"Nonexistence" is not an attribute either; nor is it just another kind of existence. Nonexistence is merely the absence of existence. The reverse, however, does not hold: we cannot describe existence as "the absence of nonexistence," because the term "absence" would not be properly employed in such a context. In other words, existence and nonexistence do not form a symmetry.

The mistaken assumption that existence and nonexistence are symmetrical—and equally preferable—is characteristic of existentialism and Eastern mysticism. More generally, the obsession with negatives, and the attempt to pursue them as if they were positives, permeated much of the culture of the last century:

atonal, amelodic, and anti-romantic music
non-representational art
the literature, drama, and film of the anti-hero
psychological theories depicting human behavior as irrational and driven by the unconscious
deconstructionist literary criticism and philosophy

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