ETC.: A Review of General Semantics articles from July 2008

ETC.: A Review of General Semantics archives from July 2008

The technology of story and human survival as a species(?).(Essay)
July 1, 2008... Note: Parts of this essay were presented for the Alfred Korzybski Memorial Conference 2007 at Fordham University Lincoln Center New York City and for the New York State Communications Association annual conference in Kerhonkson New York 2007. A...

Some personal observations on "Mind the gap".(Essay)
July 1, 2008... "MIND THE GAP," the words spoken at the underground railway station in London on a loudspeaker repeatedly were clear, loud, slow, and cautionary. Old railway cars were heavy, broad, aligned with platforms, and noisy. New cars were sleek, light,...

Developing the experience of group mind.(Lecture)
July 1, 2008... * Adapted from an interactive lecture-seminar for the Mind and Consciousness Seminar Series, co-sponsored by the New York Society for General Semantics, the Institute of General Semantics, the Friends of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and...

General semantics and emotional intelligence.(Essay)
July 1, 2008... IN 1995, DANIEL GOLEMAN, a science reporter for the New York Times, published the international bestseller Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ. The impetus for the book was an article he chanced upon in a small academic...

The harlot meets the general.(Essay)
July 1, 2008... ONE DAY, a close friend of mine began speaking of general semantics, a discipline with which I was not acquainted. The arguments of its proponents sounded very familiar to me, even though I hadn't heard them expressed in quite that way before....

Words that replace thought.(Reprint)(Essay)
July 1, 2008... Reprinted with permission from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel LANGUAGE IS INCREDIBLE IMPORTANT. But it is so easily misused, especially when hooked to ideas that somebody is trying to get us to believe in. When crusaders or politicians use...

Subprime abstractions.(Essay)
July 1, 2008... THE RECENT FINANCIAL LOSSES IN THE U.S. CREDIT MARKET associated with home mortgages have received a great deal of media attention. Among others, Merrill Lynch wrote off $23 billion in assets while Citigroup wrote off $24 billion (Stewart,...

Bucky the time-binding beaver.(Short story)
July 1, 2008... [This chapter from Levinson s Practical Fairy Tales for Everyday Living (iUniverse, 2007) demonstrates that human progress occurs because we can pass information across generations.] Once upon a time, in the far-off hamlet of Beaverton,...

Poetry ring.
July 1, 2008... Language, as Korzybski made clear, can be self-reflexive. We can use language to discuss language, and then we can use language to discuss our language about language. This process can escalate with no end in sight. We can make statements about...

Manifesto.(POETRY RING)(Poem)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... it is the poet, it is the poet who should reach out, shout, as loud as sudden death with every breath to the reader, it is the poet who should share, dare to reveal, steal yourself for...

Craft alone.(POETRY RING)(Poem)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... What pulse lies in dry linear lines, though in perfect form perhaps, without life's blood to move would crumble and crack under the arid charge of time * Annette Stenslien is a writer, photographer, and facilitator for...

Without title.(POETRY RING)(Poem)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... the poem does not exist for you; you do not own these words the poem exists as drifting dust; you breathe it in cough it out; bloody lung the poem can destroy everything you hold dear Or...

The pen, the sword.(POETRY RING)(Poem)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... in times now passed- moments - of crisis the black wall shrouding; wrapped tight in suffocation the blade of truth - the weapon freed - snapped clean from plastic case and two bit wrapping - clenched between...

Nothing to describe except a blank page.(POETRY RING)(Poem)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... This is the poem I could never write Full to the brim with casual blasphemies witty enough to be easily forgiven Written in painfully purple poesy saved by the will imposed upon the word well received by critics well...

Quotations from The World of Null-A.
July 1, 2008... After reading Science and Sanity, A.E. Van Vogt decided to write a work of science fiction titled The World of Null-A, which was published in book form 1948. The volume has since gone on to become an important part of the science fiction...

Faqs.
July 1, 2008... 1. What is general semantics? There are as many different ways to answer this question as there are to respond to "What is psychology?" or "What is behavior?" In fact, there are so many they've been collected into a compendium of...

Dropping names.
July 1, 2008... A notable, if somewhat eclectic, group of individuals has crossed paths with general semantics over the years. Here are a few names you might recognize. Other names can be found on the IGS website by clicking on "Archives of Alfred Korzybski...

Treatment for hardening of the categories.(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Comedian Steven Wright was confronted by a friend saying "Your socks don't match!" Steven responded "Yes they do. I was going by thickness." When my current partner, a composer and artist, came to live with me, he immediately started...

Dreams of completion and an ancient solution.(METAPHORS IN ACTION)(Essay)
July 1, 2008... All my life I have had an intellectual dream--that all knowledge could be unified into one complete whole. Why could it be unified? Because our lives have underlying patterns, and we can come to know them to some extent. The patterns of our...

Natalie Angier. The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Basics of Science.(Book review)
July 1, 2008... Natalie Angier. The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Basics of Science. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. A National Science Board report recently showed that the United States ranks 17th among the nations surveyed in the share of...

Clive James. Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts.(Book review)
July 1, 2008... Clive James. Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts. New York: Norton, 2007. Clive James, an author of numerous books of criticism, autobiography, and poetry has provided in this book 110 biographical essays of...

John C. Wright, Null-A Continuum.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2008... John C. Wright, Null-A Continuum, New York: Tor, 2008 "The Map is not the Territory; the Word is not the thing it represents. Our sensations are not reality, but an abstraction from reality." So begins the Null-A Continuum, a sequel by John...

Paul Woodruff. The Necessity of Theater: The Art of Watching and Being Watched.
July 1, 2008... Paul Woodruff. The Necessity of Theater: The Art of Watching and Being Watched. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Do we need theater in some fundamental way? Paul Woodruff believes we do. He argues that the art of theater is as...

From the archives.(RETROSPECT)(Reprint)
July 1, 2008... Man, since he is a part of the universe, is inevitably involved with causality. As a cognitive part of the universe, he has discovered causality, defined it, and used it as a basis for the construction of an intricate and compelling world of...

Dates and indexes.(Calendar)
July 1, 2008... IGS TRUSTEE AND BOARD SECRETARY VANESSA BIARD-SCHAEFFER gave a GS lecture on the art of drafting political speeches on June 12th in Paris. In September, she will be attending the annual United Nations NGO conference, which will also be held in...

Practical fairy tales for Everyday Living.(Book review)
July 1, 2008... The American Heritage Dictionary defines the term "fairy tale" as a fictitious, highly fanciful story or explanation. Can such a narrative furnish pragmatic advice on important topics like sound thinking, overcoming indecisiveness, stress...