Free Rev1 Here’s Something About GENERAL SEMANTICS A Primer for Making Sense of Your World by STEVE STOCKDALE Copyright ©2009 by Steve Stockdale Published by Steve Stockdale Santa Fe, NM ISBN: 978-0-9824645-0-2 All rights to original text and illustrations reserved. No part of this document or the related files may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Page 2 Free Rev1 For those who never knew, knew of, or even imagined me, whom I would never know without time-binding, to whom I am indebted beyond the verbal level. Alfred Korzybski J. Samuel Bois O.R. Bontrager Francis P. Chisholm S.I. Hayakawa Wendell Johnson M. Kendig Irving J. Lee Mary Morain Elwood Murray Harry L. Weinberg and all the others Page 3 Free Rev1 CONTENTS PREFACE Something About This Book 10 An Overview 18 PART 1: Introductions to General Semantics Introduction 21 A Structured System of Formulations 25 Some Questions and Answers About GS 34 A Tutorial 43 Link to Fall 2006 Semester Review Video 57 Seven Stories to Illustrate GS Principles 58 PART 2: Explanations and Descriptions Report from an 8-Day Seminar-Workshop 69 My ME Model 82 Report from a Weekend Seminar 97 About “Mindfulness” and GS 104 The Girl and the Match 108 Other Descriptions of General Semantics 111 Link to “Calling Out the Symbol Rulers” Lecture Video 122 An Explanation of the Structural Differential 123 13 Symptoms of Language Misbehaviors 132 A GS Perspective 134 PART 3: Extensions and Applications Toward an Informed World View 140 Eating Menus 153 Calling Out the Symbol Rulers 156 Words by Other Names 159 Response Side Semantics 162 Semantic Pollution Fouling the Airwaves 178 Page 4 Free Rev1 CONTENTS (cont.) How Do You Play the Game? 182 But What If ...? 185 A Fence Sieve Language 188 Why Make a Federal Case Out of Bad Words? 198 How to Size Your (Thinking) Box 201 The Bridge at Neverwas 209 PART 4: Some History General Semantics Across the Curriculum 214 Snooping Around the Time-Binding Attic 221 Heinlein and Ellis: Converging Competencies 230 SUPPLEMENTARIES Full Transcript, “Lay Off of My PERSUADE Shoes” 239 Bib-Vid-liography: Some Resources 264 Links to GS Resources at ThisIsNotThat.com 267 An Essay on Levels of Abstraction 268 NOTES AND SOURCES 274 INDEX OF NAMES 287 Credits for Illustrations Images © Photodisc/Getty Images appear on pages: 33,37,40,43,81, 103,110,133,142-144,155,158,161,177,181,184,187,200,208,229, 238,273. Images © Jupiterimages appear on pages: Cover,20,29,49,50,53,129, 152,209. Images and illustrations on pages 32-33, 48, 123, and 220 used with the permission of the Institute of General Semantics. All other illustrations and graphics © Steve Stockdale 2009. Page 5 Free Rev1 STEVE STOCKDALE graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1976. Following a six-year tour of duty as a KC-135 Instructor Navigator in the Air Force, he began a career in the defense electronics industry as a program/business manager working for Texas Instruments, Raytheon, and Rockwell Collins. He served as a trustee for the Institute of General Semantics from 1996-2003, then as Executive Director from 2004-2007. He is an Institute-certified teacher and taught at Institute seminars from 1996-2006. He presented the first annual Dr. Sanford I. Berman Lecture at the University of Nevada Las Vegas in 2004. As an adjunct professor at Texas Christian University, he taught General Semantics for Mass Communication Practitioners in the Schieffer School of Journalism from 2005-2008. A highlight of his career was a three-week visit to India during which he and Ms. Andrea Johnson, former President of the Board of Trustees for the Institute of General Semantics, presented a series of lectures and seminars hosted by Mr. Balvant K. Parekh of Mumbai. He currently lives in Santa Fe, NM, where he writes and offers consulting, training, and educational services. Page 6 Free Rev1 ABOUT THIS FORMAT This book is published as an electronic book (“eBook”) using the free Adobe Acrobat PDF format. It has been designed for reading on a com- puter screen and incorporates several capabilities beyond those of a printed hard copy book. Please note: 1. You will need the latest version of the free Adobe Acrobat Reader (or other compatible software) to read and view the contents of this eBook. If you experience trouble, please download the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader at: http://get.adobe.com/reader/. 2. A hyperlinked version of the Contents for this eBook can be ac- cessed using the Acrobat Reader’s Bookmarks feature, located in the left panel in most Reader configurations. 3. No index is included. The “Find” search feature within the Acro- bat Reader (or equivalent) performs a valuable text-searchable function. 4. Hyperlinks within the body of the eBook link to external Internet locations. 5. The author reserves the right to implement security features of the Adobe Acrobat software, including user limitations to copy, forward, or print this eBook document. Contact the author if you have any questions regarding security or how to obtain multi-copy licenses: [email protected]. 6. This book includes licensed artwork, purchased from and copy- righted by Photodisc/Getty Images and Jupiterimages. No im- age may be separated from any page in this book. Page 7 Free Rev1 Here’s Something About GENERAL SEMANTICS A Primer for Making Sense of Your World Page 8 Free Rev1 Those are the doubting reactions of impetuous youth. Today, you learn something. Tomorrow you think you can already be letter perfect in technique. But the ‘system’ is not a hand me down suit that you can put on and walk off in, or a cookbook where all you need to do is find the page and there is your recipe. No, it is a whole way of life, you have to grow up in it, educate yourself in it for years. You cannot cram it into yourselves, you can assimilate it, take it into your blood and flesh, until it becomes second na- ture, becomes so organic as part of your being that you are trans- formed by it for all time. It is a system that must be studied in parts and then merged into a whole so that it can be understood in all its fundamentals. When you can spread it all out before you like a fan you will have attained a true grasp of it. You cannot hope to do this all at once. Constantine Stanislavski I must stress that I give no panaceas, but experience shows that when the methods of general semantics are applied, the results are usually beneficial, whether in law, medicine, business, etc., education on all levels, or personal inter-relationships, be they in family, national, or international fields. If they are not applied, but merely talked about, no results can be expected. Alfred Korzybski Page 9 Something About This Book Free Rev1 PREFACE: Something About This Book This book has been thirty years in the making. In November 1979, while taking a graduate course in linguistics, I wrote a book report on S.I. Hayakawa’s Language in Thought in Action. I was particu- larly impressed with his contention that: ... widespread intraspecific co-operation [co-operation within the human species] through the use of language is the fundamental mechanism of human survival, and that, when the use of language results, as it so often does, in the creation or aggravation of dis- agreements and conflicts, there is something wrong with the speaker, the listener, or both. (1) I concluded my report with my contention: The greatest result from reading this book is that my awareness of the purposes, uses, and limitations of language has been consid- erably broadened. ... Just in preparing this short paper, I have real- ized how difficult it is to write about words. But I feel that this study is important. As our lives become more and more complicated due to rapidly changing technology, the decay of longstanding insti- tutions, and increasing individual freedoms, our willingness and ability to cooperate must also increase. An understanding of lan- guage, as outlined by Mr. Hayakawa, is essential for continued co- operation. (2) Little did I know then that this little book report (for which I received an A — “Your paper is well written, the contents well described and the ideas therein fully explained. Your paper shows intuitive thought and expresses that process clearly.”) was, in a sense, introducing me to the rest of my life. [The paper appears in this book under SUPPLEMENTARIES.] Here’s Something About General Semantics Page 10 Something About This Book Free Rev1 In 1986, I found a worn copy of the book (published in 1949 under this title, revised after its first publication in 1941 as Lan- guage in Action) in a used book store. I bought it and, inspired for the second time by Hayakawa’s lucid prose, began making exten- sive notes, even taking the book with me on a business trip to Rome, Italy. When questioned by my travel colleague, I reso- lutely, if naively, answered, “I’m going to re-write this book and bring it up to date.” Seven years later, after a chance conversation with a friend in a bar, I learned there was more to this “general semantics stuff” than just Hayakawa’s book. Alfred Korzybski, Irving J. Lee, Wendell Johnson, J.S. Bois, Charlotte and Allen Read, M.