbalance: a negativity alarm. It operates like a smoke detector and makes an unmistakeable ear-shattering “bleep” when the gist of discussion enters the zone of whining. Of course, this does not guarantee a change of tone; it could result in silence. But it could clear the air and exercise the imagination to at least allow for something more creative.

Perhaps what is called for is not just an alarm but a whole installation—like a heating system. Instead of a thermostat, it would be regulated by a humour-stat. Like a heat pump, it would warm the cockles or cool the mood by extracting something useful from unlikely sources. Or maybe it should be like a dehumidifier, to perk up soggy spirits with dry humor. One can breathe easier in an atmosphere “where seldom is heard a discouraging word.”

Critics are necessary. But so are visionaries. We all have a bit of both in us, and the art is to use their services jointly. It’s indispensable to think critically. Yet analysis (literally, taking things apart) is merely destructive if not matched with putting them back together in a better whole. While that’s easier said than done, not everything needs to be said in order to be done. Sometimes silence is golden, the thought counts, and the simple kind gesture speaks volumes. Even when unspoken, the ayes can have it.