"Negative Philosophies...encourage or promote control of self...."

[anagogy]

This is something that seems to be a staple in a lot of so-called "positive" philosophies and web sites, the idea that self-control is somehow "negative", when it seems to me that an entity which desires control of others would, in fact, be the ones actively discouraging one's own control of self.

Could anyone help clear this up for me?

I think learning self control is a natural part of self development. So control is not inherently negative. It only becomes negative if the reasons for the self control are negative. As in: are you controlling yourself to more purely separate yourself from other selves, or are you controlling yourself to more eloquently connect with other selves? Both require some sort of finessed manipulation of this apparatus/instrument we call the "self". There is always the self aware driver -- the conscious 'chooser' that has to be taken into account. Every choice could be seen to be a sort of application of 'control' in some sense. We are all beset by a bewildering and contradictory array of impulses that pull us in various directions. Someone may say something that makes us angry, and we might feel like punching that other self in the face. Control of self to restrain the impulse in this circumstance would be an exercise in preserving the harmony, or oneness, with that other self to whatever extent the situation allowed given the strength of the inharmonious impulses.

The same could be said for 'self development'. Is one developing self for selfish reasons, or for more finessed interaction with other self (i.e. service to others)? One is an act of love of self, the other an act of love of other self. I think it is natural for someone seeking unity to have a desire to connect with other selves in some way, so if one is repressing that natural desire for some reason, it would be more of a negative control of self for the purposes of seeking separation. Separation from otherselves is synonomous with the need to control otherselves. The need to control otherselves is the only thing that separates us from other selves. The need only arises when the desires of other self are seen to be in conflict with the desires of self. That is the essence of separation (which is natural at the 3rd density level to a large extent).

So in acknowledging the desires of self, we must acknowledge the fact that often times these desires will naturally involve control of self much of the time, and we mustn't repress these desires either. Again, its a natural part of self development to explore control on this level. Its only when this desire spills over into the need to control others that it truly become negative (separative) in my opinion.