Excerpts From Reading and Writing For Civic Literacy

Volume Sixty-Three Number Three July 2006
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ETC:
A Review of General Semantics
et cetera
ETC was published by the International Society for General Semantics from 1943 to 2003.
ETC: A Review of General Semantics

is an interdisciplinary quarterly published by the Institute of General Semantics.
Editor Paul Dennithorne Johnston
Associate Editor Nora Miller
Institute of General Semantics, Inc.

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ETC: A Review of General Semantics (ISSN 0014-164X) is published quarterly by the Institute of General Semantics, Inc., 2260 College Ave., Fort Worth, TX 76110. Tel: (817) 922-9950. E-mail: igs@timebinding.org. IGS membership: $40.00 per year in U.S. and Canada; $50.00 per year in other countries (U.S. currency). Libraries and Institutions: $95.00 per year. Send correspondence regarding subscriptions, membership, back issues, change of address, or business matters to the Institute of General Semantics, 2260 College Ave., Fort Worth, TX 76110. Electronic or special purpose delivery of ETC is available through periodical distributors such as Thomson Gale, ProQuest Information and Learning, EBSCO, and others. Publication No. 179120. Periodicals postage paid at Fort Worth, TX, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 2260 College Ave., Fort Worth, TX 76110. For writers guidelines, queries, or manuscript submissions in electronic format send to the Editor of ETC, 2260 College Ave., Fort Worth, TX 76110, igs@time-binding.org.
contents
Vol. 63, No. 3
July 2006
Cover by Katie Croke 238 240 Joseph Hutchinson
America the Borderful: Looking Out, Seeing In In this Issue A Tangibly Intangible Journey: Experiential Learning via Zen Philosophy & General Semantics
255 Martin H. Levinson An Interview with Allen Flagg 259 Maurine Eckloff 270 John Bohannon 272 Annie Kasper 275 Andrew Ochalek 278 Charles E. Bailey Using Sociodrama to Improve Communication and Understanding Introduction to Two Papers from Students at Vermont Academy General Semantics in To Kill a Mockingbird Do You Know Who You Are When You Are? A General Theory of Psychological Relativity and Cognitive Evolution
290 Martin H. Levinson People in Quandaries: Sixty Years Later 302 Leon Pomeroy 311 Donald Lazere Excerpts from The New Science of Axiological Psychology Excerpts from Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy
323 Raymond Gozzi, Jr. Together Alone Calling Out the Symbol Rulers 325 Steve Inskeep Interviews Harpers Editor Lewis Lapham 330 William R. Catton, Jr. 343 Leonard R.N. Ashley Extensional Orientation and the Energy Problem Bordering on the Impossible
349 Martin H. Levinson Books 353 Retrospect
359 Alexander Bryan Johnson Excerpts from A Treatise on Language

Copyright 2006 by the Institute of General Semantics
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IN THIS ISSUE
ake a moment to empty your cup; set aside the luggage of symbolism and preconception, suggests Joseph Hutchinson, in A Tangibly Intangible Journey: Experiential Learning via Zen Philosophy & General Semantics. Too often, we become victims of the language trap, where words are deemed more significant than what they represent. Learning becomes detached from meaningful experiences With unique hands-on learning techniques, Hutchinsons students drop their luggage and find meaning in non-verbal experience. Allen Flagg, president of the New York Society for General Semantics, has taught general semantics at Great Neck High, Queens College, IBM, the New School, and Fairfield University. But thats only part of the picture. For more on this runner, dreamer, author, and man of many talents, see Martin H. Levinsons An Interview with Allen Flagg. Sociodrama does for groups what psychodrama does for individuals, notes Maurine Eckloff, in Using Sociodrama to Improve Communication and Understanding. It elicits an improved understanding of a social situation, an increase in participants knowledge about their own and other peoples roles in relation to that situation, and an emotional release or catharsis as people express their feelings about the subject. High school teacher John Bohannon, who includes general semantics in his courses, gives us his Introduction to Two Papers from Students at Vermont Academy. These two intriguing papers are Annie Kaspers General Semantics in To Kill a Mockingbird and Andrew Ochaleks Do You Know Who You Are When You Are? 238
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In A General Theory of Psychological Relativity and Cognitive Evolution, Dr. Charles E. Bailey asserts that we each control our own cognitive accuracy, using our recently-evolved frontal lobes. Our knowledge of normal human brain functioning indicates that we have the capacity to choose how we think and what we think, and to make the best choices to obtain appropriate outcomes at a given time in order to be more adaptable. Martin H. Levinson recently reread People in Quandaries: Sixty Years Later and found its advice and relevance for solving personal problems still superb. I was moved by the profundity of Johnsons thoughts, the elegance of his writing, and the excellent examples he used to illustrate the practicality of general semantics for everyday life. Two recent books authored by IGS members reflect more up-to-date GS influences in psychology and college-level civic literacy. Were pleased to feature excerpts from Leon Pomeroys The New Science of Axiological Psychology, and Donald Lazeres Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy: The Critical Citizens Guide to Argumentative Rhetoric. Alone together, asserts Raymond Gozzi, Jr., is not Together Alone. In the former, your togetherness with one other person means you do not feel alone, but in the latter, your sense of togetherness with an illusory crowd hides your actual isolation. Calling Out the Symbol Rulers In his December 2005 interview on National Public Radio, Lewis Lapham defends his sense of outrage from a historical perspective. He observes that American media as a kind of great big dome placed over the U.S. and inside of the dome is mirrors. We dont look out. We look at ourselves. But the rest of the world can see us. This image, together with commentaries by William Catton and Leonard Ashley, provided the inspiration for Katie Crokes cover art, America the Borderful: Looking Out, Seeing In. A prescient 1973 analysis of how our talk about the worlds energy economy obscures our role in it, William R. Catton, Jr.s Extensional Orientation and the Energy Problem has a deep message as important today as it was in those distant oil-embargo days. Will we ever start listening to it? Illegal immigration has figured large in recent news reports, a multiordinal problem in an age of single-answer reactions. Leonard R.N. Ashley discusses why resolving this problem is Bordering on the Impossible.
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A TANGIBLY INTANGIBLE JOURNEY: Experiential Learning via Zen Philosophy & General Semantics
JOSEPH HUTCHINSON*
A Cup of Tea Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitors cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. It is overfull. No more will go in! Like this cup, Nan-in said, you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup? (Reps & Senzaki, 1994, p.7)
HIS TYPE of short story can be labeled in a number of different ways koan, parable, metaphor, anecdote, narrative, allegory to name a few. What one chooses to call it is irrelevant as long as the tale provokes thought. In fact, the words themselves are meaningless; the message they convey is what matters. The proposal that meaning is the message is as relevant to general semantics as it is to the study of Zen philosophy. After deep introspection, this
* Joseph Hutchinson has taught social studies at Toledo Technology Academy for the past 6 years. He is co-director of the Toledo Area Writing Project, and a member of the Ohio Council for the Social Studies and the National Council of Teachers of English.
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insight provoked me to alter my approach to teaching and learning. Thats what this article is about. Take a moment to empty your cup; set aside the luggage of symbolism and preconception and allow yourself to experience teaching and learning in a new light, as a process whose means and ends are one and the same. First, a brief description of the indescribable is in order, a comparison of Zen and general semantics. Uncommon Common Ground Mime Marcel Marceau, master communicator sans words, once posed a thought-provoking question, Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us without words? To those cognizant of the fact that Zen and general semantics must be experienced in order to be understood, a definition cluttered with words and subjected to over-interpretation is not helpful. However, in a literal and figurative sense, a grey area exists where Zen and general semantics affably co-exist, uncommon common ground where distinctions between the two are imperceptible. Perhaps when all is done and said, you too will be left speechless. Zen is spontaneity in living. To look at the world as the Japanese master Nan-in suggests, without allowing thoughts to obscure the view, one must remain passive and ignore the natural urge to interpret using symbols and labels. Like thoughts, words tend to get in the way. Without them, birds are not birds, trees are no longer trees, nor are clouds called clouds, etc. Each entity is what it is at a precise moment, and that is all. One must see them for the first time, like a child, and view action with no expectations. The old adages actions speak louder than words and words cannot express assume new meaning in this context. That is the essence of Zen and the realization to which students of general semantics aspire. General semantics looks at language-as-behavior and takes into consideration how language is used in relation to its influence on people. Furthermore, general semantics is the study of how we perceive, construct, evaluate, and communicate our life experiences. (Institute of General Semantics, 2005) Perception occurs through and is limited by the five senses, and knowing is limited by our awareness and memory of previous experience. (Hipkiss, 1995) As in Zen, words, as symbols of reality, can get in the way because true understanding is beyond words; enlightenment defies description because language is too restrictive to relate the experience. To clarify the connection between Zen and general semantics, consider the example of driving a car over a familiar route, say to or from work. Directions
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are not the only things committed to memory regarding this daily trip. Every bump, speed limit and pothole is also recorded. The driver may be preoccupied with pressing thoughts, listening intently to the radio, or even be engaged in conversation with a passenger. Still, without concentrating, one remains conscious of ones surroundings and normally navigates the road flawlessly. Adjustments, from slowing to deliberate turns of the wheel are automatically made, without thinking, one might say. Each unconscious action occurs routinely, without fail, precisely when required. Although difficult to put into words, this occurrence is understood by those who have experienced it. Within this area of non-verbal experience, vague familiarity, or second nature call it what you will Zen and general semantics thrive. Experiential Learning My inquisitive nature coupled with an innate desire to learn led me to eagerly partake of general semantics, under circumstances analogous to this description from the Institute of General Semantics.
Perhaps its fair to say that many people find general semantics out of a sense that their formal and informal educations have not completely prepared them for adjusting to the dynamics of a rapidly-changing world. In fact, many would say that theyve felt a keen sense of having to unlearn much of what theyve grown to know as they learn from their own life experiences. (Institute of General Semantics, 2005)
Once acquainted with Zen and general semantics, I was hooked, captivated by conceptualizations and techniques espoused by each philosophy, especially koans and the variety of interpretations their language elicits. Koans are invigorating because they force one to higher levels of inquiry and critical analysis. Best of all, answers are not always forthcoming, at times leaving uncertainty as the only viable solution. (More about koans later.) Of course, words are the most practical method of communication. But language is a powerful force the use of which has intended and unintended consequences. My purpose is to make one wary of the power that we give to language. Too often, we become victims of the language trap, where words are deemed more significant than what they represent. Learning becomes detached from meaningful experiences, which are typically lost in the shuffle. This trend is especially true in education where quantity is habitually stressed over quality, and textbooks, lectures, and relentless testing still hold sway antiquated traditions that I am determined to modify in my own teaching.
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After recognizing the associations between Zen philosophy and general semantics, I concluded that bringing aspects of each discipline into my teaching style would make me a more effective educator. I wanted to give students a chance to excel in a unique learning environment, one full of possibilities unfettered by formal educational constraints. Therefore, I endeavored to create conditions that were conducive to experiential learning. Students responded enthusiastically! Details about how this was accomplished are outlined in this article. Hands-on, Minds-on Learning In order to spark and sustain their interest, I invite my students to practice what we preach as often as possible. Likewise, they are encouraged to ask questions and conduct further explorations. My teaching methodologies are structured around central tenets once commonly referred to as the Socratic method and the learn-by-doing approach. Although the premise is similar, Ive combined and repackaged these educational practices under an updated moniker: Hands-on, Minds-on Learning. [See also the April 2005 ETC.] Mutual respect and high expectations are the norm in this highly-charged atmosphere of discovery. When these conditions are realized, motivation dramatically rises and compelling experiences abound, many with lifelong repercussions. For students and teacher alike, entry into this sphere of learning is a welcome change from the rigors of traditional educational practices. For that reason, I feel excited to share elements of an Asian unit Ive developed and honed throughout my teaching tenure, particularly its Sino-Japanese components. My enthusiasm stems from the fact that this unit prompted for me an educational epiphany, and forever transformed teaching and learning practices in my classroom. Metaphorical Pathways In each phase of the Asian unit we walk metaphorical pathways, roaming between concrete and abstract concepts; students must think inside and outside the cranium on a variety of mental planes. In this case, metaphors, begging the pardon of grammarians, are anything that transfers and translates the abstract into the concrete, thus making the abstract more accessible and memorable. (Best, 1984, p.165) When engaged in this mode of transference, students find their comfort levels challenged and they are nudged to new cognitive possibilities.
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Once the basics about Chinese and Japanese cultures have been taught, students are ready for the real experience to begin. A wide spectrum of SinoJapanese cultural staples, from tangrams and origami to calligraphy and haiku to Zen koans and meditation, are introduced in three phases and examined through unique means. A combination of extraordinary student interest and overwhelming positive feedback has propelled these six areas to the forefront of the Asian unit. Just as traditional cultural practices span cultures and time, so too do they spill into different subject areas, including but not limited to philosophy, art, mathematics, language arts, world history, psychology, and sociology. Each realm of study offers material and activities that are useful to educators and pupils. As with any task, some students find certain phases more difficult than others, but I believe that everyone benefits from the experiential learning prevalent in the Asian unit. Two historical traditions native to Asia, tangrams and origami, promote critical creativity by engaging practitioners in thoughtful handson manipulation. As our tangibly intangible journey unfolds, pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place. PHASE ONE Tangrams A tangram is a Chinese puzzle made by cutting a square-shaped paper or cardboard into seven distinct pieces, or tans. Tans are of the following shapes: a rhomboid, five triangles of various sizes, and a square. I suggest the pieces be laminated for repeated usage. To complete puzzles, students must recombine all seven tans to form specific figures. Through trial and error, they arrange tans until a figure, such as a cat or tree, is replicated. Students may even try to recreate the original tangram square, which can be tricky. Taking it to the next step, the students are challenged to form specific objects or animals based on their own volition, without the aid of patterns. Comparisons of the results often lead to interesting discussions about the myriad ways objects can be depicted in both abstract and concrete formations. This lesson works as an individual or group assignment.
Origami Origami is a type of sculptural representation defined primarily by the folding of a medium, usually paper. Oru means to fold and kami refers to paper. With every fold, two-dimensional pieces of paper are transformed into
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three-dimensional objects. Whether moveable or stationary, intricate configurations ranging from birds with flapping wings to sailboats that float can be constructed in this art form. Teachers, provide explicit instructions based on student needs; some figures have complicated patterns and are extremely difficult to reproduce. We begin with templates that are easier to assemble; students should work at a pace that allows them to steadily progress toward more difficult origami projects. The old adage practice makes perfect is appropriate for this exercise. Critical Creativity At all ability levels, the above ancient traditions represent a practical marriage of mind and hand by offering challenging learning activities that engender discovery. We can also relate mathematical principles to the numerous geometric shapes produced with tangrams and the three-dimensional figures found in origami. Shapes and forms made from arranging tangram puzzles and the folding of paper sculptures enhance spatial visualization skills and tap into numerous geometric concepts such as ratios, proportions, congruence, similarity, and symmetry. In this manner, connecting students to history via mathematics assures both subject areas are viewed in multi-faceted ways. Patterns for both activities are available on the internet and can be found in guides sold at bookstores. Tangram and origami artistic creations might even be used as physical representations of poems, both abstract and concrete, composed in Phase Two of the Asian unit. Enjoy superb imagery as we tangibly wend our way through the intangible realm of haiku. PHASE TWO Haiku
Haiku is the shortest form of poetry known in world literature, but its three little lines of 5-7-5 syllables are capable of expressing deep feeling and sudden flashes of intuition. There is no symbolism in haiku. It catches life as it flows. There is no egotism either; haiku is practically authorless. But in its preoccupation with the simple, seemingly trivial stuff of everyday life a falling leaf, snow, a fly haiku shows us how to see into the life of things and gain a glimpse of enlightenment. (Schiller, 1994, p.140)
When students, or anyone for that matter, write haiku, they come to appreciate how challenging it is to compose meaningful expressions in such a limited amount of space. That is the essence, the Yin and Yang of haiku. The very syllabic restrictions that make it so difficult to create are the impetus for some
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of the most beautiful poetry ever written. That is why one only truly appreciates the craft by writing in the genre. Fortunately, even those reticent about poetry, be it student or teacher, are willing to give haiku a try. Best of all, once students realize they can do it, they keep on writing, composing poem after poem. Below, haiku penned by a few of these student poets offer their own glimpse of enlightenment. In the spirit of Schillers remarks about egotism, the authors will remain anonymous. Choice Butterfly pauses Considers alternatives Settles on zephyr After the Storm Splashed across the sky Watercolor masterpiece A bow of hope reigns Raindrops each sense is caressed the soul is immersed in peace life is replenished Dawn Delicate fern stirs Fronds bathed in early morn dew Curled tendrils unfurl
When it comes to haiku, the experience is well worth the effort and it yields wonderful results. These poems capture the moment and evoke vibrant images of distinctive features in nature. Each verse paints a picture, and transports the reader to a minds-eye viewpoint. Therein lies the beauty of haiku. Encourage students to read their poems aloud. Vocal nuances coupled with carefully planned pauses infuse even more meaning into these shared expressions. Finally, provide students with the opportunity to write their poems in calligraphy, another ancient practice that offers keen insight into Sino-Japanese cultures. Calligraphy Perhaps the foremost art form of China and Japan, calligraphy combines skill and imagination in painted expressions. The Japanese call it shodo, meaning the way/path of writing. Ideograms, characters representing ideas or words, are used in conjunction with symbols that correspond to letters. To actual calligraphers, the first brush stroke is the final brush stroke; in fact, it is believed that written words actually acquire the character of their composer. Calligraphy utilizes the artistic concept of empty space. Certain areas of compositions are intentionally left untouched to complement what is written. There are many websites related to Chinese and Japanese calligraphy. Two that provide assistance with scripts are:
A TANGIBLY INTANGIBLE JOURNEY: EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING VIA ZEN & GS http://www.karate1.com/alphabet/alphabet2.htm http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2046.html
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Extremely complicated systems of calligraphy have evolved over the centuries, so educators are advised to keep this lesson simple. Suggested materials include rice paper, India ink, brushes, and patience. As this lesson unfolds, students will make mistakes and work at a snails pace, exactly as novice calligraphers do. However, through meticulous repeated applications of brush to paper, concepts conceived in the mind will materialize on paper. Once again, practice makes perfect. Often, the care taken in writing haiku is reflected in this artistic process. Some rudimentary guidelines include: Vary the line thickness and thinness Make straight lines strong and clear, curved lines delicate and mobile Be consistent regarding the amount of ink applied with the brush Maintain a natural balance within each character and in the overall composition No alterations or touch ups are permitted Layer of Authenticity Composing haiku in authentic Japanese and/or Chinese calligraphy characters adds a layer of authenticity to the Asian unit. Participants acquire knowledge at their own pace, which enables them to make connections on their own terms with cultures considered less foreign than before. This lesson, taught in a world history class, has numerous cross-curricular ties to language arts and art classes. As we venture further, similar inter-disciplinary opportunities await. The most compelling phase of our tangibly intangible journey finds students pushing the limits of understanding in the surreal world of Zen koans and meditation. PHASE THREE Zen Koans One of the most tantalizing lessons I teach is centered on Zen. As explained earlier, this is a concept not easily defined, one that is abstract and concrete, frustrating yet delightful, perplexing and enlightening all at once. When students ask what Zen is, I share the following story:
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A fish went to a queen fish and asked: I have always heard about the sea, but what is this sea? Where is it? The queen fish explained: You live, move, and have your being in the sea. The sea is within you and without you, and you are made of sea, and you will end in sea. The sea surrounds you as your own being. (Reps & Senzaki, 1994, pp.284-285)
Once student appetites have been whetted, I explain that there is no clearcut definition for me to spoon-feed them. The challenge of Zen is to observe what has always been looked at and see it for the first time. Zen happens, and though omnipresent, must be sought in order to be experienced. The answer then to the query What is Zen? lies within each individual, patiently waiting to be discovered. Details about the origin and philosophical principles inherent to Zen are presented and discussed in the context of other Asian traditions we have studied. Students are provided with some fundamental principles, such as Zens symbiotic relationship with nature and the definition of a koan. Essentially, koans are cases solved through profound contemplation; they are designed to immerse individuals in thought, and thus help them become conscious of the ultimate reality. Next, a packet of Zen Expressions full of short stories, quotes, koans, proverbs, and maxims is distributed to the students. Each expression, and there are well over 200, will be read aloud, pondered, and speculated upon by the class. At this juncture, students are introduced to Hutchinsons Strategy of Inquiry, a set of guidelines designed to ensure successful analyses. There are no incorrect responses; share your thoughts; all opinions are important Be open minded and flexible; agree to disagree; listen to every interpretation Accept the fact that you will not understand each expression; if you dont get it, thats all right; give the words time to sink in Make connections; whenever possible, relate expressions to personal experiences Decide which interpretation makes the most sense to you Meanings change as you mature
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If students can think of a way to personalize an unfamiliar proverb, then they can understand the metaphor and perhaps glean some knowledge of the culture. (Pugh, Hicks & Davis, 1997, p.125) Thats my goal. Once it is accomplished, the resulting conversations are always phenomenal, full of astute observations and surprises. I can honestly say that the most intellectually stimulating discussions I have had with sophomores were centered on Zen-inspired topics. And you never know who will get it and who wont, as some are more perceptive than others when it comes to interpretation. Whats great about studying Zen is that aptitude levels are insignificant; all participants are welcome. Zen-related expressions can be found in a vast array of books and websites devoted to the ancient practice. The following samples demonstrate how ancient prose blends seamlessly with modern passages. Short Koans What is the color of wind? What is the sound of one hand clapping? Longer Koan Two monks were arguing about the temple flag waving in the wind. One said, The flag moves. The other said, The wind moves. They argued back and forth but could not agree. Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch, said: Gentlemen! It is not the flag that moves. It is not the wind that moves. It is your mind that moves. The two monks were struck with awe. Quotes & Sayings We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want. Tao Te Ching The map is not the territory. Alfred Korzybski What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone? Bertolt Brecht Be master of mind rather than mastered by mind. Anonymous Wisdom is like a mass of fire it cannot be entered from any side. Wisdom is like a clear cool pool it can be entered from any side. Nagarjuna One of the most intriguing aspects of Zen is the Yin-Yang effect, or tension of opposites, as depicted in Nagarjunas expressions about acquiring wisdom. So often, what I refer to as anti-koans refute what other koans impart. Whether written as advice or as deliberate attempts to incite critical analysis, anti-koans
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force one to consider divergent possibilities, and thereby foster enlightenment as cases are resolved. After the expressions have been scrutinized, students pair up and complete the following assignments: 1. Write a koan. 2. Compose a short story whose moral relates to a Zen proverb. 3. Compare and contrast Zen expressions; identify three sets with opposite connotations, (koans & anti-koans). As the conversation moves onto paper, students continue working in the spheres of synthesis and evaluation in Blooms Taxonomy. When finished, these novice Zen scholars are incredibly eager to share; enthusiasm remains high as students, transformed into teachers, learn from one another. Unforeseen Consequences As mentioned earlier, when it comes to Zen one never knows where discussions will lead. For instance, at first glance Brechts saying about the hole in the cheese may appear light-hearted. However, I wont forget one student, Larry, who saw something more in this particular adage. Larry compared the cheese to his grandfather and the hole to the love between them. When his grandfather died all that remained was love, intangible yet real. Larry went further and compared his sorrow to an invisible hole in my life that cannot be filled. The reaction to this young mans interpretation was stunned silence. For Larry, this metaphorical notion became a tool of insight. It provides a perspective for comprehending something unknown by comparing it to familiar objects and experiences. (Pugh, Hicks & Davis, 1997, p.18) I believe that his fellow classmates saw this C student in a different light after hearing his heartfelt interpretation. In another example, three students were so enthralled with Zen philosophy that they co-authored an editorial column in the school newspaper called Zen There, Done That. In it, they wrote interesting koans, some serious, others humorous, which dealt with topics of concern to teenagers. Extremely popular, these articles sparked Zen-related school-wide deliberations each time the newspaper was published. Those are just a few unforeseen consequences the Asian unit has generated. There are many more. Most assuredly, educators who incorporate Zen into their curriculum will appreciate all this timeless practice has to offer. The final leg of
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our tangibly intangible excursion requires a stretch of the imagination, as we explore a mysterious state called meditation. Meditation Ultimately, the five senses are experienced in the mind or consciousness. Only when the senses are heightened can one connect with nature and appreciate all life has to offer. The purpose of meditation then, is to get in touch with the chi, or inner-self, by probing deep into the psyche. By awakening sensations and raising the level of inner-consciousness to its fullest, one can mentally control how the world is experienced. We structure this phase with the following guidelines. Begin with a briefing on meditation. There are many different styles that can be practiced and just as many psychological profiles debating their effectiveness. Try to avoid this quagmire; a complete historical synopsis on meditation is not necessary. Remember, the main thrust of the Asian unit, especially in this phase, is to allow students to feel connections. Those desiring to learn more will do so following the meditative session. Numerous print and internet resources exist to aid in this endeavor. A proper environment must be created in the classroom, one conducive to full relaxation and intense concentration. Arrange seats so plenty of space exists between them. Allow students to assume comfortable positions. Some may desire to sit or lie on the floor; let them. If at all possible, avoid peripheral noise; interruptions of any kind make meditation difficult. Soft lighting and soothing music create an ideal atmosphere. A student provided me with Zeninspired instrumental melodies that are wonderfully effective. Sounds of nature, such as chirping birds or ocean waves can also be used, but students generally prefer gentle music. Once a tranquil mood is established, begin reciting from the dialogue that follows. There are many versions of meditation scripts to choose from; this one was composed with my students in mind. Be sure to speak in calm deliberate tones, yet loud enough for your voice to be heard over the sound effects. While reading, ad-libs and significant pauses, denoted by commas and spaces, should be used to enhance the experience. Estimated time is 20 to 30 minutes.
252 Meditative Expressions Script Assume a position of maximum comfort.
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Close your eyes. Prepare for a journey, an odyssey within your essence. Take deep breaths. Slowly inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, in, out.
Scan your body for tension along this path to ultimate relaxation. Start at your toes. Sense their existence, feel each point where they connect to your feet. Allow your mind to become aware of the curves in each foot. Slowly, move from the toes to the heels. Feel the pressures rise and disperse. Turn the corner. Enter the realm of your lower legs. Ankles become one with calf muscles. Feel the bones within, the muscles gently pulsating. Relax, let the tension slip away. Climb over the kneecaps and appreciate the contours of your patellas. Let the spirit move into your thighs. Feel the sensation coursing through your blood. Let any remaining tension melt away. Surge upwards to where the lower half joins the upper portion of your body. Remember to breath in proper proportion to your journey. out, in, out, in, out. In, out, in,
Now focus on your fingertips. Sense their existence and feel the tingle within. The gentle vibrations glide upwards, past your wrists, on a course destined to meet at your elbows. Permit the biceps in your upper arms to relinquish their strength and lie at ease. Navigate the subtle curves where arms connect to torso. Become aware of your heart; tune in to the rhythm, allow your spirit to sense each throb as the organ pumps, the heartbeat beckons. Allow the pulsation from the lower levels of your being to flow into the upper bodys current; the two are now one.
A TANGIBLY INTANGIBLE JOURNEY: EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING VIA ZEN & GS Feelings are now surging through your chest, fill your lungs with air, feel them expand; slowly release the air from your chest cavity.
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The current courses upwards, flows through your neck and discovers your head. Tingling sensations permeate the cranium, can be felt on the outer edges of your earlobes. Move deeper inside. Taste your teeth with the tip of your tongue. Touch your cheeks from within. Your lid-covered eyes now play a secondary role to your ears, which are tuned to serenity. You have arrived, arrived at the center of all thought, reason, and feeling, the receptacle of knowledge, the fabric of your soul, the essence of your being. Breath: in out, in, out, in, out, in, out.
Find peace in this aura of total relaxation. Let your spirit go, traverse the follicles of each hair on your head. Leave the ties that bind you to this earthly body behind. Set your spirit free. A Moving Force Before students are debriefed, I ask them to record details of the experience while the sensations are still fresh in their minds. And then we talk. Each meditation session I have conducted has yielded impressive results. Several students report feelings of total relaxation and serenity. Others say they were cognizant of tingling sensations in their extremities while traveling to those parts of the body. Some confess to tuning my voice out completely, embarking instead upon a self-guided mental tour of their bodies. Most students consider the experience transcendental, and believe they have achieved true awareness of their inner-consciousness to some extent. Also, a feeling of empowerment emanates from the discovery that thoughts can be controlled in this manner. Most agree meditation is a worthwhile endeavor and express interest in continuing the introspective practice. In the sense that an experience arouses curiosity, strengthens initiative, and sets up desires and pur-
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poses every experience is a moving force. (Dewey, 1938, p.38) Moving indeed, in every way possible. Feel Their Essence Without a doubt, concepts inherent to Zen and general semantics have had a positive influence in my classroom. An environment filled with challenges generates an atmosphere of discovery. When students consistently make relevant connections through diverse experiences, learning is more meaningful and longer lasting. These conditions are wonderfully met in the Asian unit. Ancient cultural traditions spring to life and are better understood when students can feel their essence by practicing what is preached. Ultimately, this exploration of Sino-Japanese cultures cultivates appreciation, respect, and acceptance, not only for people, but for ideas too. These are lessons I am certain will endure for a lifetime. Our tangibly intangible trek has been memorable. But remember Alfred Korzybskis warning: the map is not the territory. Words contained in this article are meaningless in and of themselves. In order for their essence to be understood, the language must be put to the test. Hands-on, Minds-on Learning is the key. Try it! After all is done and said, experience is the best teacher.
REFERENCES
Best, J. (1984). Teaching Political Theory: Meaning through Metaphor. Improving College and University Teaching, 32 (4): p.165. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience & Education. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Hipkiss, R. (1995). Semantics: Defining the Discipline. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Institute of General Semantics. (2005). Retrieved February 4, 2006, from http:// www.time-binding.org. Pugh, S., Hicks, J., & Davis, M. (1997). Metaphorical Ways of Knowing. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. Reps, P., & Senzaki, N. (1994). Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. Boston, Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications, Inc. Schiller, D. (1994). The Little Zen Companion. New York: Workman Publishing Company, Inc.
AN INTERVIEW WITH ALLEN FLAGG
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MARTIN H. LEVINSON
is 83 years young. He grew up in Ord, Nebraska and went to college at NYU where he majored in math and minored in physics and English. After World War II, Allen worked as an insurance casualty underwriter for many years. He lives in New York City in an apartment overflowing with books in every room. I interviewed him there on February 6, 2006. Levinson: How did you first get involved with GS? Flagg: I attended a lecture at the New York Academy of Sciences in 1952 given by Horace Kallen, an NYU philosophy professor who was talking about a book that he had written. At that lecture a form was passed around from the New York Society for General Semantics, which had an office in the Academy of Sciences building, requesting that people put their names and addresses on a mailing list. I put my name on the list. 255
LLEN FLAGG, the president of the New York Society for General Semantics,
256 Levinson: What happened next? Flagg: I attended NYSGS meetings. In the spring of 1959 I became Harry Maynards teaching assistant for an Introductory to General Semantics course that he taught at Great Neck High School. Harry was an executive with Life International Magazine and when he was out of town I took over the teaching duties. In the fall, Harry taught an intermediate GS course at Great Neck High and I taught the intro course. A student taking my course was also attending Queens College, and he asked the college administration if they would add general semantics to their program. They agreed to do that so I also taught GS there. I have also taught general semantics classes for IBM, the New School, and Fairfield University. And, in the 1970s, I served as Executive Director of the New York Society for General Semantics. Levinson: Have you attended IGS seminars?
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Allen Flagg
Flagg: I have gone to perhaps 6 or 8 seminars. My interest in IGS seminars started in 1954, when Charlotte Read invited me to participate as a working scholar. I recall that Buckminster Fuller came to one the seminars I attended. Some prominent seminar presenters I remember include Francis Chisolm, who took Korzybskis place, Samuel Bois, Marjorie Swanson, and Harry Holtzman. I have also attended a great many Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lectures. I went to all of them till about 1975, when work took me to California. I have helped organize some recent AKMLs. Levinson: Have you studied Science and Sanity? Flagg: During the 1950s and 1960s, I participated in a NYSGS Science and Sanity discussion group. Kendig and Charlotte Read, along with a dozen other experts, led presentations involving different parts of Science and Sanity. I found
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it a very stimulating and enlightening way to reflect on Korzybskis seminal work. Levinson: Have you written about GS? Flagg: I have written several articles for the General Semantics Bulletin and two that have been published in books one on dream education and general semantics that appeared in Understanding Sanity and Human Affairs and one on GS group participation exercises. Levinson: What are some of your other interests besides GS? Flagg: I am very interested in working with dreams. Levinson: How did that interest evolve? Flagg: I had a strong interest in dream analysis for a long time and that enthusiasm became intensified when I met Clara Stewart, who later became my wife in 1966 (Pearl Eppy, a board member of the New York Society for General Semantics, introduced us). Clara knew quite a bit about dream-work. She followed dream expert Kilton Stewarts system of using dream symbols to improve the work, and I incorporated her knowledge into my dream studies. I find working with dreams is a useful complement to GS GS emphasizes intellectual and cognitive factors while dreams are useful for understanding unconscious, intuitive levels. Both areas are concerned with knowledge and consciousness and how we know what we know. Levinson: Are you a member of any dream organizations? Flagg: I am the vice president of Friends of the Institute of Noetic Science (FIONS). That organization was founded by Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon. When Mitchell was coming back from the moon he saw the earth, in black space, as a glowing green, blue, and white sphere and this produced in him a feeling of oneness with humanity. When he arrived on terra firma he collected friends of his and organized FIONS. Interestingly, Buckminster Fuller, who gave an AKML lecture, was famous for talking about spaceship earth. Levinson: What are some of your other interests?
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Flagg: I like to run. I am a benefactor member of the New York Road Runners Club and I have many trophies from races that I have won. I currently do three and four-mile runs in Central Park. I also attend Marine Corps reunions. I served active duty with the Marines during World War II. Levinson: How has GS changed over the years that you have been involved with it? Flagg: Many people and organizations have taken pieces and chunks of GS and developed useful offshoots from it. For example, Neil Postman took aspects of general semantics to develop the discipline of media ecology; the field of NeuroLinguistic Programming took some of the neuro-semantic aspects of GS; and Albert Ellis has emphasized various elements of GS in his psychotherapy. Levinson: What do you see as the future for GS? Flagg: We need to get more people involved with GS. At the New York Society for General Semantics we offer meetings focused on verbal and nonverbal communication. We consider ourselves as a matrix for human communication that includes the sciences, humanities, art, dance, architecture, writing, literature, and drama. When people come to our meetings we offer them GS literature and encourage them to subscribe to ETC and learn more about general semantics. The idea is to show that GS is a multi-faceted discipline that expands ones awareness of oneself and the world.
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Over the years a number of students returning to campus have told me how they benefited from those sociodrama sessions.

MAURINE ECKLOFF*
by a young doctor, Jacob Moreno, in response to the upheaval and horror of World War I. Moreno worked in a childrens hospital and in refugee camps in Vienna. Drawing on each persons potential to be spontaneous and creative, Moreno developed therapeutic methodologies and techniques, all action-based, which he titled the psychodramatic method. I was introduced to Morenos methods in classes at the University of Denver taught by Elwood Murray, a pioneer in the study of interpersonal communication. Over the years I have employed many of his techniques, and I have found them especially valuable in teaching in the area of training and development. For a number of years I taught a course for teachers who had just completed student teaching. The course was designed to aid the students with problems in classroom communication. One activity which was a predominant part of the course employed the use of sociodramatic techniques. Each student described an interpersonal problem he or she had encountered in the classroom. Then
OCIODRAMA WAS FOUNDED
* Maurine Eckloff, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
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each situation was enacted based on the students experience using the sociodramatic method. In the lively discussion and reenactment that followed, numerous alternative communication strategies were discovered. Over the years a number of students returning to campus have told me how they benefited from those sociodrama sessions that as they went out in life and faced similar problems, they asked themselves, What would we have done with this in Speech 407?
Sociodrama differs from psychodrama, as the subject is the group rather than the individual.
Psychodrama is used to describe Morenos method of using spontaneous drama to help people come to terms with or to solve their personal problems. The aim is education and change. Sociodrama differs from psychodrama, as the subject is the group rather than the individual. The theme is an agreed upon group problem. The procedure aims for education plus action for creative social change. Ken Sprague of the International Center for Psychodrama and Sociodrama explains:
Psychodrama looks at the roots of a problem, while sociodrama looks at the soil in which our collective roots are formed or deformed. Sociodrama treats the sickness of society that in turn makes its members ill. There has never been a better time for treatment. (Wiener, 1997, p.105)
While psychodrama focuses on the internal interactions of one man, sociodrama focuses on individuals in the process of interaction. Moreno defines sociodrama as a deep action method dealing with group relations. (1953, p.87) He explains that in psychodrama the attention of the director is upon the individual and his private problems which are unfolded before a group. Although the group approach is used, psychodrama is individual centered and is concerned with a group of private individuals. By contrast, with sociodrama, the subject is the group. Moreno explains that sociodrama is based on the assumption that the group formed by the audience is already organized by the social and cultural roles which in some degree all the carriers of the culture share. (1953, p.87) The group in sociodrama corresponds to the individual in psychodrama. Psychodrama deals with personal problems and personal catharsis. Sociodrama approaches social problems in groups and aims at social catharsis. (Moreno, 1953, p.88). Both psychodrama and sociodrama focus on spontaneity which operates in the present, now and here. The individual and group are pro-
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pelled toward an adequate response to a new situation or a new response to an old situation. Sociodrama as a social learning activity based in a group setting explores a problem which reflects the interests of the group members. This can range from developing interpersonal skills to exploring racial diversity within a community. Moreno saw the sociodramatist as having the task to enter communities confronted with social issues and to help them in handling and clarifying the situation.
Every role is a fusion of private and collective elements; it is composed of two parts its collective denominators and its individual differentials. It may be useful to differentiate between role-taking which is the taking of a finished, fully established role which does not permit the individual any variation, any degree of freedom role playing which permits the individual some degree of freedom and role creating which permits the individual a high degree of freedom, as for instance, the spontaneity player. (Moreno, 1953, p.75)
Kellerman (1996) explains three applications of sociodrama: first, in tackling traumatic events and social crises such as in critical incident debriefings; second, in response to political change and social disintegration; and third, in addressing social diversity, such as issues of racism. In summary, sociodrama has three primary aims: an improved understanding of a social situation, an increase in participants knowledge about their own and other peoples roles in relation to that situation, and an emotional release or catharsis as people express their feelings about the subject. Sociodrama is an action-oriented method based on the belief that people learn best if they can be involved in exploring issues from a variety of perspectives engaging both thoughts and feelings. Sociodrama as a Training Method Moreno reports that, as early as 1952, sociodrama was employed as a training method in major United States industries. He notes that the use of sociodramatic techniques for training is most effective when there is similarity between the setup of the subject community to that of the community outside. (1953, p.531) The better defined the social reality, the more effective the sociodramatic method will be. Since the modern trend is toward increasing complexity and differentiation (p.532), todays training with sociodrama should emphasize spontaneity, resourcefulness, and flexibility. (p.533)
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Moreno advises orienting sociodrama participants not towards an emotional experience and conflict in the past, but towards a task in the present. (1953, p.568) Action patterns and involvement should be developed in reference to the present situation. The sociodramatic leader should not write the plot, the characters, and the dialogue on paper, but should help the players themselves move into creative action. (1953, pp.568-569) He serves as a suggester and guide. He prepares the group for creative problem solving. When sociodrama is used in training, Ottawa points out the focus is on interpersonal behavior in the existing group and not on personal therapy. (1966, p.4) The members come together to gain more insight into interpersonal relations and human motivation. Peterson and Sorenson point out that similar problems recur in groups, and at the beginning, at least, it is good to stick with those problems which do recur and that participants find relevant. (1991, pp.515517) The primary uses of sociodrama as a training tool are for working with diverse staff in learning more about changing roles within the organization, and as part of a team-building process in discovering more about social problems and exploring issues of diversity. Sociodrama Methods As the sociometrist works with various relationships (co-workers, manager/staff, family, etc.) he/she develops expertise in the role definition process. It is helpful to keep lists of roles for use as examples or guides; however, clients should be urged to generate a listing of roles which reflect the uniqueness of their relationship. This is illustrated in the following diagram presented by Hale (1981, p.118). You Role Relationship Me
What would you be If I were not? What would I be If you were not?
From Words of the Father, No. 101, by J.L. Moreno
Pike offers five methods to keep interest high with role-playing. (1991, pp.3-4) Pike also discusses the importance of enthusiasm on the part of the
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trainer, and he suggests having several case studies available to help groups get started. (1989, pp.31-32) Several sample cases are presented in Creative Training Techniques (1989). Byre suggests the importance of knowing something about the backgrounds and situations of those with whom one will be working. (1989) The director will be more effective if she/he understands participants frames of reference. Byre points out that it is the directors responsibility to facilitate and the students responsibility to learn. The director of sociodrama should keep in mind that the purpose of the sociodrama is to provide the opportunity for deepened sensitivity and insight into problems, so that improved intergroup relations may occur. Evan Ringer, at the Global Center for Diversity and Management, Katz & Associates, reports that sociodrama is used in their diversity training. (Ringer, 1998) Sociodrama is created to involve participants in spontaneous drama that is similar to situations occurring in the clients environment and as a springboard for in-depth discussion. Participants have an opportunity to discuss the issues they face without exposing themselves or sensitive information about their colleagues. It gives everyone a common context for discussing these issues in the future when similar situations arise at work. In diversity training the drama is relevant to the participants special environment and not just a showcase of stereotypes. Preparing for sociodrama The sociodrama workshop is led by a director who ensures that the session achieves its aims in a safe and creative way. The director needs to know how to work with groups and should have some training in psycho/sociodrama along with knowledge of creative techniques and counseling. The director needs to know the type of group he/she is to work with either a group designated to use sociodrama as a method, or a group meeting for another task, such as managing change or working with diversity, where sociodrama may be the most appropriate tool. The appropriateness of sociodrama can be determined by: 1. The learning outcomes. A very task-oriented group may see sociodrama as irrelevant. 2. Time constraints. Successful sociodrama requires enough time to create a safe working environment.
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ETC JULY 2006 3. Skill of the director. Sociodrama should only be used when the director has the ability to deal with whatever issues surface. 4. The setting. Space needs to be adequate and physically safe for sociodrama.
There are additional considerations in sociodrama dealing with power and discrimination. If, for example, the director is male, middle-class and heterosexual, how might he be biased to what is going on for certain group members? How might the trainees perceive him? Also, the director should be aware of group membership and how it might feel for people from less powerful groups. If one is black in a group of white people, or a woman in a group of males, how can the director make the sociodrama safe for them and find a way to empower these individuals? The director should be prepared for the sociodrama by finding out about the group and the subject matter in advance. Research concerning the group may be necessary. The director should be able to hear what is being said and inferred. The director should be ready to understand and feel what is happening in the group. The Warm-up The first stage of sociodrama is the warm-up. This includes warm-up of the director and the group. The director. The director needs to personally prepare for the sociodrama if the group is to function effectively. This includes getting a feel for the environment and planning the space for action. The director needs to consider how the group will work around a theme, and the director should prepare for the emergence of themes from the group and should remember that groups often resist themes that are imposed on them. The director needs to work for spontaneity with scenes and roles created by participants. Likewise, the director needs to be creative, energized, and lively. The group. Individuals participating need to be turned into a group. Activities should be planned to help the members know one another. For example, individuals in small groups could tell short stories of how they happened to be at the meeting. The physical environment. The director should help participants feel comfortable in the room by having them move around the space, touching every wall, etc. Safety in the group. The director should demonstrate competence at the beginning of the session welcoming the members and giving a preview of the
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days activities. Rules of confidentiality and respect for what others say should be stressed. It should be made clear that the status and power in the outside world have no relevance in the sociodrama setting. Individuals should feel comfortable and that they are in good hands. Physical warm-up of participants. Some physical exercises can be used to energize the group. Participants might be instructed to move around the room with various attitudes: assertively, aggressively, and submissively. In pairs, one person with eyes shut can be led around the room silently by another. Small groups of individuals can be positioned to create a machine which moves with appropriate sounds. Warm-up for sociodramatic acting. Sociodrama calls for a type of acting, and it is helpful to have participants not worry about the possibility of feeling silly. The director could have them carry out some actions, such as walking to meet one another pretending to be long-lost friends, secret lovers, teacher and pupil, etc. An object could be passed around the room with people having to mime using the object, for example, a ruler being used as a pen or a comb. The preliminary warm-up is very important. This must be done well for the rest of the session to proceed effectively. Determining the Group Theme for Sociodrama. The director should help the group to determine the issue on which they will be working, unless this has been predetermined. Even if the theme has been set, the group will need to work together to find the particular aspects to be approached. This can be done in several ways. The following are a few suggestions. First, group members can talk in smaller groups about what issue(s) is/are currently important to them. These might be shared with the group as a whole or one small group may join another to see if they can agree on a theme. If there are several good possibilities, the director can help the group make a sociometric choice by designating several areas of the room, each representing a possible topic. Individuals can then move to the part of the room that reflects the issue they most want to tackle. The issue with the most interest would then be the one with which the group would begin. Second, the director could lay out a number of photos (representing the racial, ethnic, gender, class, and disability mix in society) showing varied situations and attitudes and ask the group to choose the photo with which they most identify.
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Third, newspapers can be used. The director can have participants find stories that grab their attention. Some form of sociometric choice can be made by having group members choose the story with which they most strongly identify. Setting the Scene Once the theme is identified, the scene must be set. For example, if the theme revolves around a family problem, questions to be asked include: What type of family? What time of meeting: meal time, watching TV, etc.? In what room is the meeting occurring? What are the physical aspects of the room? Who is there? Who else is in the family? Who could enter the scene? What other roles might be relevant: minister, teacher, neighbor, etc.? The goal is to build the room and give it meaning and character. A sense of history can be obtained by having one of the members become one of the objects, such as a grandfather clock, and speak about what has happened in this room. Roles of the members of the group, as for instance the family, need to be created. It is often effective to allow individuals to volunteer for the roles. In order to help them feel and become that person, the director should question them. This can be done by asking, Tell us something about you, Tell us about your family. As the roles are played, universal aspects of the roles often emerge, and this helps group members to build strong identifications. Structuring the Action Sociodrama is a creative activity which develops its own momentum by the way the actors play the roles and create new ones. There must be some organization and structure, however, to prevent chaos. The director needs to inform participants when others can join in. The action can take many forms. Individuals should have the option of leaving a role if they like, by going to a non-action space in the room. Although an individual may take one role initially, he/she might decide to play another as the sociodrama progresses. Sometimes a role can be held by a chair, so that whoever sits in the designated chair takes on that role temporarily. In sociodrama the concern is with what is said and what is thought or felt. This can be accomplished by doubling, where one role speaks for or comments on another. If roles are held by people sitting in chairs, then doubling could be indicated by people standing behind the relevant chairs. If people in roles are standing and moving about, putting a hand on the shoulder could indicate doubling.
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The Role of the Director. One of the functions of the director is to determine which part of the action to highlight. The director also needs to keep the action flowing, and decide where the scene should go next and when it is finished. The director needs to keep an eye on the participants and see who might like to join in, who might look uncomfortable with what they are experiencing, who is wanting to get out of a role, who might learn from taking another role. The director needs to be aware of what is happening and make appropriate changes. The action might be stopped to allow an individual to express what is happening to him/her. The director might quietly suggest a role. The director might indicate that it is a good time for role reversal. Sometimes a person needs to be moved out of a role to be able to observe what is happening rather than being overwhelmed by it. Energy. If sociodrama is going to work, it needs energy. This can be assured by taking time to thoroughly warm-up the group. The theme has to be an issue the group as a whole wants to address. The scene needs to allow feelings to be addressed. People need to be engaged with their roles. The roles in the scene should allow plenty of freedom and not be too limited. If energy seems to leave a scene, it might be because there is nothing more to say. It is completed. It might be that the scene is too powerful, and some people become defensive and lack a feeling of safety. Others may feel that the scene is relevant to only one or two members. Sometimes the director will need to move the scene from the specific to the general to explore what is universal and then bring it back to the group. Difficult roles. Some roles are difficult to play. One role that is particularly troubling for some is the role of an evil person, for instance, a racist. When finished playing one of the roles, the individual needs to be de-roled at the end and separated from the role in the eyes of the group. This can be accomplished by having the role held by a chair, so people can come and briefly sit while making a statement. This allows a number of people to participate and get a view of the perspective. It is also difficult for people to play a role which is alien to them, as a man playing a woman, or a white playing a black. There is a need to play these roles with respect and to understand that actors will likely start in a stereotypical way. These roles can be built through questioning, group members doubling the person, role reversal, and group discussion.
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There are a number of techniques available to move the action. The following are some examples: Sculpting. While sculpting, the director physically places individuals to show how they are perceived to relate. For example, arm in arm, back to back, a stiff pose with a pointed finger, the manner in which they look at one another, etc. The director can then let the people holding the roles begin to speak. Participants can also be taken out of the sculpt and allowed to view it. Stepping out can allow the person time to reflect on it and perhaps change the sculpt. Group members should be given a chance to comment on the sculpt. Sculpting can also be used to find a group theme. Doubling. Doubling is where one group member puts him/herself beside a person in a role and gives voice to that persons unspoken thoughts and feelings. The more a doubler copies the posture and actions of the person they are doubling, the more effective it is. Doubling can be used to expand a role by expressing the unsaid aspects of an interaction. It can be used to show that there is something else the character could say rather than just thinking it. Doubling can be used to give support to someone in the role. The director may assign permanent doubles for the entire session, or the director can have members double for a time and then move out of the action. Sometimes a double may take over the role. Voices. Voices is really another form of doubling. Voices might include: the womens movement, church, sanctity of the family, government, woman not wanting children, older persons views from historical perspectives, etc. Sometimes these individuals can come in as doubles, and at other times, they can be heard off stage. In this way all participants can contribute to the action. Role reversal. With role reversal one person moves out of one role and into another. It is often used in a confrontational scene when it is beneficial for one person to get an understanding of how the situation looks from another perspective. Soliloquy. With this, the director stops the action to gives a person space and time to say what is going on inside him/her. This helps the individual explore the role in a way the scene does not allow. Ending Sociodrama begins with a scene, moves to broader issues, then returns with fresh insights. At the end of the action there is time for sharing. People may share what they have learned from playing different roles. Some individuals
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may share what the experience was like for them and the emotional release which they may have felt. Group members may share what they have learned about the group theme, social situation, or issue explored. All viewpoints should be respected. The group and director can share feelings about how the sociodrama unfolded and what learning took place. Sometimes it is good to take a break, to allow participants to step out of the process, before they review what occurred. Discussion should assist participants and audience to realize motivations, purposes, behavior, implications and possibilities for prevention of problem situations.
REFERENCES
Barbour, A., & Goldberg, A. (1974). Interpersonal Communication: Teaching Strategies and Resources. Urbana, IL, ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills. Byre, B. (1989, April). Teaching Conference Development as a Simulated Experience: Principles and Practices Underlying Simulation. Proceeding of the Central States Communication Association Convention. Kansas City, MO. Hale, A.E. (1981). Conducting Clinical Sociometric Explorations: A Manual for Psychodramatists and Sociometrists. Roanoke: Ann E. Hale. Kellerman, P. (1996) Sociodrama: A Group-as-a-Whole Method for Social Exploration. University of Jerusalem, unpublished paper. Moreno, J. (1953). Who shall survive? Beacon, NY: Beacon House. Ottawa, A.K. (1966). Learning Through Group Experience. New York: Humanities Press. Peterson, M.F., & Sorenson, R.L. (1991. Cognitive Processes in Leadership: Interpreting and Handling Events in an Organizational Context. In J. Anderson (Ed.), Communication Yearbook 14 (pp.501-534). Newborn Park, CA: Sage Publications. Pike. R.W. (1989). Creative Training Techniques Handbook. Minneapolis: Lakewood Books. Pike, R.W. (1991). Five Methods to Keep Participant Interest High in Role-Play Activities. Creative Training Techniques. 4, pp.3-4. Ringer, E. (1998). Sociodrama. The Global Center for Diversity and Management Katz & Associates, Inc. (http://www.katzassoc.com/socio.html). Wiener, R. (1997). Creative Training. London: Jessica Kingly.
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Student Papers
INTRODUCTION TO TWO PAPERS FROM STUDENTS AT VERMONT ACADEMY

JOHN BOHANNON*
to general semantics as a graduate student at St. Lawrence University in the 1970s. I was in the army teaching in the ROTC program there. I have been teaching at Vermont Academy since retiring from the army 20 years ago. About five years ago I decided to integrate GS ideas as much as possible in all of my classes. (I teach primarily sophomores and seniors.) For instance, in a sophomore class studying the Cold War, students write papers arguing that either the US or the USSR was responsible for the initial tensions of that conflict, then they grokduel in opposing pairs in front of the class. [Editors note: grokduel, coined by Edward MacNeal in 1999, refers to a contest in which two or more parties vie to see who best understands the position of the other. See ETC, vol 56, no. 2, Summer 1999.]
WAS FIRST INTRODUCED
* John Bohannon teaches Conflict Resolution and World History and Cultures at Vermont Academy. He also coaches tennis, acts as advisor to the Vermont Academy Student Association, and helps lead the outdoor program. He spent 20 years in the US Army and a year at The Orme School, before he came to Vermont Academy in 1986.
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INTRODUCTION TO TWO PAPERS FROM STUDENTS AT VERMONT ACADEMY
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The papers excerpted here come from a senior honors course called Conflict Resolution. The first semester we study various theories of human nature: Plato, Marx, Freud, Skinner, Lorenz, and various religions, etc. The purpose of this is to sensitize the students to the tentative nature of reality as it applies to our own nature and how this can cause conflict. The summer before the course the students read a couple of books from a list I provided to prepare them for this topic; thats where the literary references in their papers came from. I had them read some articles from ETC as well, and did some exercises to help them understand the principles of GS. Then they were told to write an essay combining the GS studies and the books they read with the theories we had studied in any way that they wanted. It is obvious from the papers what ideas seemed most vivid to them. I also told them about E-prime as a writing technique. I intend to keep expanding my use of GS in this class in particular since it is such a powerful tool for understanding conflict and conflict resolution.
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GENERAL SEMANTICS IN TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

ANNIE KASPER*
polysemy is defined as the state of having more than one meaning. It is a well-known phenomenon of perceptions and language that perceptions vary, and that words are multi-ordinal; these characteristics can lead to or permit conscious or unconscious confusion. The existence of diverging perceptions and language are explained through general semantics. Two significant ideas of general semantics are non-identity and infinity of values. Each of these ideas is manifest in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird is the story of a brother and sister, Jem and Scout Finch, who live in a small Alabama town with their attorney father, Atticus. The two siblings, along with their friend Dill, become fascinated with a spooky old house on their street called the Radley Place. The house is owned by Nathan Radley, whose brother, Arthur (nicknamed Boo), has lived there for many years without ever coming outside. Meanwhile, Atticus agrees to defend a black man named Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. During the
HE WORD
* Annie Kasper is a student at Vermont Academy in Saxtons River, Vermont.
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trial, Atticus provides sufficient evidence for Toms acquittal and in fact proves that Mayellas father, Bob, is responsible for the marks on her face and neck. However, the all-white jury convicts Tom anyway and later he is shot while trying to escape from prison. Bob Ewell is infuriated by the accusations made by Atticus and attacks Jem and Scout with a knife as they walk home from a Halloween party. Boo Radley saves the children and fatally stabs Ewell. Boo carries the wounded Jem back to the Finch house and after sitting with Scout for some time, disappears into the Radley house. According to Rachel M. Lauers discussion of general semantics, Some Basic Ideas of General Semantics, which first appeared in ETC in 1996, the idea of non-identity states that no two things are ever the same. Words can only be used as approximations of the actual things they represent. People must be careful of the generalizations they make about a person based on the groups that person belongs to. In the context of To Kill a Mockingbird, the townspeople and the jury are convinced Tom Robinson is guilty of raping a white girl simply because of their prejudiced view of black Americans. In the time period of the book, the early 1930s, the American south was riddled with racism. It was unacceptable for a black man to come anywhere near a white woman. If accused of the rape of a white woman, a black man was often lynched. During the trial, when Tom Robinson testifies that he did not rape Mayella and in fact she propositioned him, the jury refuses to believe him because it is a black mans word against a white persons. Toms character is not considered outside the generalizations made about his race. In Lauers same article, the idea of infinity of values states that all things can have values in a wide variety of gradations. The limitations of the human language often prevent us from making these distinctions. In Harper Lees novel, Boo Radley is labeled as creepy and strange because he never ventures from his house. The townspeople associate this strangeness with evil and foster a prejudice against Boo. Atticus, who is the moral example in the novel, understands that people have both good and bad within them. To cultivate an understanding and acceptance of other people in his children, Atticus stresses that the important thing is to appreciate the good qualities and understand the bad qualities by treating people with sympathy and trying to see from their perspective. In the end of the novel, Scout at last begins to see Boo Radley as a human being. Her newfound ability to see things from his perspective ensures that she will not become disillusioned as she grows into a young adult. A better understanding of all the numerous ideas of general semantics can help prevent common and frequent misconceptions and misunderstandings. The spoken word is the primary avenue for communication. A misunderstanding at this level can quickly snowball into a morass of accusations (as in the case of
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Boo Radley) and conflict (as in the case of Tom Robinson). A patient and diligent effort to understand and empathize with another party is critical to the successful navigation of the waters of human interaction.
REFERENCES
Lauer, Rachel. Some Basic Ideas of General Semantics. ETC: A Review of General Semantics, Summer 2001, pp.196-197. Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. J.B. Lippincott (1960).
DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE WHEN YOU ARE? Student Paper
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DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE WHEN YOU ARE?

ANDREW OCHALEK*
F I ASKED YOU who you are, how would you respond? Would you tell me your job or occupation, or that you are a student of education? Often times, one of these two answers seems to be the common response. For example, Tiger Woods is defined as a professional golfer. Yet, when Tiger Woods is not golfing, he is no longer a golfer so must he be defined as something other than a professional golfer? General Semantics helps us deal with this ambiguity. Also, in literature, the ideas of general semantics are often displayed by characters who deal with conflict and change. The general semantics idea of dating points out that nothing is exactly the same from one day to the next, or even one minute to the next. Who you are today is not who you will be tomorrow. Therefore, the inevitability of changes must be understood. Also, descriptions of people and events must be dated and placed in the context of time. Through the stories Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, the change of people over time is evident.
* Andrew Ochalek is a student at Vermont Academy in Saxtons River, Vermont.
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Heart of Darkness takes place in the African Congo when the British were fighting for Imperialism. In the Congo, British soldiers were taking over the natives, stealing their ivory, and forcing them into labor. As the imperialists entered the Congo, they soon became corrupted by it. Charlie Marlow is a character in the book who demonstrates the Congos ability to corrupt men through wealth and power, thus supporting the idea that men are infallibly corrupt. Marlow is a young man who travels to the Congo to be the captain of a ship, explore new territory, and search for the infamous Kurtz. Kurtz is a Mephistophelean Englishman in the Congo who holds much power over the natives and British soldiers in the Congo. Before his journey to the Congo, Marlow was known as an honest, caring man. In fact, he was so honest that he states he absolutely detests a lie. Yet, after his experience in the horrid Congo, Marlow finds himself to be a corrupt man when he tells lies at the end of the book. Mountains Beyond Mountains is a true story based on the work of Dr. Paul Farmer and the affect he has on the people with whom he works. Dr. Farmer is a man of great intelligence who is an expert on curing infectious diseases, especially HIV and tuberculosis. With such high credentials, he could be making millions of dollars as a big city doctor in the United States. However, instead of living rich in America, the doctor found that he was needed elsewhere. Thus, he spends most of his life in Haiti and other third-world countries helping the sick who are in desperate need. Also, he works to get donations from large corporations to help stock hospitals in third-world countries with necessities for the sick. Even in the worst conditions, the doctor risks his life every day to save hundreds of others. Charlie Marlow and Dr. Paul Farmer are two characters in literature who enter a poor situation and are changed drastically by it. Marlow enters a horrid country and leaves behind a disaster. Before Marlow traveled to the Congo, he was a civilized, sincere gentleman. He had morals of truth and devotion, and he had intentions of leading a ship and exploring new territories. Was Marlow therefore a respectable man? Before he entered the Congo, yes he was. Yet, at the end of the book, Marlow has become a liar. With this, he is no longer a respectable man, but a man of deceit. Hence, Marlows character must be placed in the context of time. Unlike Marlow, Farmer enters a horrid situation and devotes his life to making it better. Before Farmer traveled to Haiti, he was a practicing physician and anthropologist in the United States. Although he is a man of great knowledge, he was oblivious to the poverty and disease that faced Haiti and other third world countries every day. Once Farmer became aware of these issues, he decided to dedicate his life to saving the lives of those less fortunate. With this,
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Farmer changed from a typical American doctor, helping others while carrying a heavy wallet, to a hero for thousands and a Saint to those in desperate need. Thus, Marlow changed for the worse, and Farmer changed for the better. There is no doubt that Marlow and Farmer were changed by the experiences and conflicts they encountered. However, what is unclear is why they changed. According to the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, they changed because they had the existential choice to change. Marlow and Farmer were both completely free, allowing them to make any choice they wanted. Existence precedes essence. Marlow entered the tainted Congo having the option to fight slavery and corruption, or follow the acts of other Englishmen and become corrupt himself. Marlow chose to become corrupt. On the other hand, Farmer entered the infected lands of Haiti having the option to live materialistically poor but help the less fortunate, or live wealthy and help only those with money. Farmer chose to devote his life to help dying Haitians, and as a result, became their Manna from Heaven. Contrary to the thoughts of Sartre, B.F. Skinner posits that we are determined by our environment. The environment controls our beliefs, behavior, and desires. Thus, according to Skinner, Marlow was corrupted by the Congo not because he chose to be, but because he was influenced by environmental factors. When Marlow first arrived into the Congo, he was an honest, hardworking man. Yet, eventually he was contaminated by the darkness and horrors of the Congo and its evil regulators. Hence, he became nothing more than a Prufrock, absorbing the dark world surrounding him. Like Marlow, Dr. Paul Farmer was conditioned by environmental factors, but in a positive manner. Farmer witnessed the miseries of Haiti and knew that he had the skills to reduce them. His determined moral beliefs made him realize that he had to do something to save the lives of the poor and sick. By saving lives, he was rewarded with positive reinforcement. Through literary conflict, the concept of multiple perception and communication is often open for various interpretations. One persons views on someone or something may be contrary to those of their neighbor. In addition, people and situations change over time for numerous reasons, and since change is inevitable, it is important to date behavior in the context of time. Marlow and Farmer may have been equal before their experiences to the Congo and Haiti, but after, Marlow is certainly unequal to Farmer.
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A GENERAL THEORY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RELATIVITY AND COGNITIVE EVOLUTION

CHARLES E. BAILEY*
Abstract This paper presents the first theory unifying brain, behavior, and psychology, utilizing a reference point of cognitive accuracy and rational bias. The theory integrates the tenets of rational emotive behavior theory and cognitive behavioral science with our current general knowledge of brain functioning, tying together emotions, brain function, and cognition. Cognitive thought processes are shown to depend on cognitive accuracy, including accurate information, thought process accuracy, and time-space continuum accuracy. The evolution of the human frontal lobes is compared to the evolution of our thought processes in terms of cognitive accuracy. Generally our thinking is obstructed by cultural belief systems that tend to rely on rigid inaccurate irrational thinking. These learned irrational thought processes lag behind the ability of our frontal lobes to utilize flexible accurate rational thinking. Our irrational thinking inhibits accurate executive functioning which in turn diminishes our rational thought and behaviors, resulting in fewer rational outcomes, and promoting further irrational thought and behavior in the future. These irrational processes are passed down as cultural belief systems from generation to generation. The theory offers a critical reference point for implementation of cognitive accuracy based on our current knowledge of general brain functioning. Using accurate information with accurate cognitive processing in a timely response to situations enhances our rational thinking and behavior, leading to improved adaptability, harmony, and survival.
* Charles E. Bailey, MD is a General Psychiatrist, Cognitive Neuroscientist, and a Clinical Research Psycho-pharmacologist, in Orlando, Florida.
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A GENERAL THEORY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RELATIVITY & COGNITIVE EVOLUTION
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1887, Albert Michelson and Edward Morley conceived a brilliant plan to detect the presence of aether in the universe. They speculated that aether would slow down light traveling with the turning of the earth more than light traveling at right angles to it. Their failure to detect any difference stunned the scientific world. Einstein explained the failure by noting that, under the rules of general relativity, the yardstick changed exactly as much as the light beam it measured, rendering the difference undetectable. The theory presented here suggests a similar conundrum that as a species we tend to use inherently inadequate tools to measure the efficacy of our thought and behavior. Lacking awareness of how we use words to think and speak, and measuring our success by standards that incorporate our lack of awareness, we fall prey to frequent confusion, misunderstanding and emotional turmoil. The general theory of psychological relativity describes the components of healthy human evaluations, and explains how these components tie the evaluation of more successful mental processes to the normal function of the human brain.
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No complex system can succeed without an effective executive mechanism, frontal lobes. But the frontal lobes operate best as part of a highly distributed, interactive structure with much autonomy and many degrees of freedom. (Goldberg, 2002, p.230)
Psychological relativity introduces the concept of cognitive accuracy to provide a yardstick for accurate and rational thought and behavior. Cognitive accuracy consists of three components: information accuracy thought process accuracy time-space or event-level accuracy.
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Each component helps to ensure sane evaluations, but accuracy relative to the time-space continuum is especially important in establishing relevance between cognition and behavior at a given moment and place. The term eventlevel may be used to refer to the time-space continuum, as it better conveys the nonelemental nature of the physical and temporal environment in which we operate. As mathematician Hermann Minkowski declared in an address to the 80th Assembly of German Natural Scientists and Physicians in 1908:
Hence forth space by itself and time by its self are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind union of the two will preserve an independent reality. (Minkowski, p.76)
Through the mechanisms of genetics and time-binding, our thought and behavioral patterns reflect our histories, both personal and cultural. We inherit a genetic blueprint for how our brain operates, and we acquire a cultural blueprint for how and what we think and how we behave. Inevitably much of what we acquire from our culture comes from a long line of learned inaccuracies. Becoming aware of the potential inaccuracy of what we know, or think we know, allows us to make corrections, to think more rationally. We measure cognitive accuracy by the relative distance or gradient between the unexamined, inaccurate, and irrational yardsticks we have acquired and the established, external, accurate, and rational reference points we have identified through science. The shorter the distance, the more rationally we think. Accurate rational thought and behavior may be the next paradigm shift in human cognitive evolution. Most people contend that they do think accurately, rationally, and logically. However, they base their contentions on their own inaccurate and irrational frame of reference. For the most part, normal human thought is significantly irrational and biased toward our individual inherited irrational cultural belief system. These learned irrational thought processes become apparent when they are compared with a rational reference point or standard (see Table One). Awareness of this irrational bias opens the door to the adoption of more accurate standards and therefore a more rational bias. Reference Points for Cognitive Inaccuracies and Irrational Bias 1. We often think we must be unblemished and without flaws. We must not be flawed and fallible. A blemish or a mistake means we are no good, unworthy. This absolute rating and labeling causes poor self-acceptance and poor acceptance of others, and promotes the concept of all-good or all-bad,
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rigid and dogmatic cultural belief systems, bigotry, stereotyping, and blind trust. It also tends to create vertical hierarchies with parent-to-child, one-way communication. 2. We often state our opinions as rigid, true-or-false absolute statements about the universe, branding them as right or wrong. We use rigid terms, such as should, must, have to, and need to, implying that we have no choices or we are obligated to a certain choice. This tends to reinforce rigidity and the idea of a lack of choices. Inaccurate definitions and rigid use of words, combined with faulty assumptions, generalities, and vagaries interferes with our reasonable thought processes and good communication. 3. We frequently misperceive and transfer the responsibility for our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to others. This results in our needlessly upsetting and angering ourselves. You made me do it. You made me act that way. You made me feel bad, angry, guilty. You hurt my feelings. Irrational bias tends to decrease accuracy of thinking in the present, and shifts us to a retroactive bias with poor self-responsibility, second-guessing, blaming, fault-finding and punishing should a, would a, could a. Constraining choices to rigid words and absolute concepts is very limiting, especially in a world with many variables that is in a state of frequent change. The rigidly held inaccuracies along with biased cultural belief systems decreases our quality of thinking and decreases the probability of having the most harmonious relationships with ourselves and others. It also tends to contribute a lack of awareness of our own irrational thoughts and behavior.
Emotional disturbance, in sum, usually stems from your Irrational Beliefs. You can uncover the basic unrealistic ideas with which you disturb yourself; see clearly how misleading these ideas are; and, on the basis of better information and clearer thinking, change the Beliefs behind you disturbance. (Ellis and Harper 1997, p.69)
Life may be characterized as a series of choices and outcomes. We would like to predict the outcome of a particular choice with some degree of certainty, but doing so depends on understanding the many variables in our almost everchanging world. In such a complicated environment, awareness of the probable outcomes of our choices enhances adaptability and subsequent satisfaction by increasing our ability to make reasonable choices. In other words, we have a higher probability of getting the best outcomes if we can predict them more accurately. Our best chance lies in acquiring accurate information and assumptions, using accurate thought processes, and making sure we accurately relate our thinking to the given situation. Rational bias tends to enhance overall
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INACCURATE IRRATIONAL BIAS Faulty rigid assumptions; dogmatic beliefs, unsupported by facts, but stated as unquestionable truths, with questioning prohibited Rigid, maladaptive, and subjective bias Absolute, static bias: certain, finite Limits freedom of executive function Veridical bias: true and false, either-or, absolute, concrete, black and white; constrictive and restrictive Suppressed ambiguity resulting in decreased frontal lobe requirements: afrontal Parental, demanding; adversarial Semantic inaccuracy: vague, poorly defined, with overgeneralizations: always, never, every, none. Rigid; implies no other choices: I should, I must, I have to, I need to. You are obligated. Tends to ignore inaccuracies of information, of thought process, and of time-space orientation; retroactive Inaccuracies and faulty assumptions enhance faulty cause-and-effect conclusions General unawareness of irrational cognitive process
ACCURATE RATIONAL BIAS Rational flexible assumptions stated as theories; hypotheses and conclusions supported by evidence, scientific testing, and mandatory questioning Flexible, adaptive, and objective bias Variable, dynamic bias: uncertain, probability Expands freedom of executive function Associative bias: abstract, gray, gradated; expansive and extensive Increased ambiguity resulting in increased frontal lobe requirements: frontal Adult, requesting; cooperative Semantic accuracy: specific, good definition and word use: frequently, infrequently, many, few, etc. Flexible; implies choices; preferential: I prefer, Id rather, Id like to. It is a choice. Tends to promote accuracies of information, of thought process, and of time-space orientation; forwardthinking Accuracies and rational assumptions enhance more plausible and accurate cause-and-effect conclusions General awareness of rational cognitive process
Table One
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accuracy of thinking in each of these areas, leading to more accurate decision making and improving the probability of reasonable outcomes. On the other hand, irrational bias tends to decrease overall accuracy of thinking, leading to irrational decision making with decreased probability of obtaining the most reasonable outcomes. The standards for measuring accurate and rational cognitive bias arise from the following assumptions: 1. We can accurately characterize humans as flawed and fallible. As imperfect beings, we make mistakes from time to time. Accepting our own flaws and fallibilities encourages acceptance of ourselves and others as humans. This self-and-other-acceptance promotes adult communication. Accepting humans as flawed and fallible is incompatible with inaccurate absolute rating, labeling, and stereotyping, because we doubt that anyone is all bad or all good. Rational human acceptance minimizes cultural bigotry while promoting realistic belief systems. It also encourages a bit of healthy skepticism about our self and other humans, since after all, we are all flawed and fallible. 2. Flexibility generally works better than rigidity. Being flexible and choosing the most pertinent information available improves our ability to make better choices and obtain more preferred outcomes. The rigid terms should, must, have to, got to and need to restrict options, while the preferential terms I would prefer, I would rather, and I think it is best multiply the possible desirable outcomes. Opinions replace absolute right and wrong. The accuracy of our thought process and communication is improved by using the most accurate word definitions; making specific rather than vague statements and avoiding faulty premises, assumptions, generalities, and culturally biased irrational belief systems. 3. Thinking has a significant causal relationship with our feelings. Our thoughts cause or influence our feelings whether we are aware of the connection or not. We usually feel the way we think, and we think the way we choose to think. Therefore, we have the responsibility to choose the healthiest and most rational thoughts in order to maximize our emotional and behavioral balance. To a large extent, we generate our emotions by what we tell ourselves about a situation, although we also react to the situation itself. While the situation may contribute to our initial emotional response, our sustained reaction depends on what we tell ourselves our self-talk. Self-talk happens almost continuously, usually without our awareness and nearly always without our direction. Becoming aware of our internal narrative about a situation gives us some control over the effect we have on ourselves. When something unexpected happens, I might tell myself inaccurate, irrational, and negative things about the situation, needlessly upsetting myself about it. If I choose to describe the situation to myself as accurately as possible, I can respond with appropriate
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emotion. Our self-responsibility is enhanced when we take responsibility for our thoughts and how those thoughts affect our feelings and behaviors. We are each responsible for our own cognitive accuracy including our individual responsibility for our own thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. An orientation towards rational accuracy enables thinking in the present, along with proactive, forward looking and active involvement, adaptability, continuous quality improvement, positive reinforcement, and recognition of the importance of rational thought processes. Because of lifes complexities, thinking accurately is important to maximize preferred outcomes. Self-acceptance and flexibility, along with self-responsibility, increase the accuracy and quality of our thought and the probability of making the best choices for achieving the best and most reasonable outcomes. This improved quality of accurate thought promotes more harmonious interactions within us and with others. It also promotes our own awareness of thinking and acting rationally, completing the circle. Fortunately, learned inaccurate irrational thinking habits can be superseded or replaced with new more accurate rational associative thought processes. It takes effort and practice to learn the concepts. The more we practice and the harder we practice, the more often we are able to replace our habitual inaccurate irrational thinking with the new skill of accurate rational thinking. This change in the way we think allows us to use associative reasoning rather than rigid black and white, either-or thinking to evaluate our choices and outcomes. Rational associative reasoning maximizes accurate decision-making, or accurate executive functioning. This increased accuracy contributes directly to thinking more rationally with more reasonable outcomes. Neuroscientists sometimes describe normal human brain functioning in terms of a computer. Our brain hardware comes from our inherited genetic blueprint and our information and software is learned from our environment. Like computers, humans may have faulty, or pathological, hardware and software. Both computers and humans tend to obtain the most accurate results when they have the best hardware, the most up-to-date software, and the most accurate and timely data. This allows the best information to be accurately processed to achieve the most reasonable conclusions at a desired point in time. Computers and humans with inaccurate and out-of-date data and faulty software tend to produce inaccurate faulty results. The brain stores memories as information in various storage areas that serve a function similar to a computers hard drive. A portion of this storage contains pieces of information that determine how we process information the rules of how we think. These rules are similar to computer software that determines how information is processed. The working memory of the brains frontal lobes
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compares to the computers random access memory, and the information the brain uses to make decisions with compares to the data stored in the computer. The frontal lobes use the processing rules to think with, evaluating and prioritizing the available information to make the best choices for reaching our goals. The ability of the frontal lobes to use working memory and function optimally depends heavily on the process information available. They function best with accurate and timely information combined with accurate thought processes that is, accurate data and appropriate software. Thinking uses our internal learned information, along with external environmental information, to regulate our interaction with the environment. The software is very important because the frontal lobes rely on it to make executive decisions and to help regulate our emotions and overall well-being. The process memory, i.e., the acquired and developed rules, directly affects the bias of our thought processing. As we might expect, inaccurate irrational process information leads to inaccurate irrational information processing and subsequent inaccurate executive decisions. Faulty inaccurate irrational software will tends to produce unwelcome and unpredictable outcomes. Where do inaccurate irrational thought processes come from? How could we have learned or inherited faulty inaccurate irrational thinking without realizing it? Over human history, thought processes have evolved from simplistic concrete processes to the potential for complex, abstract, associative reasoning made possible by the dramatic evolution of the neocortex and frontal lobes. The potential for improved frontal lobe reasoning evolved in humans in parallel with our development of language skills. This same evolution from concrete thinking to the potential for abstraction is seen in the frontal lobe development of an individual, from childhood to adulthood. In early developmental stages, concrete thought processes evolve towards the capacity for more flexible associative and abstract thinking. These developmental stages, towards puberty and into young adulthood, are accompanied by maturation of the frontal lobes. And this frontal lobe development, along with language, learning, and education, allows for increased improvement in our decision making process, or our executive functioning. If the process stopped there, we might not face the problem of irrational thought processes. But in childhood we not only learn the concrete thinking of our ancestors, but also we inadvertently learn many cognitive and semantic inaccuracies, faulty assumptions, and culturally biased misperceptions handed down from generations of uninformed and frequently uneducated elders. Because children have no experience with which to evaluate different concepts, they tend absorb what they encounter without regard for its usefulness or accuracy.
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Concrete learning from our early developmental stages tends to be stored in our memory-storage areas, along with all the cultural misinformation we have absorbed. The stored information usually reflects the generally irrational processes of the parent-to-child interactions under which they were formed. As a result, the thinking and interactions of adults frequently exhibit these parentto-child characteristics. Even though the parent-to-child process appears to have evolved in a beneficial way as an attempt to manage the childs behavior and provide structure for the yet undeveloped frontal lobes, the unfortunate result is that the learned irrational parental thinking is carried into adulthood. This irrational thinking is usually passed down through many generations and carries into adulthood because of our tendency to gravitate toward the familiar and away from the unfamiliar. Brain studies have shown that we experience positive rewards for sticking with the familiar and negative rewards, or punishment for venturing into the unfamiliar. Not only are we drawn to the familiar, but we generally receive little or no training to enhance our cognitive accuracies and help us develop rational, reasonable, and logical thought. Most cultures may actually punish attempts to promote cognitive accuracy because it can lead to the questioning of authority and cultural beliefs. This usually predisposes us toward choosing information based on familiarity rather than intellect, regardless of what might be in our best interest. Due to the parent-child environment in which these concepts were learned, adults still tend to use the familiar parental cognitive process in adult-adult interactions. The learned familiar irrational processes from our past usually pre-empt more reasonable and accurate associative reasoning processes, resulting in irrational thinking and behaving. These parent-to-child irrational thought processes are generally inadequate as a basis for rational adult-to-adult communication. But how can we learn these new skills, if no one throughout our development provides examples or teaches us to think more logically? How do we improve our cognitive accuracy when we have acquired little or no rational or logical information for our memory storage areas with which to think rationally and logically? And how can we use our acquired irrational rigid thought processes to learn how to think rationally and flexibly make more rational choices? The strong tendency to gravitate toward the familiar appears to impede rapid change in humans and cultures, and seems to pull us backwards to more primitive, inaccurate, concrete ways of thinking, decision making, and behaving. Our inherited rigid concrete thinking, coupled with inaccurate information and assumptions, hinders our progress to more accurate rational thought. The predetermined or seemingly automatic choice to use old information and processes for solving a problem in a given moment, to the exclusion of
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current and new information, shifts us toward living in the past. Of course we benefit from relying on culturally-known information for problem solving and planning, but if, by doing so, we exclude new and possibly very pertinent information, our familiar solutions may fail to meet the new problems we face in the present. In this state, time and location become disjoint we operate in the now as if it were identical to the past. This rigid time-space distortion plays a role in our irrational bias and appears to be magnified by our irrational software, causing even more significant distortions and difficulties. It is generally in our best interest if the frontal lobes use all of the available timely and pertinent information to make decisions with, not just that which we learned in the past. This seems especially important when we differentiate between choices that feel good but may not be in our best interest, and choices that feel bad but may be in our best interest to make. Without accurate information about the situation at hand, we may decide on a course of action only because it promises familiar rewards or steers clear of imagined threats. Also, thinking accurately and rationally would seem to be the best choice when dealing with emotional issues, such as in bonded intimate relationships, or when some memories seem to be tagged with a particular emotion from the past that may not be relevant in the present. Conversely, shifting toward using all of the most pertinent, most accurate, and most current information available, along with flexible accurate software, shifts our time-space to the present. By living in the present we facilitate the most accurate best choice-best outcome decisions. In these situations, the frontal lobe executive function and working memory are used to make the most accurate rational choices using all available pertinent information to make decisions in the present. This is preferable to making irrational choices using non-pertinent information from the past, and then using the frontal lobes to retroactively justify and rationalize the decision, thereby living in the past. Accurate integration of time and space is of foremost importance for problem solving and finding the best solution at any given time. Our knowledge of normal human brain functioning indicates that we have the capacity to choose how we think and what we think, and to make the best choices to obtain appropriate outcomes at a given time in order to be more adaptable. We have the capacity to choose accurate information and accurately process it to find and choose the most accurate, reasonable, and timely solutions. We have the ability for flexibility and the capacity to bias our choices and outcomes in a more accurate rational way. Why wouldnt we choose to operate with an accurate rational bias with the highest degree of flexibility, incorporating semantic accuracy, accuracy of information processing, and accuracy of information timeliness?
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It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. (Commonly attributed to Charles Darwin, biologist)
Ideally, the next paradigm shift in human evolution will be the implementation and integration of cognitive accuracy. If so, then flexible thinking and living rationally in the present may become the norm instead of the exception. Living rationally in the present is enhanced by increasing the degree of accurate rational thinking. As accurate rational thoughts and behaviors increase, irrational thoughts and behaviors decrease. This increased accurate rational thinking provides increased flexibility with the potential to maximize choices, achieve preferred outcomes, and minimize undesirable ones. Overwriting inaccurate, irrational, parental, absolute, rigid thinking by learning and practicing accurate, flexible, rational and logical thinking tends to maximize and enhance executive functioning, which improves adaptability. We have these rational tools available, but they are often unrecognized, overlooked, or even belittled. Hopefully, this accurate rational cognitive evolutionary step will take place before an irrationally-induced catastrophe occurs, because current habits of thinking and behavior tend to promote rigidity, disharmony, self-loathing, aggression, anger, hatred, violence, murder, and wars. (Beck, 1999) As Michelson and Morley found, if you calibrate your yardstick to the culture you wish to measure, the yardstick measures only what the culture values. As you move from culture to culture, the yardstick shows normal for each culture, even though there may be obvious large differences between the cultural beliefs. Such a yardstick reflects a cultural bias. Psychological relativity uses cognitive accuracy as a reference point to measure between cultures and this reference point does not change as you go from one culture to the next. Psychological relativity is biased toward cognitive accuracy and transcends cultural belief systems. So the cultures may change but the yardstick doesnt, except when cognitive accuracy provides increased scientific knowledge that is directly applicable to all humans, regardless of culture. For accurate evaluations, we do well to calibrate our cognitive yardstick with the most accurate, timeliest information, applied consistently and rationally. Once a sufficient number of adults acquire the skills and habit of cognitive accuracy, their interactions with children will not pass on faulty beliefs and thought processes. Children raised by these adults will have the opportunity to develop and extend their cognitive accuracy at an early age. As adults, they will
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use cognitive accuracy to address and resolve problems with competent critical thinking and emotional balance. This process of raising children with rational skills constitutes what Korzybski called time-binding the unique characteristic of humans that, if used consciously and accurately, enables each successive generation to build on the successes of their parents. Time-binding is important for living in the present. (Korzybski, 1958) Will science rally as the voice of accurate rational and logical reasoning? Will scientists and society embrace the teaching of accurate rational reasoning in schools? Who could argue against teaching society to think and behave rationally and logically? And can we afford not to?
In the final analysis, we have to depend on our rich resources of rationality to recognize and modify our irrationality. ... We can recognize that our own interests are best served by applying reason. In this way, we can help to provide a better life for ourselves, others, and the future children of the world. (Beck, 1999, p.287)
REFERENCES
Beck, A.T., MD. 1999. Prisoners of Hate: The Cognitive Basis of Anger, Hostility, and Violence. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. Ellis, A., PhD, and R.A. Harper, PhD. 1997. A Guide to Rational Living (3rd Edition). North Hollywood, CA: Melvin Powers Wilshire Book Company. (Original work published 1976) Goldberg, E. 2002. Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Hermann Minkowski, Space and Time in Hendrik A. Lorentz, Albert Einstein, Hermann Minkowski, and Hermann Weyl, The Principle of Relativity: A Collection of Original Memoirs on the Special and General Theory of Relativity (Dover, New York, 1952).
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PEOPLE IN QUANDARIES: SIXTY YEARS LATER

MARTIN H. LEVINSON, PHD*
ENDELL JOHNSON worked tirelessly through his life to create understanding of the processes of language and speech production. He developed a university-level course on general semantics, and it became one of the most popular courses at the University of Iowa, where he was a professor. He wrote more than 150 articles and nearly as many clinical and theoretical papers on the subject of language. And he published ten communications-related books, including People in Quandaries: The Semantics of Personal Adjustment (1946) which was a best seller for several years. I was introduced to People in Quandaries in 1979, in an adult education course taught by IGS trustee Harry Maynard titled How to Improve Your Thinking and Communicating Ability (the course really should have been called General Semantics 101). Maynard assigned several chapters in the book over the length of the semester, but I found Johnsons ideas and writing style so
* Martin H. Levinson, PhD, author of many ETC articles, recently retired as director of PROJECT SHARE, a New York City school-based drug prevention program. Dr. Levinson also writes the ETC Books feature.
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compelling that I finished the text in the first month of the term. In the remaining weeks, Johnsons clear and engaging critiques on the usefulness of general semantics to solve problems of everyday living motivated me to read other GS classics, like Language Habits in Human Affairs (1941) and Language in Thought and Action (1949). I was determined to learn as much as I could about general semantics. I recently reread People in Quandaries and found, sixty years after it was originally published, its advice and relevance for solving personal problems still superb. I was moved by the profundity of Johnsons thoughts, the elegance of his writing, and the excellent examples he used to illustrate the practicality of general semantics for everyday life. I hope when you finish this brief overview of some of the key points in People in Quandaries, you will come to the same positive conclusions as I did regarding this admirable work. (The subheads that follow, and quoted remarks, are from People in Quandaries the subheads are chapter titles from the book.) A Brief Overview of People in Quandaries Introduction This is a book about the problems we have in trying to live with ourselves and with each other. These problems, together with ways of dealing with them, are discussed from the point of view of general semantics. This point of view emphasizes those aspects of the scientific method that are useful in daily living. Verbal Cocoons Wendell Johnson was a counselor and teacher who spent much of his energy helping individuals to overcome their personal maladjustments. He observed such maladjustments often developed in people who are frustrated and distraught idealists. They suffer from, what he termed, the IFD disease failure to achieve high goals or ideals (the I), leads to frustration (the F), and after sufficient repetition to demoralization and depression (the D). Johnson found the ideals of maladjusted individuals problematic in three important respects: (i) these ideals are mathematically unlikely to be reached (e.g., the woman who wants to be a movie star in feature films; the man who wants to make a million dollars a year by the time he is 25), (ii) the ideals are very highly valued, so that one is devastated when they are not achieved (e.g., failing to become a member of a sorority or to make partner in a law firm), and (iii) they involve words with no external referents, or means of measurement
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they are vague (e.g., the person who wants to be successful, wealthy, beautiful, popular, famous, or powerful.) Because maladjusted people are idealists, they subject themselves more or less continuously to the experience of failure and so develop feelings of inferiority. ... these people have not learned the simple fact that there is no failure in nature. Failure is a matter of evaluation. Failure is the felt difference between what you expect and what you get. Johnson maintains that the personal quandaries we experience are like verbal cocoons in which we elaborately encase ourselves, and from which we do not tend to hatch. The particular structure of these cocoons appears to be determined in great measure by the structure of the society in which they are formed and the structure of this society has been and continues to be determined significantly by the structure of the language which we so unconsciously acquire and so unreflectively employ. Simply by using that language and by living in terms of the basic orientation which it represents and fosters, we tend to cultivate the idealism and so to suffer from the frustration and demoralization which are so conspicuous in the lives of people in quandaries. Maladjusted people are often unable to clearly describe what their problem is. Some talk a great deal, with an impressive verbal output, but never get outside their verbal circles. Others say very little, because they do not know how to express what they think and feel. Whatever the case, a general characteristic of maladjusted people is they have difficulty in specifying questions in such a way as to produce answers that would be relaxing, satisfying, and adjustive. An important characteristic of maladjusted people is they ask vague questions. Such questions cannot be answered with precision because the terminology of the question determines the terminology of the answer. Johnson further says that, The particular questions we ask ourselves determine the kinds of answers we get, and the answers we get make of our lives, in large measure, the sort of lives they are. To improve the kinds of answers we get, and so improve our quality of life, Johnson recommends learning general semantics. Never the Same River The philosopher Heraclitus asserted, over two thousand years ago, that one cannot step in the same river twice. In saying this he was going beyond the assertion that no two things are exactly alike, to the idea that no one thing is ever twice the same. He was expressing a process-character view of reality, which is a foundational idea to science and general semantics. Although change is a fact of life, many people resist it. A key reason for this is that our culture teaches us to heed and respect similarities over differences.
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This tends to produce sweeping generalizations such as you cant change human nature, like father, like son, you get what you pay for, etc. Exceptions get swept under the rug with reference to the misunderstood proclamation that exceptions prove the rule. People gravitate to evidence that backs up their generalizations. But, Once we begin to look for differences instead of similarities, it is practically impossible not to get new ideas. For the habit of asking How do these things differ? or How might this be different? is one of the basic techniques of originality and creativeness. And it is just such a habit that is required for optimal adjustment to a reality of process, change, flux with its consequently incessantly occurring differences. The scientific method, a policy of subjecting the word to the test of experience and revising it accordingly, is an excellent technique to detect differences in things. That was shown in 1514, when Galileo climbed to the top of the leaning tower of Pisa and performed one of the first deliberately executed scientific experiments, in which he demonstrated that a heavy cannon ball drops no faster than a lighter one. Since then science has led the way to immense technological progress in our ever-changing world. General semantics may be regarded as a systematic attempt to formulate the general method of science in such a manner that it might be applied not only in the arena of professional science and technology, but generally in daily life. It belongs, thus, in a tradition of Galileo and Newton and Maxwell, of Darwin and Pasteur and Pavlov, of Peirce and Russell and Einstein of Heraclitus the tradition of breaking traditions as a changing reality and changing humanity require. Science and Personality Calling it (the general method of science) common sense might be a mistake. It is simple sense, but it may not be very common. It tends to be very obvious once stated or demonstrated. It is so obvious that one has to be extremely careful not to ignore it. Scarcely anything is more difficult to learn than something that is obvious. It is very much like trying to learn nothing at all, and it requires tremendous alertness to learn nothing. For example, most people, according to experienced swimming teachers, find it very difficult to learn how to float apparently because there is nothing to learn. You dont do anything in order to float. What you have to learn is to do nothing that would keep you from floating. Learning general semantics learning, that is, how to be scientific in the sense in which we are using the term is very much like that.
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In addition to the unlearning or forgetting that is usually required of the student of general semantics, or of scientific method, there is demanded of him, as we have indicated, much learning of the obvious. There are two common reactions that we tend to make to whatever we label as obvious. The first is that we feel we have always known it, since it is difficult to believe that we could have overlooked it. The second is that we feel that it must be not important, because it is so easy to understand. In either case we tend to brush it aside, to spend any if little time pondering over it, and so we miss its implications. Science and Tomorrow The following observation has even more relevance today than when Johnson made it sixty years ago. Between nations and groups of nations, within nations, and within individuals in every quarter of the globe there is going on a tremendous and turbulent conflict. New ideals, new beliefs, new methods and ways of life are challenging old ideals and beliefs, old methods and ways of life. The old is prescientific and authoritarian; the new is scientific (and characterized by inquiry into the attributes of people and things). Although Johnson wasnt around to testify at the recent Supreme Court nomination hearings, he observes, from a scientific point of view, that you cant separate individuals charged with making legal interpretations from their statements about them. The scientifically oriented person understands that what the Judge calls the voice of The Law is simply the Judges own interpretation of the facts of the case at hand and of statements that other men have made ... the scientist, conscious of projection in himself and in others, realizes that the voice of the Judge is indeed the voice of the Judge himself. When it comes to the subject of effective living, as we predict, so we adjust to reality. (But) false knowledge and false assumptions make for false predictions .... Errors in prediction frequently incur physical injury, sometimes death. In the social realm they occasionally lead to depressions, widespread unemployment, international frictions, and wars. To counter prediction-error, Johnson recommends using a scientific orientation, as the making of accurate forecasts is a recognized objective of the scientific approach. The World of Not-Words In a basic sense a fact is an observation. An observation is the act of an individual. So it is that a fact is a personal affair ... that is why a fact (considered as a personal observation) is necessarily incomplete: The individual who observes it is limited in observational capacity. And that, in part, is why a fact
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changes: The individual who observes it is himself changing continuously, and so he observes differently from time to time. Like facts, word definitions are also inevitably incomplete. People who are accustomed to look in the dictionary for the meanings of words proceed under a great delusion if they suppose that what they find in a dictionary is a words full meaning. What they find is that the dictionary definition of a word consists of other words. Moreover, a dictionary is a closed system. In it, not only is a word defined in other words, but these, in their turn, are also defined in other words and if you follow far enough this trail of definitions of words, you find that it is a trail that goes in a great circle, so that finally you make the enlightening discovery that the words are defined by each other. The World of Words One of the advantages of writing over speaking lies, as a matter of fact, in the increased awareness of language that writing involves. At least, language that is written is not so likely to be forgotten, and it is not so likely to be uncritically accepted, as is language writ in the water of speech. Certain primitive societies have managed to achieve rudimentary forms of culture and to survive for centuries without written language, but no advanced civilization was possible until the invention of writing and other methods of making more or less permanent records of symbolization, such as painting, geometry, and other mathematics, etc. Professor John Dewey once declared that the invention of symbols was the outstanding event in human history. The crucial point to be considered in a study of language behavior is the relationship between language and reality, between words and not-words. Except as we understand this relationship, we run the grave risk of straining the delicate connection between words and facts, of permitting our words to go wild, and so of creating for ourselves fabrications of fantasy and delusion ... It is also to be recognized that by far the greater part of what we communicate to others in the form of language is not words about facts in a direct sense; rather it is predominantly made up of words about words. Firsthand reports of direct experience comprise a relatively small proportion of the speech of most of us. The words we use can fool us. Because the words we speak today are quite the same as the ones we spoke yesterday, we tend to create the illusion that what we speak about is also quite the same. It can be serious enough when change takes us by surprise; what is even more serious is to have change escape our notice entirely. That is the condition of persistent delusion.
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Professor R.D. Carmichael pointed out that the universe, as known to us, is a joint phenomenon between the observer and the observed. Translated into the language of general semantics, this statement says that the process of abstracting is personal, private, and projective. The moment you say of any word or statement, that it constitutes an abstract, you imply that it is abstracted from something by someone. The words by someone represent the fact that an abstract is personal or private .... And if abstracting is a personal process it must also be projective. In science as general method, at is best, the process of abstracting is cleared of semantic blockages and proceeds freely. Under such conditions it is selfcorrective .... Any theory, assumption, belief, opinion, etc., is automatically referred back to reality to be tested against relevant observations and experience, and to be corrected accordingly. In this sense, any scientific theory contains the seeds of its own revision. That is why scientists are always changing their minds. A scientific truth is always tentative, subject to change in accordance with the further observations to which it invariably directs us. The Language of Maladjustment It is worth special comment that, while it is probably widely recognized that people who talk very little are likely to be not altogether well adjusted, it is not so generally understood that glibness is quite as significant in this respect .... The very fact that in our culture a high value is placed on the gift of gab accounts, in no small part, for the nervous striving for volubility which some persons exhibit. It accounts for the tendency of other individuals to lose confidence in their ability to speak acceptably and so become relatively quiet .... In this connection, it is of more than minor interest that often one of the most noticeable effects of the study of general semantics is to be seen in a tendency to delay ones verbal reactions, and to talk less, more slowly, with less agitation and more accuracy and so with greater self-assurance and effectiveness. Human maladjustment is fostered by certain types of language rigidity. Content rigidity is to be seen in the range and variability of topics that one speaks about; formal rigidity in the degree of monotony of sentence form, style, word usage, etc.; and evaluational rigidity in the persistence of verbally expressed beliefs. Johnson offers the following as an example of evaluational rigidity. It has been reported of a certain British colonial governor in Africa that he had been having great difficulty keeping the natives under control. One day,
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however, a friend visited him, sized up the situation and made a suggestion. With the governors consent he ordered from London a generous supply of large pictures of Queen Victoria. When they arrived he placed them on the walls in all the native huts. The governors difficulties ended as if by magic; the natives became very subservient. Bewildered, the governor asked his friend, Why on earth do these natives respond this way to a picture of Queen Victoria? But his friend replied, Picture of Queen Victoria? Oh, no. To these natives it isnt a picture of Queen Victoria. It is Queen Victoria! Language as Technique Man has been called the talking animal. Man is not the same as an animal, of course, precisely because he does talk. Animals have their problems and their tragedies, but man seems to be the only creature who can talk himself into difficulties that would otherwise not exist. One of those difficulties is coming up with a useful definition of intelligence. Alfred Binet, the creator of the modern intelligence test, stressed the significance of self-criticism in his attempts to define intelligence. The extent and the effectiveness of ones self-critical tendencies are to be seen particularly in the questions one asks, especially the questions one asks concerning the validity and the significance of ones own beliefs and attitudes. People in quandaries often have difficulty asking cogent questions. They also frequently exhibit other kinds of linguistic awkwardness. Johnson states, The verbal ineptitude of people in quandaries is to be observed in extremes of verbal output; in dead-level abstracting; and in the elementalism, the absolutism, and the either-orishness of the structure of the language they employ. With a fair amount of practice one can become reasonably skilled in observing these characteristics of language behavior in oneself and in others. The ability to recognize them gives one a measure of control over them, and a degree of insight into the basic mechanisms of adequate evaluation. Our Common Maladjustments Johnson believes that aggression is in large measure a form of learned behavior. This means it is not something to be taken for granted as a fixed item in human nature. It is learned, as most other behavior is learned, simply to the extent that it gets results and to the extent that the individual recognizes no more effective means whereby he might obtain the same or more desirable results. It is this latter consideration that is crucial, from a general semantics point of
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view. For there are more effective means than maladjusted aggression to get more desirable results than it produces. Mature individuals, and societies, do not instinctively resort to aggression to bring about the outcomes they want, and that is a good thing because impulsive aggression tends to produce negative consequences for all concerned. Surely, for the good of humankind and the survival of our species, it is important for people to behave in a mature manner. Johnson says this about achieving maturity: For the normal adult the melody of childhood may linger on, but the song has ended; he does not permit the memory of early fears and affections to determine unduly his present conduct. He views his childhood as history, and he recognizes that evaluations and reactions adequate for him as an adult were neither necessary nor possible at the age of four. Growing up and achieving maturity for the individual is what the process of time-binding is for the (human) race. It is a matter of starting each new day not where yesterday began but where it ended. And So, Forth It is the distinctive contribution of general semantics that it formulates the method of science in a way that makes reasonably clear the possibilities of its application to our personal and social problems. It presents this method, in fact, as a design for living in the every day sense of the word. It attempts to cut through the bewildering overgrowth of elaborate theory and technicality, and so reveal the heartening simplicity of the few notions, principles, and techniques that make up the fundamentals of science. Johnson further states, ... there is something almost bold in the proposition that the method of science not only provides a means of investigating personality, but also represents in itself the pattern of behavior that constitutes normal personality. That is the fundamental proposition of this book, and of general semantics. The method of science is the method of sanity.
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Copyright 2005 Julie Larson. Reprinted by permission of Julie Larson and Creators Syndicate, Inc.
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TWO NEW BOOKS
As the publisher of an academic journal that regularly reviews books, the Institute of General Semantics (IGS) receives a steady stream of new books from publishers hoping for favorable reviews. Most of the books are too narrowly-focused, not relevant, or, in the judgment of our decision-makers, not interesting enough to mention to our readers. Within the past year, however, we received two books that we have chosen to excerpt here. The authors share two things in common: 1) both are IGS members, and 2) both refer positively to general semantics and/or Alfred Korzybski. Leon Pomeroy, in The New Science of Axiological Psychology, uses scientific validity measures to create empirical value science and a normative new science of axiological psychology by integrating cognitive psychology with Robert S. Hartmans formal theory of axiological science. It reveals a scientific way to identify and rank human values, achieving values appreciation, values clarification, and values measurement for the twenty-first century. (from the cover) The excerpt which follows includes the two concluding sections of Pomeroys Introduction, A Personal Note and Axiological Considerations. In these excerpts we learn about the authors professional experiences and influences, including Korzybski, Dr. Albert Ellis, and Robert S. Hartman, among many. We also get a sense of Pomeroys own scientific orientation toward his profession and his emphasis on empirical, quantitative data analysis. The book is not for those who instinctively retreat from numerical manifestations such as statistical tables, metrics, indices, means, and standard deviations. Extensively indexed, noted, and referenced, the book reads more as a thesis or research paper rather than as textbook or general interest book. 300
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However, even if one casually glosses over the numbers, its not difficult to follow Pomeroys summaries, conclusions, and consequences. His charge ought to ring true with readers who embrace Korzybskis theory of time-binding and its ethical implications: The concept of a morality based on science, an empirical/normative science of values and morals, remains alien to popular culture as well as to most educated people. This must change! Donald Lazeres Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy, however, is clearly written as a college textbook. As the back cover explains, This innovative textbook, for first-year and more advanced composition and critical thinking courses, addresses the need for college students to develop critical reading, writing, and thinking skills for self-defense in the contentious arenas of American civic rhetoric. Weve selected three excerpts from the 561-page book, including Lazeres Preface to Teachers (and Curious Students). The author justifies the need for the book and his rationale for organizing it as he has. He clearly recognizes and explains his own bias in commendable, first-person language. He cautions teachers who use the book to be on the lookout for inflicting their own political agendas onto their students, and he reminds them that the book is intended to be used in a composition and rhetoric class, not a political science or civics class. In Chapter 3, Definitions and Criteria of Critical Thinking, the author begins with a summary of the twelve basic skills for critical thinking as determined in 1984 by the California State Department of Educations Model Curriculum for Grades 8-12. These criteria bear strong resemblance to some of the basic principles of general semantics; indeed, one could make a strong case that a summary of general semantics principles could be fashioned to meet each specific criterion. Lazere pays his respects to this journal, the organization that spawned it (the International Society for General Semantics), and its first editor (S.I. Hayakawa) in chapter 9, Semantics in Rhetoric and Critical Thinking. Weve reprinted just the opening section to this chapter which provides a succinct abstract of some of the language topics addressed in Hayakawas Language in Thought and Action. Throughout his book, Lazere seems to maintain a general orientation that is very much in parallel with an extensional, general semantics point of view, even though he doesnt necessarily use GS-specific terms. His objective is to provide a guidebook for college students to read, think, and write more critically and with a corresponding attentiveness to civic responsibility. In the hands of skilled and committed teachers, his objective is certain to be realized.
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EXCERPTS FROM THE NEW SCIENCE OF AXIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
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New Book
Excerpts from THE NEW SCIENCE OF AXIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY

LEON POMEROY*
A Personal Note
ALUE is at once the most important, the most poorly understood, and the least studied concept in the field of psychology. About this, I am in agreement with the late Milton Rokeach (Rokeach, 1973). Looking back over the history of clinical psychology, we see that few psychologists have undertaken a scientific or clinical study of values and morals in spite of their enormous clinical and societal relevance. By default, values are left to religion, humanism, and philosophy. Yet, values and morals are too important to be left in those hands alone, a view I have not always held as a clinical and research psychologist. My career in psychology, including my initial training in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic personality theory, began as a graduate student at the University of Texas in Austin. In those days, the city of Austin boasted 90,000 people instead of millions, and the streets were open without traffic jams! At U.T. Austin, I studied under Gardner Lindzey who presided over the psychology department and Kenneth Spence who had psychoanalyzed B. F. Skinner at Harvard. I was most impressed by Spences presentation of learning theory,
* Recently retired from private practice and from the Outpatient Clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs at Brooklyn, Dr. Pomeroy devotes full time to the advancement of Hartmans legacy in science and to the advancement of tomorrows psychology today, based on Hartmans discoveries, and known as the New Moral Psychology.
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Karl Dallenbachs presentation of the history of psychology, Bruce Deatherages neurophysiology, R.J. Williamss biochemical individuality, and A.J. Welchs biomedical engineering. I was privileged at the University of Texas in Austin to carry out an interdisciplinary doctoral dissertation involving many academic departments, and I benefited from generous scholarships and research assistantships. This great university encouraged and supported my growth as a young scholar. I want U.T. Austin to know that my rich educational opportunities at Texas were not squandered. My doctoral work at Austin was followed by an academic appointment at Long Island University and a private clinical practice on Manhattans Upper East Side. Between 1969 and 1973, my approach to clinical psychology was supported and enriched as a clinical post doctoral fellow at the Ellis Institute in Manhattan. The clinical orientation of cognitive psychology focuses on highly internalized beliefs rather than on the Id, Ego, or Superego structures of psychoanalysis. My work with belief structures ultimately took me to the study of value structures after I discovered Robert S. Hartman (Hartman, 1967b) while a fellow at the Ellis Institute. I have since struggled to understand the relation between values and beliefs and have come to the conclusion that all beliefs involve values, but not all values involve beliefs. In time I retired from teaching and accepted a position as Senior Staff Psychologist at a major medical center, The Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center Outpatient Clinic in Brooklyn. This move permitted me to devote my career largely to clinical practice. During this time I was fortunate to meet a group of progressive physicians seeking to establish an International Academy of Preventive or Alternative Medicine. They approached me, knowing my interests and background as a former Research Assistant to R.J. Williams of the Clayton Foundation Biochemical Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. Williams was a friend of Linus Pauling, Julian Huxley, and other notables who visited our Institute on the Texas campus from time to time. Williams is known for his publications in the fields of nutrition, alcoholism, cancer, and biochemical individuality (Williams, 1959). He is known also for having discovered more vitamins and their variants than any other scientist in the world. These physicians asked me to invite R.J. Williams and Linus Pauling (Pauling, 2001) to an organizational meeting in St. Louis, Missouri in the early 1970s. I did, and they agreed to come. They later became active sponsors of our international alternative medicine society, composed largely of doctors dedicated to proactive biodynamic medicine as well as to pharmacodynamic crisis medicine. During my years as Board member, President, and founding Editor-
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in-chief of IAPM publications, I became aware of problems with patient compliance in preventive and wellness care practices. I was intrigued by various lifestyle, herbal, nutritional, and other interventions. I was also impressed by the frequent lack of will on the part of patients to use this information to make rational health choices. The problem of patient motivation troubled me for many years before I discovered the importance of the moral dimensions of medicine and psychology. The power of values coming alive within us is seen in spirituality and mysticism. I affirm at the outset that my method is science, but my goal is religion, with a good dose of Know thyself in between. Nothing is like facing down the dramatic limitations of science in searching for truth and discovering that you have gone as far as science can take you. Then a profound sense of humility before or in the presence of creation is experienced. As a scientist I have never felt the need to choose between science and religion! I know what is necessary and sufficient for the practice of my profession while pushing the envelope of research understanding, and in the end my faith in creation and God comforts me. I am confident that I live in a lawful and infinite cosmos containing an infinite number of universes, each with its own laws, yet sharing universal laws. Because of the essential infinity of nature, our finite existence cannot prepare us for what is out there. I made peace with an infinite universe as a scientist, clinician, and person. I make an effort to balance the need to know with the needs not to know and to feel at one with the universe. My present clinical orientation is that of cognitive psychology theory and practice, informed by axiological psychology. In my clinical work, I address acute presenting problems as well as self-actualization issues for people in challenging careers of one sort or another. Often my patients are in pain and arc highly motivated to find relief; but they are confused, having diminished rational autonomy and must sort out many problems in living. Head problems combine with reality problems to make the role of the psychologist highly valued. Only a complex society like ours throws such intricate problems in living at us. In many societies of the world, religious faith and family love suffice; but this is not always the case in complex life styles such as our own. Individuals can lose balance, lose their way, and require a coach or teacher to help them sort things out with minimal down time or loss of sleep. In my work, emotions need to be clarified and reflected, for they are the telegraph or pipeline into the troublesome value and belief structures that come alive within us through habitual use. The Ellisonian Model of irrationality in the field of cognitive psychology identifies negative (irrational) beliefs commonly encountered in clinical prac-
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tice. Each possesses a value-signature or structure that can be identified and measured, using the Hartman Value Profile. For this reason, in my work I combine the Ellisonian concept of irrationality with Hartmanian laws of normal or reasonable valuation and evaluative habits. The elegance of Hartmans formal model and valuemetrics shifts the focus of my work to values, but beliefs remain a pipeline or telegraph into value structures. For these reasons, I define my work as valuecentric cognitive psychology or as axiological psychology to distinguish it from other systems of cognitive psychology. A mind bears some similarities to an onion; it is organized around layers of psychodynamics driven by constellations of evaluative habits. The work of psychotherapy concerns owning important layers with their habitual axiological (value) patterns, ranging from pro-self and pro-social to anti-self and anti-social axiological patterns, attitudes, and behaviors. Since the sensitivity, balance, and hierarchical ordering of these patterns can be measured using valuemetrics, they assume great importance in the system of psychotherapy made available by axiological psychology. Unlike the onion, the human mind is capable of compartmentalization, dissociation, splitting, and switching. Thus, clinicians may encounter multiple personalities and other dissociative phenomena common to post traumatic stress disorders. In my clinical work, I focus on what might be loosely called valuevision. It is clinically meaningful and can be measured using the Hartman Value Profile. The most important conclusions in life are those concerning ourselves; this is no exaggeration for two reasons. First, thinking stops at a conclusion. Second, conclusions build identity and self-esteem, or the lack of them. How we think has enormous implications for getting good things in life for ourselves and for other people. Thinking about thinking with the tools of axiological psychology can provide great relief for many conflicted individuals. In my focus on thinking about thinking, the following have played important roles: 1) life as a boy growing up on a New England Dairy Farm where I had much time to think and became interested in philosophy, 2) the study of cognitive psychology at the Ellis Institute in Manhattan, 3) my youthful study of Alfred Korzybskis writings in general semantics (Korzybski, 1948), 4) the study of philosopher Hartmans approach to values research, 5) the influence of Milton Ericksons writings and his practice of hypnotherapy; 6) collaboration with Nathaniel Branden in the conduct of Manhattan Intensives, 7) the writings of Viktor Frankl in the field of existential psychology, 8) the study of humanist thought and phenomenology, 9) the comparative study of world religions, 10) the influence of psychologys learning and personality theory, 11) an advanced degree in biology with courses in biochemistry, 12) organization work in the
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field of preventive medicine with Williams and Pauling to establish the worlds first international alternative medicine society for doctors, The International Academy of Preventive-Alternative Medicine (IAPM), 13) carefully listening to what my patients had to teach me for some thirty years, and 14) my passionate search for truth outside the box in my field of psychology. My interest in how the mind works is for me the master game, one that paid well and funded my values research over the years. Budding clinicians commonly marry psychological theories only to divorce them while finding an approach best suited to their own personalities. Often influential is some strong and successful personality in the field like Sigmund Freud, Carl Rogers, or Albert Ellis. Some clinicians follow the beaten path in an unquestioning manner; others sample what is out there and then go beyond the black box of their profession. Some systems of psychotherapy admit to more eclecticism than others. Some are more doctrinaire than others. Professional maturity means cultivating a personal style that succeeds with a wide range of personalities, though never with all. We have to appeal to our patients in the medium they understand best. In some cases we choose not to do so and lose them. Word of mouth referrals are the best kind because we get to work with like-minded souls. At times a judicious referral to another professional is the best intervention; no clinician can be all things to all people. Successful clinicians must take a good personal history, get their patients to express their thoughts and feelings, provide empathy, understanding, and emotional support, and achieve self-knowledge before attempting to help others. These objectives are important in any clinical relationship or internship. My own clinical work with patients was active and directive, in the tradition of a good teacher or coach. Clinical goals are to help patients to clarify what the good things in life are and to help them get these good things. Psychotherapy promotes pro-self, pro-social behaviors while helping patients get on friendly terms with their crazies. The thrust of psychotherapy is to foster rational autonomy, in the words of Rem B. Edwards (Edwards, 1981). My work in cognitive psychology sensitized me to the importance of values, morals, and beliefs in ways that training in other fields of psychotherapy, including psychoanalysis, does not. For many years I searched for a conceptual framework from which to examine the roles of values and emotions, motivations, and behaviors. I sought a better understanding of how to motivate patients to work on themselves once they understood how to make rational health choices. I especially sought ways to motivate patients in my private practice as well as in crisis medicine management. Why do patients not take better care of themselves? Why do they not complete psychological homework given to them? Do they have a deficient will to live?
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I finally concluded that no one is an island unto himself or herself, and that group therapy, including group support, are powerful motivators. The ultimate group context is the collective of society itself. More societal sponsorship of self-reliance and the moral duty to make rational health choices could make a tremendous difference. As it takes a village to raise a child, so it takes an enlightened society and nation to promote health and to control health, including health care costs. Our frontier past championed rugged and careless individualism, but the time has come to weigh in with rugged and carefully considered collectivism, without losing sight of the basic rights of individuals. I am always amazed at how intelligent human beings can be so stupid and so obviously indifferent to the importance of high cultural values and to the risks of low cultural evils. Much of the popular culture that poisons our young people is produced through the mass media by big businesses, interested only in their bottom line. The drumbeat of commercial insanity distorts minds and exports decadence to the world. I take little comfort in knowing that our half-smart American culture is a tragically flawed civilization that does not know any better. I take more comfort in knowing that the axiological psychology presented here offers inspiration and hope for the future to all who take notice. Speaking for the health care professions, I hope the world will come to realize that we doctors need societal backup, including policies of tough love based on moral education and grounded in basic value science. Our society must communicate with one voice on subjects like good citizenship, moral obligations to make rational health choices, and the importance of self-reliance. We must extend the frontiers of self-reliance as we expand the frontiers of genetics in order to remedy or compensate for the mistakes of nature that predispose individuals both to moral problems and to chronic degenerative diseases. Axiological Considerations The reconstruction of psychology, and ultimately of society, around values and morals must build upon Robert S. Hartmans philosophical research on values. This reconstruction has great practical implications for all the social sciences and for all humankind. If people cannot catch up with this work, then this work must catch up with people, or all is lost. Axiology in general and formal axiology in particular need to be studied and understood. As a psychologist, for axiology I substitute the terminology of values research and empirical value science. The phrase formal axiology was used by Hartman to designate his formal model of value phenomena and our deeply internalized evaluative habits. Deep
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axiological structures define personality, character, skills, defenses, emotions, motivations, behaviors, and the whole subject matter of psychology. The study of value phenomena is as critical to the practice of clinical psychology as it is to sociology, political science, and economics. Values result in beliefs, and no beliefs exist without value dimensions. Values result in character traits, and no such traits exist without value dimensions. Value structures are present in the evolution of all human traits and beliefs, and the knowledge of these value structures is basic cognitive value science. Hartmans formal model of value phenomena and its derivative value profiling methodology provide the foundations of basic cognitive science and give rise to valuecentric cognitive science and its application, axiological psychology. Unknown in all previous centuries, axiological psychology will emerge and prevail in the twenty-first century. My research supporting Hartmans work needs replication by independent investigators in order to achieve a critical mass of credibility and leap into popular culture and politics. The conservative aspect of science demands evidence, proof, facts, and ruthless empirical support all along the way. My work is a successful pilot study, demonstrating feasibility and practicality. I challenge others to replicate these empirical findings that support axiological psychology I ask critics who are steeped in traditional ways of thinking about emotions, motivations, and behaviors to reflect seriously on these empirical findings. Do they indeed support a precise cognitive science of emotions and motivations? Axiological psychology may carry a surplus of meanings associated with earlier failed attempts to build a system of moral psychology. The term may also carry surplus negative meanings associated with popular beliefs that equate morality itself with religious or humanist morality. The concept of a morality based on science, an empirical/normative science of values and morals, remains alien to popular culture as well as to most educated people. This must change! Popular equating of morality as such with religious morality confuses many and limits what can and must be done. Pioneering a new approach to morality likely will take several generations of grass roots consolidation to launch a bottom up revolution. I doubt that axiological psychology, empirical/normative value science, will benefit much from a top down revolution. This makes transforming todays elemental 3-R education into 4-R education all the more important. This is where axiological consciousness can play a vital role. Psychology originally broke from its mother discipline of philosophy over the importance of empiricism. Ironically, my profession now converges with philosophical thought in constructing axiological psychology. My story emphasizes the failure of psychology to investigate the scientific nature of values and morals and their clinical relevance, and Hartmans discovery of a means
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of doing so. My work integrating this discovery with psychology gives rise to axiological psychology. Reading and understanding Hartmans work inspired me to pick up where he left off and to go where psychologists like Allport, Kohlberg, and Rokeach failed to go. Subsequent chapters present hard data supporting Hartmans findings and his belief that the structure of value can be known and measured. I undertake the task with humility and excitement, knowing that I am defending an ingenious formal model of value and moral phenomena not conceived by me, but proven valid by me by employing the best clinical tests and measures available to me in my profession of psychology.
EXCERPTS FROM READING AND WRITING FOR CIVIC LITERACY
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New Book
Excerpts from READING AND WRITING FOR CIVIC LITERACY

DONALD LAZERE*
Preface to Teachers (and Curious Students) The humanities lead beyond functional literacy and basic skills to critical judgment and discrimination, enabling citizens to view political issues from an informed perspective.... Educational policy makers at all levels should define critical thinking as a basic skill and recognize the value of the humanities for developing it.... High schools should concentrate on an articulated sequence of courses in English, history, and foreign languages. Courses in these disciplines should not divorce skill and methods from knowledge of content and cultural context.... English courses need to emphasize the connections between expression, logic, and the critical use of textual and historical evidence. The Rockefeller Foundation Commission on the Humanities, The Humanities in American Life, 1980
* Donald Lazere is a Professor Emeritus of English, from California State Polytechnic University, where he won the Exceptional Merit Teaching Award. Currently a Lecturer at the University of Tennessee, he is the author of numerous articles and the editor of American Media and Mass Culture: Left Perspectives (University of California Press, 1987). Excerpts from Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy by Donald Lazere are reprinted with permission of the author and publisher. Copyright Paradigm Publishers 2005, paperback price $42.95.
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with readings addresses the need for college students to develop critical reading, writing, and thinking skills for self-defense amid the arguments that inundate them in American public discourse, especially as filtered through the mass media. Within the format of a textbook, mainly for the second term of first-year English or a more advanced composition course, it presents an original theory of argumentative rhetoric, an ideological framework for understanding public controversies, and a practical method for analyzing them. The approach to argument here is based on the principles of critical thinking a term that has all too often been used as a vague, catchall concept in textbooks but that I use with specific reference to the definitions developed by specialists in the discipline over the past two decades. In brief, this conception of critical thinking avoids technical terminology, complicated theoretical schemas such as the Toulmin model or stasis theory, and elaborate classification of types of arguments, all of which have limited practical use outside of artificial classroom assignments. Instead, it emphasizes commonsense reasoning about familiar controversies in everyday life, along with analysis of cultural influences and psychological dispositions that lead to open-minded or closed-minded reasoning. To put it another way, what distinguishes this book from most other textbooks is that it asks, What do we need to know, in terms of both factual information and aspects of rhetoric, to understand the information and arguments we read or hear every day about current events and controversies, in news and entertainment media, political statements, the classroom, the local bar or beauty salon and what skills do we need to apply to every particular case in critically evaluating it? So rather than focusing at the outset, deductively, on abstract principles and contriving examples to illustrate them, our approach is to begin inductively or empirically, with actual arguments in the public sphere for example, those studied in chapter 1 about financial pressures on todays college students and the pros and cons of dissent by writers after September 11, 2001 and then to enable students to determine what rhetorical or critical thinking issues they pose and what measures we need to take in evaluating them. Thus this approach is based on the process through which we all have to deal with arguments as we encounter them in the public sphere every day. My approach to critical thinking and argumentation incorporates principles from the philosophy of general semantics emphasizing the role in argumentation of definition of terms, connotative language, and verbal slanting and the need to concretize verbal abstractions and to perceive the complexity of, and
HIS RHETORIC
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diversity of possible viewpoints on, controversial issues. The approach to diversity of viewpoints further draws from the ideas of psychologist Carl Rogers, who was allied with the International Society for General Semantics, emphasizing the needs to attempt to understand and empathize with views differing from our own and to establish good-faith dialogue between opponents. The book provides distinctively in-depth examination of stereotyping and prejudice, polemics and invective, rebuttal, conflicting causal analyses, the use and misuse of statistics and emotional appeal, and logical or rhetorical fallacies like special pleading, stacking the deck, double standards, plain folks, straw man, ad hominem, and ad populum in public controversies. An emphasis on developing extended lines of argument through recursiveness, cumulation, and levels of meaning in reading, writing, and reasoning is reinforced in the structure of the book itself, which develops cumulatively and contains many crossreferences forward and back among text sections and readings, in order to highlight different rhetorical issues within each segment. Key terms are boldfaced on first occurrence in each chapter to indicate that they are defined in the glossary or in the list of logical fallacies in chapter 12. In contrast to the many textbooks whose primary aim is for students to generate papers based on their own ideas and arguments, the main focus here is on writing papers that demonstrate understanding and critical evaluation of arguments in sources from books, newspapers, magazines, speeches, student writings, and elsewhere. The justification for this is that in my own and many other teachers experience, most college students can only begin to express themselves effectively about public controversies after they have acquired a base of factual, historical, and current knowledge about them (what E.D. Hirsch calls cultural literacy). They further need to have studied a diversity of sources on them, learning to analyze the ideological positions and rhetorical patterns of opposing sources. These processes are so extensive in themselves as to warrant an entire textbook. Moreover, the concept of civic literacy mentioned in the title involves mainly the application of more or less traditional elements of academic discourse toward the development of critical citizenship. That is to say, the book is not primarily a guide for argumentation in the arena of service learning or community activism, which presents quite a different set of rhetorical challenges. Currently available textbooks for this purpose are themselves valuable supplements to this one, which nevertheless includes exercises encouraging students to apply the studies here to various forms of activism. Many of the examples presented for analysis in the text and readings focus on issues in current political economy that impinge directly on students present and future lives, such as the growing gap between the wealthy and the middle
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class and poor; concentration of corporate ownership and corporate political influence; the global economy and sweatshop labor; the decline in recent decades of job prospects and real income for most workers; the escalating cost of college education and reduction of financial aid; inequities in tax and wage policy; crime and welfare among the poor versus the rich. These issues are presented through opposing viewpoints in readings from conservative, liberal, libertarian, and leftist authors, with glosses analyzing rhetorical aspects of the points of opposition and prompting student debates on them. A culminating, extended section of readings and analyses on these topics forms a casebook, within the context of a guide to writing documented argumentative papers. The opposing viewpoints in the readings and citations serve as a whos who of current commentators on the American right, including William J. Bennett, Rush Limbaugh, Christina Hoff Sommers, Thomas Sowell, Bernard Goldberg, Jeff Jacoby, Lynne Cheney, David Horowitz, Diane Ravitch, James Pinkerton, Charles Krauthammer, Fred Barnes, George Will, Deroy Murdock, P.J. ORourke, and the Young Americas Foundation, and on the left, including Jonathan Kozol, Katha Pollitt, Bob Herbert, Naomi Wolf, Michael Kinsley, Martha Nussbaum, Henry Giroux, Holly Sklar, June Jordan, Edward Herman, Jim Hightower, Adolph Reed, David Brock, Joel Bleifuss, Susan Douglas, David Moberg, and Steve Brouwer. In contrast to the common textbook approach to logical fallacies that assumes they result only from unintentional lapses in reasoning, the book confronts the hard truth that real-life arguments frequently are tainted by deliberate deception, political partisanship and polemics, special pleading, double standards, conflicts of interest, hype, and other forms of propaganda or outright lying. Moreover, it alerts students to sources of biased arguments including political spin doctors, public relations agencies, lobbies, and partisan foundations and think tanks that sponsor journalism or research. Thus the book assumes that college students are capable of dealing with public disputes in which the truth is often fiendishly difficult to determine, even for the most knowledgeable analysts. However, political and economic issues are not addressed at the same level or in the same manner as they would be in social science courses. They are addressed, rather, at the level of campaign speeches, news and entertainment media, op-ed columns, general-circulation journals of opinion, and other realms of public discourse to which everyone is exposed every day. The political vocabulary and information covered here are no more specialized than what every citizen in a democracy should he expected to know, even before taking a college argumentative and research writing course although definitions and explanations of political concepts are provided for those students who need them. Chapter 15, Thinking Criti-
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cally about Political Rhetoric, provides a basic glossary and extended explanation of political terms and ideological positions. A Semantic Calculator for Bias in Rhetoric, Predictable Patterns of Political Rhetoric, and The American Political Spectrum: Media and Commentators from Left to Right provide heuristics for identifying the viewpoints of the authors of readings in the book and elsewhere. One danger in an approach like this is that it and courses in which it is applied can all too easily be turned into an indoctrination to the authors or instructors personal political ideology, or into an excuse for teaching political science instead of critical thinking and writing. This concern has certainly been warranted by the tendency of some politically correct teachers to assume that all students and colleagues agree or should agree with their particular views. So one of my main concerns has been how to avoid turning this book and the kind of course for which it is intended into indoctrination into any particular ideological position. To be sure, this books project of Socratic, critical questioning of the conventional assumptions of our society, including the ethnocentrism of American nationalism and its capitalistic economy, is bound to he predominantly liberal, by the dictionary definition of free of or not bound by traditional or conventional ideas, values, etc.; open-minded (Random House Websters Collegiate Dictionary). Whether those Americans who are considered liberal act consistently in accord with these principles is, of course, a source of constant dispute between liberals and conservatives. This is one of many points on which the very definitions of these opposed terms are highly ambiguous a problem highlighted throughout the book. So while the authorial viewpoint is liberal to leftist, the book raises as an explicit topic for rhetorical study the issues of political subjectivity, partisanship, and bias in sources of information, including not only the media but also teachers and authors of textbooks including this one. The principle is that any writer or reader addressing controversial issues will almost inevitably have a subjective, partisan viewpoint. There is nothing wrong with having such a viewpoint; indeed, a clear-cut expression of a particular partisan viewpoint can be a rhetorical virtue, particularly if the viewpoint is relatively unbiased, supported through sound argumentation, and explained in evenhanded contrast to opposing views. The books aim is to enable students to identify and understand the full range of viable ideologies in todays world (including those mostly excluded from the American public agenda, like democratic socialism and libertarianism), so that they can then perceive the viewpoint of any given source and weigh its rhetorical quality against opposing points of view. In the same way, the book stresses that we all can benefit from learning to identify our own ideological viewpoint, and possible biases, as readers and
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writers, and certainly as teachers. I believe that teachers or textbook writers should not coyly hide their viewpoint, as they often do, but that they should honestly identify it and present it, not as the assumed truth, but as one viewpoint among others, needing to he scrutinized for its own biases and fair-mindedly justified against opposing ones. Thus, because total objectivity may never be attainable, dealing honestly with our own subjectivity may be the best way to approximate objectivity. This principle obliges me to come out from the hiding place of authorial anonymity and pretended objectivity that is the convention in textbooks and to speak as I from time to time throughout the book, especially in addressing contentious issues where it is most difficult for anyone to present an objective, impartial analysis. In such sections, students are directed to sources whose viewpoint opposes mine. Likewise, more conservative teachers can readily engage the views in the book from their own critical viewpoint, thus advancing the open-ended dialogue called for. The intention of this method, then, is to guarantee that students will not be indoctrinated into my ideology (or that of any other writer or teacher) but rather that the scope of students own critical thinking, reading, and writing capacities will be broadened so as to empower them to make their own autonomous judgments on opposing ideological positions in general and on specific issues. It is exactly this intention, of encouraging students to view social issues from diverse perspectives and in their full complexity, that ultimately justifies the emphasis on political issues here, within a rhetorical framework quite different from anything students are apt to encounter in social science courses. Finally, the book seeks to transcend arbitrary disciplinary divisions between the humanities and social sciences, as well as the divisions within English studies among composition, literature, and rhetoric. My view that literature and literary criticism provide perhaps the richest models for critical thinking about public discourse is supported in the many citations throughout the book of literary sources illustrating principles like questioning ethnocentrism, recursiveness, recognizing complexity, multiple perspectives and levels of meaning, irony and paradox, and drawing fine lines in ethical or aesthetic distinctions. These sources include Plato, William Shakespeare, Michel de Montaigne, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Albert Camus, Joseph Heller, James Baldwin, and Sylvia Plath, along with contemporary literary artists or critics including Alice Walker, Gloria Anzalda, June Jordan, Susan Sontag, Barbara Kingsolver, Arundhati Roy, Adrienne Rich, and Edward Said. The organization of the book is flexible enough to invite teachers to change the order of chapters to accord with their own preferred emphasis. Teachers
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who wish to concentrate on writing instruction from the outset might want to begin with chapter 4, Writing Argumentative Papers, and to bring in chapter 21 early, Collecting and Evaluating Opposing Sources: Writing the Research Paper, supplemented by the reference materials for documentation and using research resources in part V. For me the conceptual heart of the book is chapter 15, Thinking Critically about Political Rhetoric. This discussion of denotation and connotation in political language, definitions of various party and ideological positions along a worldwide and nationwide spectrum and predictable patterns of political rhetoric is foreshadowed throughout much of the earlier sections. Some reviewers have suggested moving this chapter nearer the beginning. This would have obvious advantages, but I think it would have the disadvantage of suggesting that the book was entirely about political rhetoric. I do believe that it is essential to apply principles of rhetoric and critical thinking to politics, and that this application warrants much more emphasis than in most other textbooks, but I also believe that there are many other important dimensions and applications of rhetoric and critical thinking that precede and perhaps transcend politics; thus my decision, at least for this edition, to put that chapter about halfway through. Certainly, though, teachers whose courses focus centrally on politics might well assign that chapter, and perhaps the following one, Thinking Critically about Mass Media, toward the beginning. In any case, I welcome suggestions from teachers and students about changing this and other organizational choices in future editions. Definitions and Criteria of Critical Thinking (from Chapter 3) This chapter will briefly explain the scholarly background for the content of subsequent chapters and the sequence in which they are organized. Around 1980 American educators began to identify critical thinking as a subject that needed increased, explicit emphasis in our high schools and colleges, and as an essential element in civic literacy. The Rockefeller Foundations Commission on the Humanities reported in 1980, The humanities lead beyond functional literacy and basic skills to critical judgment and discrimination, enabling citizens to view political issues from an informed perspective.... Educational policy makers at all levels should define critical thinking as a basic skill and recognize the value of the humanities for developing it (The Humanities in American Life, 12, 22). Also in 1980, Chancellor Glenn Dumke announced the requirement of formal instruction in critical thinking throughout the nineteen California State
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University campuses, serving some three hundred thousand students. The announcement read:
Instruction in critical thinking is to be designed to achieve an understanding of the relationship of language to logic, which should lead to the ability to analyze, criticize, and advocate ideas, to reason inductively and deductively, and to reach factual or judgmental conclusions based on sound inferences drawn from unambiguous statements of knowledge or belief. The minimal competence to be expected at the successful conclusion of instruction in critical thinking should be the ability to distinguish fact from judgment, belief from knowledge, and skills in elementary inductive and deductive processes, including an understanding of the formal and informal fallacies of language and thought.
Similar requirements were soon adopted by community colleges and secondary schools throughout California and elsewhere. Here is the list of basic critical thinking skills in the California State Department of Educations Model Curriculum for Grades 8-12 in 1984. 1. Compare similarities and differences. The ability to compare similarities and differences among two or more objects, living things, ideas, events, or situations at the same or different points in time. Implies the ability to organize information into defined categories. 2. Identify central issues or problems. The ability to identify the main idea or point of a passage, argument, or political cartoon, for example. At the higher levels, students are expected to identify central issues in complex political arguments. Implies ability to identify major components of an argument, such as reasons and conclusions. 3. Distinguish fact from opinion. The ability to determine the difference between observation and inference. 4. Recognize stereotypes and clichs. The ability to identify fixed or conventional notions about a person, group, or idea. 5. Recognize bias, emotional factors, propaganda, and semantic slanting. The ability to identify partialities and prejudices in written and graphic materials. Includes the ability to determine credibility of sources (gauge reliability, expertise, and objectivity).
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6. Recognize different value orientations and different ideologies. The ability to recognize different value orientations and ideologies. 7. Determine which information is relevant. The ability to make distinctions between verifiable and unverifiable, relevant and non-relevant, and essential and incidental information. 8. Recognize the adequacy of data. The ability to decide whether the information provided is sufficient in terms of quality and quantity to justify a conclusion, decision, generalization, or plausible hypothesis. 9. Check consistency. The ability to determine whether given statements or symbols are consistent. For example, the ability to determine whether the different points or issues in a political argument have logical connections or agree with the central issue. 10. Formulate appropriate questions. The ability to formulate appropriate and thought-provoking questions that will lead to a deeper and clearer understanding of the issues at hand. 11. Predict probable consequences. The ability to predict probable consequences of an event or series of events. 12. Identify unstated assumptions. The ability to identify what is taken for granted, though not explicitly stated, in an argument. Some scholars make a distinction between critical thinking skills, related formally or informally to traditional logic, and dispositions that foster or impede critical thinking within the broader context of psychological, cultural, social, and political influences. Dispositions that foster critical thinking, also studied throughout part 2 (partly from the perspective of semantics, especially in chapter 9), include the development of skepticism, open-mindedness, autonomous thought, and reciprocity (psychologist Jean Piagets term for the ability to empathize with other individuals, social groups, nationalities, ideologies, etc.). Dispositions that act as impediments to critical thinking include culturally conditioned assumptions, egocentrism and ethnocentrism, authoritarianism, rationalization, compartmentalization, stereotyping, prejudice, and defense mechanisms. These positive and negative dispositions will he surveyed in the following chapters.
EXCERPTS FROM READING AND WRITING FOR CIVIC LITERACY Semantics in Rhetoric and Critical Thinking (from Chapter 9)
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Semantics is the field of linguistic studies that deals with language as meaning and communication. The International Society for General Semantics [now part of the Institute of General Semantics, or IGS], a scholarly organization that came to prominence in the 1940s, was devoted to a philosophy of semantics best known through a classic textbook, Language in Thought and Action, by S.I. Hayakawa. IGS is still active, publishing a quarterly magazine, ETC. The principles of general semantics encompass the complex relationships diagrammed in the figure below, between the external world, human thought, language, and communication. External world Thought Language Communication
The common phrase a semantic misunderstanding refers to the breakdowns of understanding and expression that frequently occur at each stage of these relationships. Humans perceive the external world through sense impressions that, through a mysterious yet almost instinctive process, get translated into ideas and then into the vocabulary and syntax (order within and between sentences) of language. External reality, however, is infinitely complex, and the human mind and language are at best imperfect instruments, so there can never be a complete or precise correspondence between that reality and its transformation into the symbols of thought and language. Hence, one key slogan of general semantics is, The map is not the territory that is, maps and other symbols, visual or linguistic, can only be partial replicas of the original. This first stage of breakdown is compounded at each further stage: putting ideas into language presents a constant struggle to say exactly what we mean, as does communicating our ideas to other people. Such communication is impeded by the cultural, physical, psychological, and semantic filters through which each of us receives messages from others. So virtually every idea, every act of speaking or writing, every communication should be thought of as provisional, subject to revision and further development, possibly to be followed by etc. hence the title of IGSs magazine. The practical implication of these points for you a student is to suggest a tone of thoughtful uncertainty in whatever you say or write in academic studies and life in general. The imperfection of the pictures of reality we carry in our thoughts and language has been infinitely compounded in our age of mass communication by the proliferation of images of the world conveyed in print media, films, radio, and above all television. Reality is Silly Putty was a facetious slogan in
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the 1960s, and the lines between news, drama, advertising, and publicity have been increasingly blurred by all-devouring media and their recombinations of an increasingly plastic reality: infotainment, infomercials, and docudramas in the style of Oliver Stones JFK and Nixon, in which history is irresponsibly fictionalized to propagandize for the producers political line in Stones case, a liberal one.
METAPHORS IN ACTION
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METAPHORS IN ACTION
EDITOR: RAYMOND GOZZI, JR.
TOGETHER ALONE
RAYMOND GOZZI, JR.*
ELEVISION seems simple. It seems so direct. Our experience of watching television is so easy. Yet many of us have realized the experience brought to us by television is very complex. For example, last night I watched a baseball game on television. The announcers told me if the New York Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez won the game, it would be his 200th career win. They also gave various statistics and standings. These let me know that the Mets had gotten off to a wonderful start in 2006 season, while the Atlanta Braves, the other team in this game, were suddenly behind the Mets. Although the season was only a couple of weeks old, it already seemed possible that the Braves could be beaten this year. There were shots of groups of fans in various costumes, or holding signs urging Pedro on to win. When Pedro struck out a Brave batter, huge cheers went up. We got close-up shots of the faces of the batters, of the pitcher, of various people in the dugouts. It was a cold April evening in New York City, people were standing and cheering and also trying to stay warm.
* Dr. Raymond Gozzi, Jr., is Associate Professor in the TV-Radio Department at Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY.
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I got caught up in the excitement of this game. I felt like I was sharing it. The television made me feel together with the large crowd. I knew I was not really in the stadium blowing on my hands to keep them warm. But I still felt a sense of together-ness, as though I was part of this event. But I was not actually together with those thousands of people. I was alone, in an apartment far away. (Well, actually, since my wife was asleep upstairs, thankfully I was not completely alone.) But it struck me that this combination described my experience: together alone. Pedro Martinez did win the game. He got removed for a relief pitcher in the seventh inning, and the stadium roared its approval of him as he left the field, waving to the fans in all directions. I shared in this moment together with the fans. Yet I was alone in my experience of it. Television gave me an experience of being together alone. This is another paradox generated by the electronic media. It goes along with the uninvolved involvement I felt in following the game. Together alone. This phrase is not nearly as common as alone together. Alone together makes sense, it often highlights a time when romantically interested people can actually find some time for themselves. Many songs have been titled, and written about, being alone together. But we do not usually think in terms of being together alone. This does not fit so nicely into our category schemes. Yet, when we start to think about it, whenever we use television, or radio we are together alone. Someone is talking to us from out of the television, as if we were together. We are seeing people do things, just as if we were actually present seeing people do things. It is very much like being together. But we are not together. Our aloneness is never far from our awareness. Perhaps this is why sometimes we watch more television even when there is nothing we want to watch. The electronic devices keep us from feeling alone. For a while.
CALLING OUT THE SYMBOL RULERS
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From The Long View, National Public Radio
STEVE INSKEEP INTERVIEWS HARPERS EDITOR LEWIS LAPHAM
December 26, 2005 from Morning Edition STEVE INSKEEP, host: During this final week of the year, heres how were marking the passage of time. We have a series of conversations we call the Long View. People of long experience can help us look back and, often enough, see ahead. Well start with Lewis Lapham, who is stepping down as editor of Harpers. That magazine has been around long enough that it once featured detailed reporting on the Civil War. This fall, one issue featured detailed reporting from Iraq. After three decades as editor, Lewis Lapham is moving on to take a very long view. He is starting a magazine on history. 325
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Mr. LEWIS LAPHAM (Outgoing Editor, Harpers Magazine): Im 70 years old and if Im going to start something new, Id better get on with it. INSKEEP: What kind of history are you going to be exploring? Mr. LAPHAM: Well, what I will do is I will take a topic thats in the news and then run out an anthology of texts right on that theme, beginning wherever, with Herodotus or Seneca. And its to bring the great books to bear on the moment. INSKEEP: Youve written for decades a column that comes at the front of Harpers Magazine. It focuses ... Mr. LAPHAM: Thats right. INSKEEP: ... generally on politics and on changes in the culture. When Ive read your column, Ive sometimes gotten a sense of someone that is outraged, outraged by the world, outraged by almost everything thats happening. Mr. LAPHAM: Well, I think the our political discourse is in a pretty sorry state. I think we have an administration thats criminal. I think the war in Iraq was unnecessary. I think it was undertaken for a domestic political purpose, for the election of the Republican majority in 2002. To me, these are this is very bad news. And I do get angry. INSKEEP: The writer Kurt Andersen, whos been a magazine editor himself, noted your departure from the editorship in New York Magazine and wrote the following. He said that he felt that your column week after week was pretty much the same message, which he summarized this way: The powers that be are craven and monstrous, American culture is vulgar and depraved, the US is like imperial Rome, our democracy is dying or dead. Andersen said you could make an argument for all of that, but went on to say that he wished that you would show a shred of uncertainty or maybe struggle with an idea from time to time. Mr. LAPHAM: I do struggle with that idea. Mr. Andersen doesnt really read the column. So the column has a lot of humor in it and a lot of struggle in it. INSKEEP: Whats something youve struggled with recently?
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Mr. LAPHAM: Im struggling today lets see, what am I writing about today? The Ive just come back from Amsterdam, where I was at a documentary film festival. And there must have been 800 films made by people from all over the world. And what struck me as interesting was of these 800 films, almost none of them will be shown in the United States. So I began to think about the American media. And I think of the American media as a kind of great big dome placed over the United States and in the inside of the dome is mirrors. We dont look out. We look at ourselves. But the rest of the world can see us. Theres a column, an interesting column in The New York Times by Maureen Dowd whos talking about the bubble that Mr. Bush inhabits, occupies. INSKEEP: Any occupant of the White House is said to be in a bubble. Its hard to be in touch with reality, yeah. Mr. LAPHAM: But I think our culture is in a similar kind of bubble, which is provided by the house of mirrors that our infantainment media presents us. And ... INSKEEP: Did you say infotainment or infantainment? Mr. LAPHAM: Well, both. Much of our media is geared to the attention and interests of 12-year-olds. INSKEEP: You told Kurt Andersen that youre writing about the twilight of the American idea. Mr. LAPHAM: I think thats true, I do. I think that the democratic idea is not strongly held or felt. I think I ... INSKEEP: In this country? Mr. LAPHAM: Yeah, this country. I do. I mean, there are not very many people that even know who their representatives are. Democracy requires participation and it requires a literate, engaged citizenry. And I dont think we have that. INSKEEP: When you use this analogy of this giant house of mirrors ... Mr. LAPHAM: Yeah. INSKEEP: ... or domed stadium where Americans just look at themselves and dont look at other people around the world ...
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INSKEEP: ... do you think that also applies to the political debate within the United States? People on the left will only listen to people who agree with them and people on the right, same thing, only listening to people who agree with themselves? Mr. LAPHAM: Yeah, thats something thats happened over the last 20 years. There isnt really, I dont think, any such thing as American public opinion. There are a lot of different American publics and they recede from one another almost at the speed of light. Democracy is about argument face to face. Its people that come from different parts of the society and have different interests, points of view, and confront one another. But weve been losing that over the last 20 years. Youre right. The left tends to talk to the left, the right to the right. INSKEEP: Have you tried to keep that from happening to yourself and to your magazine? Mr. LAPHAM: Yes, I have. I mean and the way I do that is to get writers who are willing to go out and report and see things, and theres very little policy argument in the magazine. Theres a good theres a great deal of narrative reporting, as well as short stories. INSKEEP: Are you publishing fewer conservative writers than you once did? Mr. LAPHAM: I would think so, yes, but again, they now only like to speak to themselves. I mean, the there was in the 70s I was publishing a number of conservative writers. They had very interesting things to say, particularly because the liberal doctrinaire positions of the 60s had become a little bit stale. INSKEEP: Is there a conservative that youve read recently who had something to say that made you think? Mr. LAPHAM: Cicero. INSKEEP: What is something that Cicero, the great Roman orator and legislator and politician, had to say that feels like its fresh today to you? Mr. LAPHAM: Well, he said that not to know what happened before one was born is always to be a child.
CALLING OUT THE SYMBOL RULERS INSKEEP: Well, Lewis Lapham, thanks very much for speaking with us. Mr. LAPHAM: OK, thank you.
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INSKEEP: Lewis Lapham is stepping down as editor of Harpers, but will keep his column and start a magazine on history. Were taking the Long View all week long, and tomorrow we will discuss decades of mystery novels with P.D. James. This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Im Steve Inskeep.
Copyright 1990-2005 National Public Radio. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
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EXTENSIONAL ORIENTATION AND THE ENERGY PROBLEM

WILLIAM R. CATTON, JR.
can outlast the circumstances that produce them. This can impede adaptation to changed circumstances. When homo sapiens was a much less numerous species and when our ability to exploit the resources upon which our lives depend was much less developed than today, word-maps arose that now obstruct recognition of the way we have painted ourselves into a corner. Mankind has an urgent need to grasp the serious discrepancy between certain obsolete language habits and the true characteristics of the situation they misrepresent just as truly, however, there is a need to avoid the opposite error. We must not suppose that all would be well for mankind if we could just learn to say the right words to each other. That misconception, too, has obscured for some of our contemporaries the situation actually facing mankind today. It is folly to suppose that Charles Reichs Consciousness III (13) or some other purely mental reorganization will suffice to achieve revolutionary improvement of mans lot in this world. The task of general semantics is a
ANGUAGE HABITS
Originally printed in the December 1973 ETC.
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delicate one; it must focus on the power of language to shape perception and behavior, but it must avoid an obsessive supposition that linguistic factors are exclusive determinants of human experience. The reason our use of language is such a fundamental fact about our species is that it gives us a more intricate capacity than any other species has for sharing the facilities of each others nervous systems and for evolving and using a cultural heritage, or what Korzybski called time binding. (7) This capacity is what has enabled man to elaborate his intraspecific division of labor (and thus his power to transform the world) beyond anything achieved by any other single species and almost beyond the most complex interspecific webs of symbiosis observed in nature. The most sophisticated students of general semantics have understood this and have not dealt merely with the pitfalls of verbalization. Semantic failures do occur, but they are best seen as malfunctions a form of social pathology whose causes, consequences, and varying incidence merit serious study. But when general semantics is pursued with a cult-like interest, there often develops a more supercilious attitude toward language, implicit in the apparent belief of some that word-maps are inherently dysfunctional, that all words always deceive. In an age of increasingly pressing ecological constraints, Homo sapiens is ill-served (and so is general semantics) by supposing that the fallibility of word-maps implies that any choice among them is purely and inevitably arbitrary (and that the territory mapped out is therefore essentially fictitious). Yet that solipsistic sort of philosophy seems alarmingly fashionable among university students in the 1970s. It is one expression, perhaps, of an anti-intellectualism fostered partly by the social disillusionment of the Vietnam War years and, more subtly, by the discovery of facts we are reluctant to face about mans relation to the biosphere. Natures Dictionary When we come to grief from following an obsolete word-map, it is more rational to seek an updated word-map than to over-generalize and deplore the apparent futility of word-mapping. When we say language habits can become obsolete, we must remember that obsolescence is a relation, and relations can exist only between two (or more) entities. Thus a word-map can be obsolete only in relation to some specifiable territory having specifiable features. It is as important to study the changed circumstances constituting the territory as to study the social history of the word-map that has lost whatever correspondence it once had with reality.
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Both sides of the relation are considered in the following suggestive statement: Words like limitless, inexhaustible, and boundless figure prominently in the present debate about the earth and its resources. They are persistently used despite the fact that they would not exist in a Dictionary of Nature [p.xi].(1) Western man formed habits of using such words during the centuries of expansion into a New World whose carrying capacity at first exceeded his originally small numbers so much that such words seemed plausible. Now, of course, the worlds carrying capacity no longer exceeds our greatly increased numbers (1, 2, 5, 17) and continued use of such words and such thoughtways has no such justification. They persist nevertheless. Americans of good will, following word-maps based on such habits, have advocated an American standard of living, or something approaching it, for the entire world. Freedom from want was the carrot held before the noses of less prosperous peoples, to enlist their support during the [Second World] war. What a monstrous deception this was, of ourselves and them, should be clear to anyone who thinks in terms of the carrying capacities of the worlds lands [p.44]. (15) Our conventional word-maps portray developed countries like the United States as a model for the supposed future condition of todays underdeveloped countries. For most people it has been unthinkable that instead the trend might go in the other direction that the now prosperous industrial nations may in future decades descend to conditions more akin to the present poverty of the UDCs. There has been almost no public comprehension of the reasons why this might be so. The new word-maps needed for living with the new circumstances must give prominence to the not yet widely familiar concept, carrying capacity. They must take into account the finiteness of the world and must recognize the inverse relation that ultimately holds between standard of living and numbers in a finite habitat with finite resources. Facts of Life Inverted When settlement of the New World by Europeans began, the fundamental fact of life for European man was that his newly enlarged habitat had a potential carrying capacity greatly exceeding his numbers. This fact shaped his outlook on life. Now, however, the old New World is more densely populated than Europe was at the time the great migration began, and each of its inhabitants has more mobility and gadgetry so that he uses far more of its natural resources in his prolonged lifetime than did the average inhabitant of sixteenth-century Europe. Todays most fundamental fact of life is that our worlds carrying capacity is not
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unlimited. In our daily lives we are increasingly feeling the effects of the limits, though we usually still do not understand that that is what is happening to us. Moreover, in the first century or two after Columbus, even European man was still living very largely by the use of renewable resources. Now, however, mans activities depend upon the use of some ten times as much energy derived from fossil fuels as we currently derive from organic sources. An updated word-map would thus have to include the information that less than ten percent of the energy base for modern mans activities comes from renewable resources. The new word-map should make clear that a developed country is one that has staked its future on continuing use of exhaustible resources, whereas an underdeveloped country is one that has not so far been able to make that prodigal commitment. No recent American president has escaped the delusion that results from ignoring the concepts in natures dictionary; all have failed to comprehend this change. When the United Nations Charter was signed in 1945, President Roosevelt said, Our earth is only a little star twinkling in the universe yet we can make of this if we care to a planet undisturbed by wars, unperturbed by want or fear. President Truman expressed a similar faith through his Point Four program. President Eisenhower told throngs in New Delhi in 1959: We have today the scientific capacity to abolish from the world at least this one evil. We can eliminate hunger... [pp.335-6] (1). President Kennedy sought to revitalize traditional optimism in the United States with his concept of a New Frontier and in the hemisphere by launching an Alliance for Progress. President Johnson echoed his predecessor by exhorting his grieved countrymen, Let us continue! and by envisioning imminent achievement of a Great Society. President Nixon has used much the same sort of rhetoric. To focus on a specific case, he has attributed the energy problem not to an actual depletion of resources but to the fact that the people of the world ... are living better. Improvement of living standards, he said in a commencement address in June 1973 at Florida Technological University, has produced a temporary problem, but long-term we have an opportunity to fill the demands of all the people of the world. This belief that in the long run the demands of all the people of the world can be filled is a relic from an era that no longer exists the era when carrying capacity had suddenly been raised far above the level of existing population by discovery of a New World not yet filled up with voracious resource-users. Stark Fact In a radio address in February, 1973, President Nixon made a statement to the American people that might suggest he realized that era was ended and
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wanted his constituents to realize it too. He said, We must face up to a stark fact. We are now consuming more energy than we produce. For a nation whose customary word-maps depicted it as independent and the most productive on earth, this was indeed stark, but it was also a monumental understatement of the real situation. American energy consumption is so enormous that this nation annually converts about 1.4 times 109 , tons of carbon into carbon dioxide through combustion of petroleum products, natural gas, and coal [p.64]. (16) On the production side, it is fairly easy to calculate approximately how fast natural processes have been extracting carbon from atmospheric CO2 and storing it away as underground deposits of substances we myopically call fossil fuels (a phrase from our conventional word-maps that presupposes these substances are meant for burning). The calculation takes account of the fact that free oxygen now exists in the earths atmosphere only by virtue of the photosynthesis carried on by green plants over approximately the last billion years. The earths total surface area is approximately 500 million square kilometers, its sea level atmospheric pressure is approximately one kilogram per square centimeter, and hence the total weight of air on this planet is on the order of five times 1015 metric tons. About one-fifth of this is oxygen. So, if about 1015 tons of oxygen have been released to the atmosphere in about 109 years, the average rate of release has been about 109, tons per year. If chlorophyll-bearing plants extracted this oxygen from CO2, then the respective atomic weights of the two elements tell us that for each ton of oxygen added to the atmosphere, 12/32 of a ton of carbon had to be stored away as fossil fuel. Thus, for the last billion years, an average of about 375,000 tons of carbon was annually put into storage in the earths crust. Only about 1.84 percent of the earths surface is United States territory. So only about 6,900 tons (.0184 times 375,000) of carbon were stored away yearly within American boundaries. If Americans are now burning the earths stored carbon at the rate of 1.4 billion tons a year, dividing by 6,900 we see that Mr. Nixons stark fact should have read: We are now consuming fossil fuels more than 200,000 times as fast as they are produced for us by natures processes. Even that would understate the imbalance. The present rate of carbon storage almost surely is less than the average rate since the beginning of the carboniferous era. The United States uses roughly one-third of all the nonorganic energy used by the whole world. Homo sapiens at large, therefore, can be said to be consuming the fossil fuels at least 11,200 times as fast as nature produces them (multiply 3 times 1.4 billion and divide by 375,000). When we combine this fact with the fact that less than ten percent of mankinds activity the world over is based on organic energy sources, we arrive at a realization of just how stark
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stark can be. Over 90 percent of what human beings are now doing is done by withdrawing natures savings 11,200 times faster than they accumulate. The new word-map must accept the fact that all activity involves transformation of energy. (3) Less than one-tenth of what humans do is done with this years income (solar energy captured by contemporary photosynthesis in our crops, timber, etc.). More than nine-tenths of what we do in a given year we do with solar energy stored up during at least 11,000 past years. If we are to understand the most pressing dilemmas facing us today, it seems high time to broaden the concept of time binding to take into account modern mans dependence on ancient photosynthesis. An updated word-map should make one thing perfectly clear: Homo sapiens imports more than nine-tenths of his energy from antiquity. The ratio for advanced nations is much higher than this world average. Americans are trying to stay afloat with the illusion that a nation could be selfsufficient by importing from antiquity at 200,000 times the rate of indigenous current production whereas importing foreign fuels must spell disaster. Modernization has increased our dependence on past photosynthesis, eliminating any trace of sustained yield from our total relation to our resource base. The nations most inclined to imagine that they have it made are the ones most committed to a way of life that is physically certain to be temporary. However, these nations commitment affects the whole world. Importing from antiquity has given the modern world very temporarily the illusion of a carrying capacity several times larger than the worlds permanent carrying capacity would be without such imports. So the worlds population has already overshot the number (and living standard) this planet could realistically support from contemporary vegetation on a long-term basis. (11) Unavailing Ifs Much of what has been said above must be meaningless to readers thoroughly conditioned to traditional word-maps. To those whose predispositions were traditional but who may nevertheless have begun reluctantly to grasp the significance of new insights, it will be natural to attempt rebuttal to seek some way of insisting that the new word-map is at least as faulty as the old, and to reassure oneself that its ominous implications need not be taken seriously. It might occur to such a reader that the quantitative argument presented here can be very simply answered in its own terms. If Americans are consuming fossil fuel energy 200,000 times as fast as it was stored up, wont it still take 5,000 years to run out, since we are drawing from a billion years accumulation? With the United States barely two centuries old and only recently modernized,
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doesnt this mean we have more than 96 percent of our national life span ahead of us? The answer to such questions could be affirmative only (1) if all deposits of coal, petroleum, and gas were as accessible to man as the ones already extracted, (2) if there were to be no further growth of population or technology, and (3) if complete exhaustion of these deposits were the only life-inhibiting consequence of their use as fuel. Manifestly, none of these ifs is true. Regarding if number 1: the most accessible deposits have already been used [p.1801. (6) We are already feeling at least the economic and some of the social consequences of turning to resources that are harder to extract. This issue is confused, though, by political boundaries; instead of facing the reduced geological availability of our own deposits, we let ourselves dwell on the human factors impeding availability of Arab oil for our use. When our shortage-reducing efforts focus on suspending import restrictions and trying to ensure peace in the Middle East, they obscure the fact that the finite stock in the global storehouse is being depleted. Moreover, a substantial fraction of that stock (perhaps the major part) may conceivably be forever inaccessible to us for utterly nonsocial and apolitical reasons. Our old word-maps may have given us faith to remove mountains (of coal), but the new word-map reminds us it takes prodigious quantities of energy to do so. Much of the worlds fossilized energy may be stored in forms or places that would require more energy for extraction than would be obtained from subsequent combustion. When nuclear physicist Edward Teller envisioned the use of a thousand underground nuclear blasts a year in Colorado alone to stimulate the flow of natural gas (in response to critics of the handful of experimental blasts set off there so far), traditional word-maps made the suggestion appear to be just another expression of the assumption that technology will provide. From the new perspective, however, Tellers glib faith can be seen as an indication of what exorbitant expenditures of energy could be required for obtaining energy in years to come. Nor are more labor saving devices an automatic answer. Regarding if number 2: by increasing per capita energy use, technological progress aggravates our commitment to living off the earths savings deposits. What the old word-maps portray as a solution is recognized by the new word-map as part of the problem. Many people persist in dismissing the problem from thought by insisting that technological advancement (which our old word-maps depicted as inevitable) will surely keep pace with our growing energy needs. When the problem-producing rather than the problem-solving consequences of technology are borne in mind, then it becomes possible to recognize that the worlds carrying capacity for people may be inversely related to its tolerance
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for their equipment. With fewer people, the world could accommodate more fuel-using machinery per capita. With less advanced technology, the present number of people would have less impact on the world. Regarding if number 3: we should remember that an organic system can be fatally ill or mortally wounded even though it is more than 96 percent intact. The removal of mountains of overburden standing between us and the fuels we must have can seriously interfere with agriculture and other necessary aspects of human life long before absolute exhaustion of the total underground deposit is approached. Extraction of any significant fraction of the fossil fuels stored under seabottoms will, as a side-effect, reduce the carrying capacity of sea waters for the marine life upon which an increasing portion of human subsistence is expected to depend (by those who see in the old word-maps no limits to growth). Carrying capacity of the oceans has already been diminished by tanker traffic between the continents. (10) Also, in regard to if number 3, carrying capacity on land has already been reduced both by soil erosion and air pollution. Modernization has increased our power to destroy our lands. (14, 1) and it has concentrated Homo sapiens (and his energy-using activities) in cities that constitute a small fraction of the earths surface. This concentration aggravates in these localities the combustion product accumulations from the fuels already extracted and burned. Such concentration means, moreover, that accumulated heat (and all energy after use ends up as heat) can begin to modify wind patterns, and eventually jet streams and ocean currents (12), with potentially disastrous impact on existing human communities. Disaster can long, long precede complete replacement of atmospheric oxygen by CO2 from total exhaustion of the billion years of savings. For all these reasons, the beliefs that Theres plenty left and We can get it out if prices go high enough to make it profitable are almost as misleading as the anachronistic use of unlimited or inexhaustible. Destructive Production The semantic malfunction that accounts for the presidents enormously inadequate recognition of stark fact was pointed out a generation ago. William Vogt said, One of the chief causes of our ecologic imbalance is our economic thinking. We identify the symbolic dollar with real wealth.... We extract oil, and iron ore, and fine timber, and canvasbacks, and call it production [p.146]. (15) The word production was not unusual. Most words have multiple meanings. Context usually sorts them out. This, and the fact that the different meanings of a given word are usually related, normally enables communication to proceed,
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but there is a risk of spill-over of one meaning into an inappropriate context. When this happens, the consequences may or may not be serious; in the present instance they have been deadly. Producing means to the farmer growing a crop, transformation of material substances (soil, water, air) and energy (sunlight) by horticultural methods. Producing something in the manufacturing sense also means giving form, shape, or being to a product making something by assembling components or by transforming raw materials. For the dramatist, producing a play refers to presentation of a work of art to an audience. It involves stage props, actors, scripts, costumes; but the word in this context has less reference to the manipulation of substances except as symbols. Use of the term to refer to symbolic manipulation becomes even sharper in a mathematical context, where to produce the side of a parallelogram means to project or extend it. This is the top of the abstraction ladder; no transformation of any substance is implied at all. When a consumer of manufactured goods, farm output, artistic performances, or mathematical knowledge produces coins from his pocket to pay for a purchase, the meaning is just below the top of the abstraction ladder. The coins are tangible, but he did not make them. Produce has become synonymous in this context with reveal or extract. It is easy to see how the mathematical and artistic meanings of the word are related to the meaning in a context of farming or manufacturing, but the difference is also apparent and it is unlikely that the word will be misunderstood in any of these contexts. However, it is not widely appreciated that companies or nations which produce crude oil (or natural gas, or coal) do so in the coin-from-pocket sense. They extract a substance from the earth. The substance was formed long before by processes of nature. Being carbon-rich and therefore oxidizable, it is rich in releasable energy. The so-called producer, however, did not put the energy into the substance or put the substance into the ground. To use the word production to denote extraction has seemed plausible because firms that extract such substances from the earth are as involved with engineering and commerce as any manufacturing concern. But this usage in reference to a process of extraction has enabled us to suppose the process could be expanded as freely as manufacturing and perpetuated as indefinitely as farming. From supposing what was untrue, we have come to grief. All of us, from petroleum prospector to consumer to president, have acted as if the rate at which we could afford to spend our coins was limited only by the rate at which we could extract them from our pockets. By ignoring other constraints we have implicitly assumed that it does not matter by what complex processes this wealth was stored away, at what rate the accumulation took place, or how these processes may be articulated with other natural processes that affect us.
CALLING OUT THE SYMBOL RULERS Clinging to Weak Foundations
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It must be said again: the quest for a better word-map arises from recognition that old word-maps inaccurately depict reality. There is a real world with which we have to keep trying to come to terms. But it must also be said again: a new word-map more accurately describing that world does not in any way guarantee that the existence of 3.6 billion or more human beings upon it can be utopian. Acceptance of a realistic word-map implies disillusionment. If the insights of general semantics have been expected to enhance sanity, students of general semantics should therefore be among those most ready to see that there are implications for our beliefs about mans relations to his fellow man that follow from abandonment of illusions about the nature of mans relation to an environment recognized at last as finite and having palpable biogeochemical features. It will become apparent as we grow accustomed to the new word-map that full attainment of human brotherhood is impeded not only by psychological or cultural obstacles but also by obstacles of a more geophysical nature. The backward nations (living mostly on present solar energy) have learned to desire very earnestly to catch up with those whose modern technology gives them an ability to devour the past. This is why, at the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972, the belated efforts of industrialized nations to begin protecting this heavily populated planet from the consequences of industrialism met resistance from the yet-to-beindustrialized countries. Environmentalism must not stand in the way of development had a plausible sound to anyone still following obsolete wordmaps. But the ability of conference delegates to be diplomatic and achieve some verbal reconciliation of their opposing perspectives did not make it any more realistic than before to imagine that an American or European standard of affluence for the entire world was an attainable goal. Humanitarian attitudes to which many of us have been proud to adhere have caused us to imagine sometimes that conflicts of interest between nations have no real basis in nature, that they arise only from chauvinism or ethnocentrism, or from the historic ramifications of previous (and equally unnecessary) conflicts. These noble sentiments have made it hard for us to face a fact that should now be apparent there is a real conflict of interest between nations already devouring resources at anything like 200,000 times their rate of accumulation and those nations not yet privileged to do so but already taught to covet the privilege. Struggles to keep on taking the earths resources, to acquire the ability to take them, and to keep them from being taken, will doubtless intensify
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human conflict in the decades ahead. Obsolete word-maps blind us to the reasons for this and will make a bad situation worse as long as we cling to them. The weakness of the foundations of optimism, as exposed by the new wordmap, was apparent for many years to those with informed vision. In 1908, addressing a conference on conservation, Theodore Roosevelt praised the growth attained through the lavish use of our natural resources but went on to say that the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soil has been further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields, and obstructing navigation [p.15]. (4) In 1929, Robert and Helen Lynd sounded like the 1970s when they wrote, in their study of a newly industrialized community, A small river wanders through Middletown, and in 1890 when timber still stood on its banks, White River was a pleasant stream for picnics, fishing, and boating, but it has shrunk today to a creek discolored by industrial chemicals and malodorous with the citys sewage. The local chapter of the Isaac Walton League aspires to make White River white [p.225]. (8) A generation ahead of his public, William Vogt wrote: (15)
Our most prodigal wastage is, perhaps, of gasoline. We are an importing nation; and every day we waste hundreds of thousands of gallons. All manner of drivers let their motors run when they are not in use. Our tensions find outlets in racing motors and in traveling at high speeds that reduce the efficiency of our cars. We build into our automobiles more power and greater gas consumption than we need. We use the press and radio to push the sales of more cars. We drive them hundreds of millions of miles a year in pursuit of futility. With the exhaustion of our own oil wells in sight, we send our Navy into the Mediterranean, show our teeth to the U.S.S.R., insist on access to Asiatic oil and continue to throw it away at home [p.68].
Despite all such warnings, and in the face of history, capable writers continue vigorously denouncing the view that a finite earth has real limits which we have ignored at our imminent peril. John Maddox has written one such book, (9) stoutly defending the conventional word-maps, including the error of identification, mistaking symbol for referent, confusing dollars with wealth as pointed out a quarter century ago by Vogt. Maddox writes: The usual distinction between renewable and nonrenewable natural resources is unfortunate because it is clear by now that the proper exploitation of natural resources is governed much more by economics than by the simple arithmetic of how much food can be grown with how much sunlight, or how great (or how small) may be the amounts of particular minerals locked up in the earths crust [p.78].
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The Lynds (8) pointed out that it is characteristic of mankind to make as little adjustment as possible in customary ways in the face of new conditions [p.498] Maddox (9) epitomizes this in his insistence that the present time appears to be one at which forecasts of scarcity are less valid than ever [p.7]. He says, Famine is not a threat but a scarecrow [p.44] and many of the hungry nations of the world are on the threshold of unaccustomed plenty [p.75]. He views as an illusion the idea that exhaustion of certain materials could spell civilizations collapse [p.108]. He says, Minerals are now more plentiful than ever, whatever the more distant prospects [p.257]. And, The threat of a scarcity of energy, real enough in the 1950s, has already been dispelled [p.274]. Thus do members of an intelligent species that has learned to import energy from the past and thereby proliferate far beyond the carrying capacity of its habitat try to reassure each other that 3,600 million human beings who already exist (and more to come) can realistically aspire to live as prodigally as the most prodigal 200 million have recently been doing, on an earth that is finite and whose resources and present features were provided by processes of nature now being undone by man thousands of times faster than they originally occurred.
REFERENCES
1. Borgstrom, Georg. Too Many: A Study of Earths Biological Limitations. New York: Macmillan, 1969. 2. Brown, Lester R., & Finsterbusch, Gail W. Man and His Environment: Food. New York: Harper & Row, 1972. 3. Cottrell, Fred. Energy and Society. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1955. 4. Dorst, Jean. Before Nature Dies ( transl. by Constance D. Sherman). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970. 5. Hardin, Garrett. Exploring New Ethics for Survival: The Voyage of the Spaceship Beagle. New York: Viking Press, 1972. 6. Hubbert, M. King. Energy Resources. Ch. 8 (pp.157-242] in Committee on Resources and Man, National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Resources and Man. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1969. 7. Korzybski, Alfred. Manhood of Humanity (Second ed.). Lakeville, Conn.:Institute of General Semantics, 1950.
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8. Lynd, Robert S. & Lynd, Helen Merrell. Middletown. London: Constable, 1929. 9. Maddox, John R. The Doomsday Syndrome. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972. 10. Moorcraft, Colin. Must the Seas Die? Boston: Gambit, 1973. 11. Odum, Howard T. Environment, Power, and Society. New York: WileyInterscience, 1971. 12. Oestreicher, David. Growing, Crowding Population Hiking Earths Thermostat. Detroit Free Press, Tuesday, June 12, 1973, p.12-A. 13. Reich, Charles. The Greening of America. NYC: Random House, 1970. 14. Sears, Paul B. Deserts on the March. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1935. 15. Vogt, William. Road to Survival. New York: William Sloane Associates, 1948. 16. Wallace, Bruce. People, Their Needs, Environment, Ecology: Essays in Social Biology. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972. 17. Whelpton, P. K. Population Policy for the United States. Journal of Heredity, 30 (September) 1939, 401-406.
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BORDERING ON THE IMPOSSIBLE

LEONARD R.N. ASHLEY*
E HAVE an estimated 12 million illegal aliens here, seeking better opportunities than they could find in Mexico. They are pouring across our ill-defended border with Mexico, at some danger to themselves and some detriment to us, having got to our land from some other country, usually South America. At last the US has begun to worry seriously about whether these people are doing jobs Americans wont do or actually taking jobs from Americans. The media is swamped by discussions, pro and con. It is the job of Americans to process the information wisely. There are things to be said on both sides of the issue, as well as both sides of the border, but reasonable discussion and feasible solutions are hampered by fuzzy language and the fuzzy thinking that is inextricably linked with that. For instance, jobs Americans wont do is quite a different thing if you complete the phrase and the thought: jobs that Americans wont do for the low wages that
* Leonard R. N. Ashley, PhD (Princeton), LHD (Columbia Theological, hon.) is professor emeritus of Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. He has written extensively on language and is president of the American Society of Geolinguistics. It is several decades since he published (verse) in ETC.
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are offered for menial and occasionally back breaking labor. The fact of the matter is, to use a phrase that is increasingly heard in all American political discussion, as if facing fact is unusual but this once the speaker is willing to boldly go, splitting the infinitive and caring for naught, where others have feared to go, to say that those who sneak across our borders (now often called porous and sacred) are exploited by US business and, indeed, some US businesses could not make the profits they now do if the employers had to pay a living wage. Or do you really mean a decent wage? These people get obviously enables them to live and not die and even reproduce, but whether they live decently or not is open to question. So is the matter of morality. Even high church officials are announcing that in good conscience they will break the laws in order to welcome the poor to a land of plenty and, incidentally, add to their parishioners. Sneaking across our borders from Mexico is flatly illegal. Hiring those who come here like that is also illegal. All of a sudden, for it is an election year, and also the foreign news is not very cheering so maybe concentrating on a domestic problem will be better, immigration (short for illegal immigration) is talked about, written about, demonstrated for in the streets. The problem I focus on is that the discussion is confused because of dishonest, evasive, or simply foolish thought and careless or devious expression. Sure, we are unarguably a nation of immigrants. But get this, we are not a nation of illegal immigrants. Immigration is not the same thing as illegal immigration. Watch your terms. For some, in the train of the activists who like to speak not of making drugs legal but of the decriminalization of substances, illegal aliens are undocumented immigrants. We are urged by those who have some sympathy for these people not to criminalize their actions, but if they are in fact illegal aliens they are already criminals. Recently the criminals and their supporters have taken to the streets, and one placard I saw, and you may also have seen on national television, proclaimed, We are Workers Not Criminals. I am ready to believe that many believe that sincerely. But the law does not. The law likes questions to be decided in the courts, not in the media, by jurists, not mobs. The law finds the desperate here illegally; that is breaking US laws. Working here, without proper papers, which is where the undocumented business comes in, may not be a felony, yet, though there has been some talk of making it one. Nonetheless, their presence here is against the law. You may or may not share the view of one of Dickens characters, that if the law supposes that the law is a ass, a idiot. But, supposedly an argument clincher: The law is the law. Yes, laws can be changed; however, culpability depends upon the law in force at the time of the offense. Being against the law is not unheard of in our country. It was one thing when citizens who were oppressed by the laws marched to say they were quite
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aware that they were breaking some laws. They considered some laws unjust, such as those against strikers or the withholding of civil rights from AfricanAmerican Americans and homosexuals. People rose up and demanded their constitutional rights of freedom of speech and freedom from discrimination. They were breaking the law, they were ready to do so in the thoroughly American tradition of opposition to oppression, a tradition as old as the revolution that gave us our nation, and they meant to. They were or ought to have been ready to be arrested in a cause. It is another thing when non-citizens march to demand that we Americans change our laws for their benefit and resist if those arrested want to say that the constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment like that. Which cause the huge crowds in the streets are supporting may be undetectable since they wave both American and Mexican flags. In California some misguided authorities banned both flags as contributing to disturbing the peace. When you can be told not to wave an American flag in America, something is decidedly wrong. Or are all flags and flag waving wrong? What, waving your flag, are you saying? Apply the law? Change the law? I, whoever I am, am protected by my flag, whichever it is? Who will benefit if the laws are changed is open to debate. It seems impossible to apprehend and deport millions of law-breakers, but it likewise seems impossible to reward law breakers and to let a minority which is foreign dictate the laws the native majority have made and want to uphold. Suppose we accept foreigners demands. What will amnesty do to our legal tradition? Will it set a precedent? Will it lead to and apply to still further illegalities? Should we reward or punish those who break into our country because they see better chances here for themselves, and their families? Suppose we give them three-year passes? Will they go home when time is up? If they dont, can we deport them then? Is the proper way to handle a social and political problem to postpone action on it until after the next election, as has been done before? If we undertake now to arrest and deport illegal/undocumented persons, what should we, or can we, do with the children born to them right here in the US? Some nations such as Germany base citizenship on blood; others base it on soil (if you are born in such a country you are a citizen). If you are born in the US you are entitled under our laws to stay here, but should we, can we, break up families by deporting the citizens illegal parents? The demonstrators are well aware of the magic of the word family, of the buttons it pushes, and they are willing to push them. If we do not attack the family, can aliens bring the extended family here, too, instead of simply sending money home to Mexico or wherever? Of course, deportees could take their children with them if they left, but they prefer to use the children as their passport to stay here. What would you do?
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Maybe, say some, we could adopt the German policy of Gstarbeiten (Guest Workers). No. Because presence or even birth in the country by those of foreign blood can never make one a German citizen, and the matter is different here. The Turks brought to Germany for work can be sent out of Germany at least that was the original idea when no longer of use to the German state. They would have to go home. The illegal aliens have left home and may or may not wish ever to return there. Also, as one comedian has said, the term guest worker is an oxymoron what do you say, welcome here into my home; now go clean the toilet? We wait on guests. They do not wait on us. I suppose the term paying guest and guest in a hotel or restaurant where one pays to be there has contributed to misunderstanding. We have a lot of difficulty arising from such terms as free gift (strings attached) and non-reportable income (which has by law to be reported). There is not a clear-cut case either way when we come to considering the ramifications of strangers being here, whether they wade the Rio Grande (Ro Bravo to them, for we have different names for the same river) or pay large sums to be smuggled here in ships holds or containers from China, only to be put to slave labor to pay for their transportation and safe delivery here. Those who arrive that way are not imprisoned by employers do contribute to Social Security, if they have fake documentation, and they will never be able to collect on that. Money for US taxpayers of the future. At the same time the US taxpayer has right now to bear the burden of financing all social services such as medical care and education, which in California got taxpayers up in arms at the cost. The low wages of these arrivals, many here for many years now, make many things cheaper for the US consumer and the huge profits their employers make on their work produce lots of income tax money for the US Treasury. At the same time they are sending a lot of dollars out of the country. That is helping the economy of other nations, not ours. The Hispanics are gradually taking over many of the border states, immensely affecting their culture, but they are, on the other hand merely reclaiming, as it were, for Mexico what the US seized in a regrettable nineteenth-century war. They may be the gardeners and nannies and construction workers, etc., that we need but along with them may come terrorists who hide in their midst and may threaten the security of our citizens. Say security right now and the whole picture becomes fraught with fear and not facts. There is so much this and that that Americans may think a sound basis for decision can never be found, with all the on the one hand and all the on the other hand thinking, while shrewder minds may realize that some problems have more than two sides (but I only have two hands!). With so much complexity, with no patent, pat and perfect solution, the problem of how to
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distinguish what is really going on (reality) from what is thought or felt about what is vaguely seen or imagined as going on, puzzles the public. The public prefers good guys/bad guys dichotomies or at least the evasions of gobbledygook from the government and the alarming distortions of metaphors that get out of hand. To be brief, I shall just note the way that war has been defined (the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on terrorism, the Agriculture Departments war on weeds, and police actions, incursions, preemptive strikes, destabilizations, destroying a village to save it, and so on) and the way that generals with their stars take on character roles (Stormin Norman was one) and wear costumes (Eisenhower jacket, hat of a field marshal of The Philippines for a non-Filipino, camouflage indoors far from the front) and speak of theaters of war (leading to dramatic exit lines in defeat and twicestaged returns of MacArthur on the beach in case the cameras missed his first instance of his wading ashore). Now we are launching still another way, a war on (illegal) immigration. These are the times that try mens souls and try to make sense of all communication from blogs to pronouncements of the Supreme Court. This invasion of the US by foreigners, which is not at all the same thing as immigration as the word is ordinarily understood, admits of no distortion of language or of decision. With so pressing a need for a workable solution for the workers, the employers can and should simply be fined for breaking the law, a considerable per diem and per employee gouging will soon get them to mend their ways; maybe we could raise enough from employers to pay for all the expense of deportations! and so much emotion rather than commonsense being expended at all levels, from the policy makers in Washington to the official border guards and also the vigilantes on the ramparts we watch, the sooner something workable can be achieved, the better. My feeling and these days we tend to say, unfortunately, I feel when in the past we might have said I think is that the first thing we have to do is to make certain that we do not let the race card trump reason or symbol (raise consciousness, not flags!) cripple sense. We must avoid both evasions unpleasant and also its Pollyana vocabulary (affirmative action for discriminatory quotas, however well intended, and the like). Let us get the terms of the debate clear and put up no barrier to clear-cut communication even as we argue about whether to build a wall, issue all American citizens identity cards that cannot be forged, or commence another war with Mexico because its government does not want to take back its citizens or lose the financial benefits of Mexicans abroad pouring millions of US dollars a year into papering over the Mexican economys weaknesses. Let us use words (sovereignty, sympathy, security, sense) thoughtfully, honestly, and soberly. Let us not seize the occasion to fight some totally
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different battle, some secret agenda, but confront the facts and the problems realistically and reasonably. Let us talk straight, and think straight. It all starts with recognizing that the word is not the thing and that the word must be correct, not a flight from reality but an acceptance of reality. When Confucius was asked by his master, the Duke of Wu, what he (Confucius) would do if he were to be given the power of the Duke of Wu, the sage replied, First, I would reform the language.
BOOKS
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BOOKS
EDITOR: MARTIN H. LEVINSON, PHD
Alain de Botton. The Art of Travel. New York: Vintage, 2004. Travel does not have to entail long distances. Alain De Botton notes that in 1790, Xavier de Maistre took a trip around his bedroom, an account of which he would later title Journey Around My Bedroom. Gratified by his experience, eight years later de Maistre embarked upon a second journey. This time he traveled by night and went as far as the window ledge; the literary result was called Nocturnal Expedition Around My Bedroom. Like de Maistre, the author of The Art of Travel believes that one can find opportunities to learn about and appreciate the world without going great distances. You can travel down your block, in your neighborhood, or through your town, and experience beauty and wonder. The trick is to have a curious and receptive state of mind. Of course, there are some advantages in traveling away from familiar places. You can engage in affable conversations with strangers on planes, ships, or trains. Hotel rooms offer a chance to relax and get in touch with ones inner soul. In a foreign land you can directly observe how people in different cultures think and behave. Alexander von Humboldt, a contemporary of de Maistre, journeyed far from his home. In 1799, he set sail from Spain to discover new facts and for the 349
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next five years sojourned around South America (that continent was largely unknown to Europeans at the beginning of the nineteenth century). Like de Maistre, von Humboldt enjoyed his travel experiences. On his return, he settled in Paris and over the next twenty years published a thirty-volume account of his trekking. Whether you proceed round your bedroom or off to distant lands, The Art of Travel can enhance your adventures with anecdotes and advice from famous philosophers, artists, and literary figures. I received very good counsel on the subject of travel many years ago. A coworker said to me Wherever you go, there you are.
Nicholas A. Basbanes. Every Book Its Reader: The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. Nicholas A. Basbanes, in this volume, presents an engaging portrait of the diverse ways in which books have shaped the inner lives of intellectuals, poets, novelists, scientists, and statesmen throughout history. Beginning with an examination of the need for books in times of turmoil, Basbanes turns to the works of Anne Frank, Langston Hughes, and Azar Nafisi for insight. Throughout history, he argues, readers have used books to find solace and to make sense of their world, no matter what the social or cultural circumstances. He then notes that certain books, such as Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin, have an immediate effect on the culture that produced them, while others, such as Henry David Thoreaus Civil Disobedience, are not recognized for their virtues until the passing of generations. Readers and their libraries occupy a primary spot in Basbaness history. He offers compelling stories of libraries belonging to Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski and Adolf Hitler, and investigates the intriguing question of what personal libraries tell us about their owners. Basbanes also investigates the reading habits of some of historys most passionate readers. John Locke and Virginia Woolf used commonplace books, or notebooks, to record noteworthy quotations or ideas culled from books. Samuel Coleridge was particularly fond of writing in the margins of books. He is credited with bringing the word marginalia into English usage from the Latin to describe his habitual process of writing in books.
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Every Book Its Reader, with observations on the formation of the literary canon, the history of translation, and profiles of some of the most articulate readers of our time is a wide-ranging study of the power of books to affect and change the world. I found it an entertaining and informative read.
Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd. Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. The authors of this book believe that in discussing the traits that have helped humans become such a successful species, we should avoid the old nature versus nurture debate (the view that behavior is either learned or genetic). Instead, we need to be talking about genes and culture, and how they interact with each other. Richerson and Boyd, professors of environmental science and anthropology respectively, assert that culture is adaptive and causes people to behave differently from other animals. They define culture as information capable of affecting individuals behavior that they acquire from other member of their species through teaching, imitation, and other forms of social transmission. While in the long run all organisms adapt by genes, only humans can accumulate knowledge over long periods of time and pass it on so the next generation can improve on it Korzybski called this time-binding. This unique human ability to pass knowledge on through time has enabled our species to live in diverse environments throughout the world. Humans evolved in the tropics, but we can now hunt for seals in the Arctic. The authors use mathematical models and formulae to back up various arguments they advance in their book. In doing so they note there is a distinction between symbol and substance. Foolish are the mathematical modelers who confuse their abstractions with reality. But when used properly, mathematics schools our intuition as no other technique can. It is a form of meditation upon nature without peer. Richerson and Boyd also use Darwinian methods to understand cultural evolution. Such methods are currently under attack by the religious right. Professor Boyd, in an interview with a science reporter in the New York Times, said he was dismayed that Darwin remains so controversial. I suspect many ETC readers feel the same way.
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Lance Strate and Edward Wachtel (Eds.). The Legacy of McLuhan. Creskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2005. Marshall McLuhan, one of the most influential intellectuals of the twentieth century, put the study of media on the academic map and made media a subject of popular discourse. This book of original essays, by 29 leading experts from a wide variety of academic disciplines, explores, assesses, critiques, and extends McLuhans rich and controversial legacy. McLuhan had a penchant for coming up with compelling and memorable phrases through which he communicated many of his important insights. Among those expressions are his well-known central tenet the medium is the message; his metaphor for life in a world dominated by instantaneous communication, the global village; and his categories of hot and cool. He referred to his ideas as probes and percepts (as opposed to concepts and precepts) and he talked about finding order in the chaotic maelstrom of postwar culture and society. The Legacy of McLuhan is divided into six sections. Section I, McLuhans Message, provides a general discussion of McLuhans oeuvre. Section II, The Media on McLuhan, presents the reactions of five media professionals to McLuhan and his work. Section III, Art and Perception, explores a topic that goes to the heart of McLuhans theories. Section IV, Letters and Laws, emphasizes the humanistic basis of McLuhans thought and its applications. Section V, Communication and Culture, covers the sector of scholarship that McLuhan is best known for. And, Section VI, Extensions, examines McLuhan in light of theory and research on the new media of the past two decades. The editors of this book, Lance Strate and Edward Wachtel, have done a superb job in gathering together essays that show the broad and far-reaching impact of the seminal communications and media theorist Marshall McLuhan. These essays are well worth reading. ALL REVIEWS BY MARTIN H. LEVINSON, PHD
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EDITOR: NORA MILLER
FROM THE ARCHIVES
Thirty-Nine Years Ago in ETC, Volume 24, Number 4 RACHEL M. LAUER, GENERAL SEMANTICS AND THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION To what extent does our educational systems denial of the need to explore interpersonal relations actually defeat the schools most avowed purpose, which is to develop cognitive competency? Now, the question is: what is there in the field of general semantics which might influence more educators to acknowledge the importance of the inner world? As I see it, general semantics proposes simply that the inner world exists just as surely as the outer world exists, that the two worlds can hardly be separated at all, and that denying the existence of any aspect of mans being is irrational and unscientific. Nothing impresses us educators so much as the obvious necessity, especially nowadays, for being rational and scientific. Furthermore, general semantics offers no propaganda about what should be going on in that inner world, or what must be done about it, and so prescribes no value judgments about what is good or bad thus freeing educators from much feared controversy. And, traditionally, educators are intensely interested in teaching children the art of communication. General semantics offers a model of the communica353
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tion process which promises to result not only in greater self-awareness but also in better compositions and recitations. Use of the general semantics model requires awareness of each individuals unique input apparatus, his abstracting system, his choice of symbols, plus awareness of these same factors in the receiver of his communications. All of this seems to be highly desirable. Bergers and Livingstons research studies have already provided evidence that general semantics training, even with no lessons in grammar, can result in significantly improved English compositions and critical reading skills. Last year I had the opportunity to work with fifth graders and to observe first graders. I noticed that the little ones could tell when they were happy or very mad but thats about all. Without training, they often experienced anger when fright might have been more appropriate, or just vague upset when placed in situations ordinarily arousing envy or aggressiveness. The fifth graders were only somewhat more sophisticated about their feelings. Both groups of children responded delightedly and well to training in these areas. One of the greatest pleasures I had with the fifth graders was teaching them to notice that events between two people occur in chains or sequences. For example, I once had to separate two boys about to assault each other. I asked them, What set off this fight? He tripped me, cried Billy. What happened just before that, I asked. Both stared at me blankly, and then John offered, Before that I was home for lunch. Apparently the boys had little memory for the events immediately preceding their fight. But with a little help, using techniques of role play, they recalled the sequence. The boys recognized that before Billy had tripped John, John had taunted Billy. This taunting was preceded by Johns observation of Billy passing a note to Johns girl. And in the middle somewhere there were feelings of jealousy, as well as anger at the girl for giggling over the note. I might add that when the boys recognized this sequence of events, they had to laugh at themselves for the irrelevancy of fists as a way of coping with their problem. Incidentally, the teacher, who had a proclivity for confronting youngsters with the demand, Why did you do that? and drawing blank or absurd responses, began to realize the kind of help children need in order to answer the question why. I cited the preceding example not primarily to illustrate how children can be taught that is another huge topic but to stimulate imagination on what kind of world we might produce if only people were more aware of the event sequences preceding their impulses. To too large an extent, the average man on the street is living in a fools world as he reasons, I hit him because he tripped me or We bombed them because they piled up missile bases. By basing classroom procedures upon the reality that human beings are interdependent, teachers could help children appreciate each others value, thus
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laying the groundwork for healthy and cooperative behavior. Instead, the typical educational system is fostering a sense of isolation, independence, and competitiveness, which lays the groundwork for neurosis and anti-social behavior. In most schools children are broken up into age groups. Older children are isolated from younger children, and they rarely get an opportunity to be helpful to them. They miss their chances to perceive important individual differences and to learn to adapt to them with skill and mutual respect. What they do learn is to feel impatient with those little kids who cant do it right or to feel envy and resentment of those big kids who think theyre so smart. I am aware that grouping children by chronological age enables the teacher to deal with a smaller range of ability and knowledge, but the social learnings which accrue, or fail to accrue, seem much more important to me. I would like to see children in mixed groups helping each other at every opportunity. One of the biggest barriers to having children act out their interdependence in school is the concept that the only valid sources of knowledge in school are the teacher and the book. In extra-curricular life, it is important for people to use as many resources as possible. When children are observed in the playgrounds or their club houses, they seem naturally to prefer learning from each other. But the concept of mans interdependence needs acknowledgment in the school curriculum. It is true that social science lessons often point out the reciprocity of nations in trading goods, but often the inference is drawn that countries which can produce the widest range of goods for themselves are the best countries and that countries which are more dependent are somehow inferior. History lessons often omit the significance and essential relationship between earlier contributions and our present way of life. It is not enough to learn about the fascinating tools and customs of past civilizations. It is more important to demonstrate that what was done in the past was part of an evolutionary process, a process from which we are all the beneficiaries or the victims. Everything we do in the present will likewise enhance or destroy those who come after us. With many lessons of this kind, I believe children would have a real chance to emerge from school with a realistic sense of responsibility. There is one other suggestion I would like to make. Let us use our educational system to emphasize the fact that we are all dependent upon the contributions of all kinds of men. Too much time is given in schools to lionizing the rare hero, the great leader, the extraordinary inventor, the artistic genius. What are the contributions of ordinary men, even of the damaged and the retarded? Do our school children realize that without them there could be no great heroes that without followers there could be no leaders; without pupils, no teachers; without neurotics, no therapists? General semantics has a great contribution to
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make toward freeing the human race to be fully human. I believe our educational system can and will increasingly use general semantics toward that end, because general semantics has features which make it highly acceptable to educators. It is academic enough for the most bookish scholars, scientific enough for the most critical rationalists, and realistic enough for the most down-toearth pragmatists.
Twenty Years Ago in ETC, Volume 43, Number 1 EDWARD MACNEAL, WHEN DOES CONSCIOUSNESS OF ABSTRACTING MATTER THE MOST? (excerpts) Years ago, one of our members invited me to his summer place in Wisconsin. The sink in the first floor bathroom drained very slowly. Dave knew what to do. He got a pipe wrench, went under the sink, and removed the elbow pipe that served as a trap. He handed it up carefully to me, since it was filled with muck and slop. Where should I dump it? said I. In the sink; said he. You have the picture? [He] is on the floor under the sink with the pipe removed. [I am] above the sink with the slop-filled trap. What did I do? What else? I emptied it into the sink. Behold. Two sloppy general semanticists How could two general semanticists make such a dumb mistake? How could they deliberately disassemble the territory, the sink, and then deliberately act as if it were in working order? What happened to their vaunted consciousness of abstracting in this case? Acting with at least subliminal awareness is what constitutes consciousness of abstracting. Such subliminal awareness is supposed to permit general semanticists to sit down comfortably in a chair but catch themselves without falling if the chair breaks. Shouldnt consciousness of abstracting, then, apply with even greater force to deliberately disassembled sinks? About this time, in the late 1940s, I began to explore those abstractions we call value judgments as parts of decisions. I defined a decision as the acceptance (or rejection) of a course of action to be taken. The value judgment may include reasons. For example, I decided to empty the pipe in
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the sink because Dave said to; reports an act of deciding (I decided), a course of action (to empty the pipe in the sink), and a reason, (because Dave said to). This led me to ask three structural questions. First: How does the course of action relate to the reason? Second: Do these relationships form regular patterns? Third: If so, what effect do these patterns have on the abstracting practices of deciders? The common factor I sensed in such experiences was something blocking an appreciation of the consequences of the actions being accepted. Dave and I failed to anticipate the sink slop splash. Something barred the view. Fortunately for me, Korzybski fingered elementalism, our splitting verbally what cannot otherwise be split, as a serious structural flaw in language. He said:
In a non-Aristotelian system we do not use elementalistic terminology to represent facts which are non-elementalistic. We use terms like semantic reaction; psychosomatic, space-time, etc., which eliminate the verbally implied splits, and consequent misevaluations.
Given this guidance, I was startled to see that decisions reek of elementalisms. Take the split between action and consequences: Does not that split imply, following Korzybski, that one can have an action without having its consequences? Of course it does. Doesnt every action verb and every action noun permit us to think about actions without considering their consequences? Cant we, if we like, eat, drink, drive, vote, swear, and have sex without considering the consequences? Of course, we not only can; we often do. Im not moralizing. I just point out that the structure of English permits us nay, practically requires us to consider actions and consequences separately. How, then, could I fight this pervasive and pernicious elementalism? A friend proposed the term alternaquence. Its a marvelous word. Lexically, it merely combines alternative with consequence But what a profound difference in meaning! If you ask me what my alternaquences are, that sticks me with the responsibility for what follows, doesnt it? The[se] patterns of decision making provide three answers to my first structural question, How does the course of action relate to the reason?: 1) as an elementalistic action chosen as liked for itself, 2) as an elementalistic action chosen as fitting a situation, and 3) as an elementalistic action chosen as a means of reaching a desired elementalistic consequence.
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To make matters worse, the three elementalistic patterns all have immense vocabularies. When these words enter a conversation, they insidiously install their decision-making pattern as that conversations semantic framework. Thus, if you ask someone Whats the problem, you are injecting the goal-directed pattern. In that framework, we interpret the question as saying: 1. There is some desired state (goal). 2. Something is blocking the way. 3. What is it? 4. Overcome it. The word problem in almost any context calls for a goal-directed approach. The pollution problem. The unemployment problem. The nuclear problem. The vast vocabulary of the responsive pattern covers every situation for which there is an expected response and vice versa. Thus, guilty calls up punish and punish calls up guilty. Sink calls up in here, please. Thus the word sink, as I discovered long ago in Wisconsin, acts as a behavioral lever in the responsive pattern. It isnt just a name. We general semanticists use many devices to extensionalize our abstractions: indexing, dating, quotation marks, hyphens, and the etc. I urge we add a new extensional device, the and then? The and then? helps cure decisional elementalism. The and then? reminds us to convert elementalistic actions into alternaquences. Nobodys elementalistic approach to decisions is correct. Let us work to develop understanding in terms of actions embedded in alternaquences. Let us come to regard all elementalistic explanations of action as folklore and cease all arguments about whose folklore is the best. Let elementalistic values go. Let them fade away. And now, just before I, too, fade away, catch my flung bouquet. I toss this task to you as general semanticists, because you have the courage to be different, you have the courage to lead the way, and you have the only discipline broad enough to handle such difficult, culturally embedded, semantic issues. Understand me, then, when I wish all of you, from the bottom of my heart, happy alternaquences.
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ALEXANDER BRYAN JOHNSON (1836)
if theories are merely human contrivances, by which we artificially associate sensible realities, and artificially account by familiar processes for their production, what can we know more than the information which our sense and internal experience reveal? This question is important. It seems also to be misunderstood by every description of persons. The wise and the simple, the learned and the ignorant, propound questions without knowing what will constitute a solution; and investigate nature without knowing when to be satisfied. (p.238) What is magnetism, aurora borealis, attraction, gravity, &c.? To answer these questions sensibly is to refer us to what our senses reveal; but such answers are rarely given and rarely expected. The questioner seeks usually the verbal meaning of magnetism, attraction, &c., and without the slightest suspicion that his investigations are verbal. The verbal answer is a definition founded on some theory. I object not to it, and it may be useful; but I wish to discriminate between the verbal answer and the sensible, that men may not seem to disagree, where perhaps they merely misunderstand each other: that they may not waste their efforts on verbal disquisitions, when they wish to obtain knowledge of the external universe. The process which deems words the ultimate objects of inquiry, may, like all other verbal processes, be continued without end. 359
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What is conscience, hope, faith, courage? The natural meaning is what we can discover by our consciousness, while the verbal meaning is such a definition as approved authority shall have imposed: for instance, conscience is the monitor within us, the internal man, the principle which regulates our moral conduct, &c. Like every other verbal process, this, also, maybe be continued in infinitum: thus, What is conscience? The moral sense. What is the moral sense? A. And what is A? B. What is B? The process admits of no end, for the last answer is as questionable as the first. (p.269) Language can be made as capacious as our experience, but not more capacious. I may insist that nature is so exceedingly subtile, that I cannot taste the flavour of moonshine, nor smell its odour; nor can I feel the texture of the particles of which it is composed. If I catch a handful of them, they elude my grasp before I can convey them into a dark room for closer inspection. This is exceedingly wonderful to a person who sees not that the whole is created by divesting of signification the words flavour, odour, texture, particles, &c., and uniting the nullified words into syntactical propositions. Language permits us to frame unmeaning and unintelligible propositions, but we impute their unintelligibility and insignificance not to a misuse of language, but to a mysteriousness of nature, and an inefficiency of our intellect. (pp.291-292) I have heretofore stated that argumentation and logick consist in showing certain verbal conclusions to be admitted by certain verbal premises. All demonstration and proof proceed on the same principle. You must admit certain verbal axioms and definitions; and when the proposition is shown to be embraced by these admissions, the proposition is demonstrated. The process is verbal. It belongs to language, and apart from language the process possesses neither signification nor application. To say, therefore, that we cannot demonstrate our own existence, without first assuming it, is merely to state the nature of the process. The sensible realities of creation are not implicated or affected by our ability or inability to apply to them our verbal processes of demonstration and proof, any more than the air is implicated in our ability or inability to represent it with colours on canvass. Instead, however, of knowing that our inability to prove verbally our own existence, (without first assuming it,) is a property of language, we suppose it to be a curiosity of nature, or a portentous mystery. I am acquainted with no errour which shows so monstrously as the above, the superiority that language has acquired over the realities of the universe; and the curious inversion by which we estimate nature by language, instead of estimating language by nature. (p.293)
WRITERS GUIDELINES
361
Writers Guidelines for ETC: A Review of General Semantics

1. We prefer that you submit your articles or manuscripts electronically. If possible, use Microsoft Word for Windows, although we can handle WordPerfect and plain text (.txt) files if necessary. Send documents as e-mail attachments to igs@time-binding.org. If you cannot e-mail the document, you can send a floppy disc or CD to the Institute of General Semantics, 2260 College Ave., Fort Worth, TX 76110. Paper manuscripts may also be mailed to this address. 2. We recommend the Chicago Manual of Style for determining document format, citations, and references. 3. Use, but do not rely on, spell checking and proofreading aids. 4. Include photos, illustrations, and graphics as separate files (not embedded). Acceptable formats are JPG, JPEG, GIF, TIF, and BMP. Graphics should be as high resolution as available. 5. Do not use automated footnote or note referencing programs. Below are some examples of end notes as they appeared in a recent ETC:
REFERENCES Coyne, Kevin. A Day in the Night of America. New York: Random House, 1992. REFERENCES 1. Johnson, Wendell. People in Quandaries: The Semantics of Personal Adjustment. Harper & Row: New York (1946), p.24. 2. See Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. The University of Chicago Press: Chicago (1962), pp.24-27.
6. We especially encourage submissions by students. 7. If you submit an article that has been previously published, please obtain reprint permissions prior to submission to ETC and provide such permission with the submission. 8. While we do occasionally publish articles that do not relate directly to general semantics, we prefer articles in which the writer makes a clear connection with GS or explains how the topic relates to GS. 361
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October 24-26 Fort Worth, TX. Pre-Conference Workshop on Making Sense, Read House, Institute of General Semantics. See http://time-binding.org/2006-conf/workshop/ for details.
October 27-28 Fort Worth, TX. 13th International Conference on General Semantics: Making Sense: Do you? How do you? How do you know? Hilton Hotel, Arlington, TX. Papers due May 15, 2006. Dr. Renee Hobbs to deliver 54th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture October 28th. (See back cover.)
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Making Sense
Do you? How do you? How do you know?
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and so forth
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Conference Information October 27-28, 2006 Arlington Hilton hotel, Arlington, TX Dr. Renee Hobbs, Temple University, to deliver 54th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture Registration includes meals Student and daily rates available Group rates for hotel
Details online: www.time-binding.org

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Volume Sixty-Three Number Three July 2006

ETC: A Review of General Semantics

Editor Paul Dennithorne Johnston

Associate Editor Nora Miller

Institute of General Semantics, Inc.

Cover by Katie Croke 238 240 Joseph Hutchinson

349 Martin H. Levinson Books 353 Retrospect

359 Alexander Bryan Johnson Excerpts from A Treatise on Language

ETC JULY 2006

ETC JULY 2006

A TANGIBLY INTANGIBLE JOURNEY: EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING VIA ZEN & GS

ETC JULY 2006

A TANGIBLY INTANGIBLE JOURNEY: EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING VIA ZEN & GS

ETC JULY 2006

A TANGIBLY INTANGIBLE JOURNEY: EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING VIA ZEN & GS

ETC JULY 2006

ETC JULY 2006

A TANGIBLY INTANGIBLE JOURNEY: EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING VIA ZEN & GS

ETC JULY 2006

A TANGIBLY INTANGIBLE JOURNEY: EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING VIA ZEN & GS

252 Meditative Expressions Script Assume a position of maximum comfort.

ETC JULY 2006

ETC JULY 2006

AN INTERVIEW WITH ALLEN FLAGG

AN INTERVIEW WITH ALLEN FLAGG

ETC JULY 2006

AN INTERVIEW WITH ALLEN FLAGG

ETC JULY 2006

USING SOCIODRAMA TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION AND UNDERSTANDING

USING SOCIODRAMA TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION AND UNDERSTANDING

ETC JULY 2006

USING SOCIODRAMA TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION AND UNDERSTANDING

ETC JULY 2006

USING SOCIODRAMA TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION AND UNDERSTANDING

USING SOCIODRAMA TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION AND UNDERSTANDING

ETC JULY 2006

USING SOCIODRAMA TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION AND UNDERSTANDING The Action

ETC JULY 2006

USING SOCIODRAMA TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION AND UNDERSTANDING

ETC JULY 2006

INTRODUCTION TO TWO PAPERS FROM STUDENTS AT VERMONT ACADEMY

INTRODUCTION TO TWO PAPERS FROM STUDENTS AT VERMONT ACADEMY

272 Student Paper

ETC JULY 2006

GENERAL SEMANTICS IN TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

* Annie Kasper is a student at Vermont Academy in Saxtons River, Vermont.

GENERAL SEMANTICS IN TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

ETC JULY 2006

DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE WHEN YOU ARE?

* Andrew Ochalek is a student at Vermont Academy in Saxtons River, Vermont.

ETC JULY 2006

DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE WHEN YOU ARE?

ETC JULY 2006

A GENERAL THEORY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RELATIVITY AND COGNITIVE EVOLUTION

A GENERAL THEORY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RELATIVITY & COGNITIVE EVOLUTION

ETC JULY 2006

A GENERAL THEORY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RELATIVITY & COGNITIVE EVOLUTION

ETC JULY 2006

A GENERAL THEORY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RELATIVITY & COGNITIVE EVOLUTION

ETC JULY 2006

A GENERAL THEORY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RELATIVITY & COGNITIVE EVOLUTION

ETC JULY 2006