Fordham University Masthead Logo DigitalResearch@Fordham CMS Faculty Publications Communications and Media Studies Spring 2003 Something From Nothing: Seeking a Sense of Self Lance Strate Fordham University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://fordham.bepress.com/comm_facultypubs Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Lance Strate (2003), Something From Nothing: Seeking a Sense of Self, ETC: A Review of General Semantics 60:1, pp. 4-21. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Communications and Media Studies at DigitalResearch@Fordham. It has been accepted for inclusion in CMS Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalResearch@Fordham. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Volume Sixty Number One • Spring 2003 www.generalsernanties.org ETC : Something From Nothing : Seeking a Sense of Self by Lance Strafe, page 4 . REFEREED PAPER Raymond Gozzi, Jr. Gardner Gateley The Senses - Windows or Snares? Johnson's Diagnosogenic Theory of Stuttering: An Update Gregory Sawin The Structural Differential Diagram Part II Kimberly A. Carter Type Me How You Feel: Philip Vassallo Quasi-Nonverbal Cues in Computer- Executive Summaries : Mediated Communication Where Less Really is More Joseph A. De Vito Robert Wanderer SCREAM Before You Scream Causes & Effects & Virgins & Raisins Risha W. Levinson David F. Maas Aging and Time-Binding in Using Literature to Neutralize Pernicious the Twenty-First Century Dichotomous Thinking Formulated by Alfred Korzybski, general semantics ETC. A Review of General Semantics continues its development through the Institute of General Semantics and the International Society for is an interdisciplinary quarterly published by the General Semantics . ETC was founded in 1943 by International Society for General Semantics . S . 1. Hayakawa . Editor Contributing Editors Paul Lippert Paul Dennithome Johnston Sanford I . Berman East Stroudsburg University Milton Dawes David F. Maas Assistant Editor E. W. Kellogg III Wiley College Gregory Sawin Robert P. Pula Jeffrey A. Mordkowitz Institute ofGeneral Semantics Editorial Coordinator Editorial Board Neil Postman Emily R. Shomaker Raymond Gozzi, Jr. New York University Ithaca College Consulting Editor Gregg Hoffmann Steve Stockdale Jeremy Klein University of Wisconsin- Dallas-Fort Worth Center for General Semantics Milwaukee Feature Editors Norman Isaacson Lance Strate Fordham University Raymond Gozzi, Jr. Lehman College Martin H . Levinson Andrea Johnson Robert Torosyan David F. Maas Alverno College New School University Nora Miller Martin H . Levinson Martha Watson Philip Vassallo New York Society for University of Nevada- Robert Wanderer General Semantics Las Vegas INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR GENERAL SEMANTICS President Directors Advisory Council Charles G . Russell Sanford 1. Berman Anatol Rapoport Executive Director Elizabeth J. Bourland Professor Emeritus Paul Dennithome Johnston Milton Dawes University ofToronto Assistant Executive Allen Flagg Direator/Secret y Gregg Hoffmann Emily R. Shomaker E. W . Kellogg Ill VPICyberspace Martin H. Levinson Nora Miller Harry Maynard VP/Education Emory Menefee David F. Maas Jeffrey A. Mordkowitz VP/Finance Steve Stockdale www.generalsemanties.org Dennis Wile [email protected] Robert Wanderer VP/Publications Gregory Sawin ETC. A Review of General Semantics (ISSN 0014-164X) is published quarterly by the International Society for General Semantics, P .O. Box 728, Concord, CA 94522 . Tel: (925) 748-0311 . E-mail : [email protected]. ISGS basic membership with ETC subscription: $55 .00 per year (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 International Society for General Semantics, P .O. Box 728, Concord, CA 94522 . Microfilm editions or electronic versions are available from Bell & Howell Information and Learning, Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, Tel : (800) 521-0600, and other providers. Publication No . 179120 . Periodicals postage paid at Concord, CA, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ETC_ A Review of General Semantics, P.O. Box 728, Concord, CA 94522 . Submissions : Send manuscripts in duplicate, double-spaced (include disk version, if available), accompanied by self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE), to the Editor of ETC, P.O. Box 728, Concord, CA 94522 . For writer's guidelines, send SASE. contents Vol. 60, No . 1 Spring 2003 2 In this Issue Lance Strate 4 Something From Nothing: Seeking a Sense of Self Refereed Paper Gardner Gateley 22 Johnson's Diagnosogenic Theory of Stuttering : An Update Kimberly A . Carter 29 Type Me How You Feel : Quasi-Nonverbal Cues in Computer-Mediated Communication 40 Abstractions Joseph A. DeVito 42 SCREAM Before You Scream Risha W. Levinson 46 Aging and Time-Binding in the Twenty-First Century 53 Membership Page 55 Letter to the Editor Metaphors in Action Raymond Gozzi, Jr . 56 The Senses - Windows or Snares? General Semantics Basics Gregory Sawin 59 The Structural Differential Diagram, Part II Education David F. Maas 76 Using Literature to Neutralize Pernicious Dichotomous Thinking Words on the Line Philip Vaccallo 83 Executive Summaries: Where Less Really is More 91 News & Notes Illustrating General Semantics Robert Wanderer 94 Causes & Effects & Virgins & Raisins Books Martin H. Levinson 98 Retrospect 102 Copyright 0 2003 by the International Society for General Semwuics general semantics n pl but sing or pl in consir (1933): a doctrine and educational discipline intended to improve habits of response of human beings to their environment and one another esp. by training in the more critical use of words and other symbols Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Ninth Edition • IN THIS ISSUE The move from oral society to literate society had its upsets as we changed from collective thinking to the belief that we are individuals . Profound challenges continue to haunt us . "Now that we have moved into a postliterate, electronic culture, what has happened to our sense of self?" Serious problems accompany too much sense of self, as well as too little . In Something From Nothing: Seeking a Sense of Sef Lance Strate offers an insightful exploration of the interaction between the self, society, and our symbolic environment . He also shares his own story, one of courage and compassion in the face of heartbreaking difficulties . Wendell Johnson's pioneering work with "stuttering" helped many patients to break the cycle of fear and "failure ." While Johnson may not always get credit for it, we can still see his techniques employed in some methods used today, notes Gardner Gateley in his Refereed Paper, Johnson's Diagnosogenic Theory of Stuttering: An Update. When communicating by computer, must we give up those non-verbal nuances that can say so much more than words? In Type Me How You Feel: QuasiNonverbal Cues in Computer-Mediated Communication, Kimberly A. Carter asserts that, "Face-to-face bonds, born in a hand- shake, the wink of an eye, a hug, or a simple bow, are no longer the prime prerequisites for creating friendships ." 2 Ix THIS ISSUE 3 You know that it is your interpretation of events that makes you angry, but does that make certain frustrations any less infuriating? For effective anger management, Communication Professor Joseph A . DeVito says SCREAM Before You Scream . ... S is for Self, C is for Context, R is for . In a society that worships youth, we tend to regard older individuals as no longer able to contribute. Think again! More and more people are refusing to accept the idea that to be "old" is to be useless . They want to keep on learning and doing; they have a wealth of experience and they want to share it, says Risha W . Levinson in Aging and TimeBinding in the Twenty-First Century . Do our senses deceive us, or do they reveal the truth? Are The Senses - Windows or Snares? According to Raymond Gozzi, Jr ., that may well depend on which particular culture shaped your world view . The structural differential diagram offers one of the keys to under- standing the process of abstracting, and therefore to understanding gen- eral semantics . Gregory Sawin wrote his original monograph on the diagram between 1983 and 1985 . After many revisions, with critiques by various GS scholars, he continues here with his finely honed short version, The Structural Differential Diagram, Part II . Educators: Those examples of either-or thinking that you're looking for are close at hand. Our Education Editor, David F . Maas, tells us where to find them when Using Literature to Neutralize Pernicious Dichotomous Thinking. What is the difference between an abstract and an executive summary? While an abstract may simply provide information, the pur- pose of the executive summary is to get a response . To elicit action, the writer should provide only the information the reader needs, says Philip Vassallo in writing about Executive Summaries: Where Less Really is More. "The self is a product of metamorphosis, not a static entity . " SOMETHING FROM NOTHING: Seeking a Sense of Self LANCE STRATE* 1 HE Topic I wish to take up here is the relationship between communi- 1 4 cation and the sense of self. In doing so, I intend to communicate to you a little bit about myself, and will thereby run the risk of narcissism. At the same time, I will run the risk of echolalia, as most of what I have to say is merely a repetition of what has been said before . And I want to begin by echoing a story taken from a children's book by Phoebe Gilman entitled Something From Nothing (1992), a book that my son Benjamin and I enjoy reading together . The text is itself an echo, as it is adapted from a Jewish folk tale, and I in turn will adapt and paraphrase Gilman's story . It is about a tailor who made his newborn grandson a wonderful blanket out of some rare and beautiful material . Joseph, his grandson, loved that blanket, but as time passed and the blanket got worn and frazzled, his mother wanted to throw it out .