ETC.: A Review of General Semantics articles from March 1994

ETC.: A Review of General Semantics archives from March 1994

Interview with Stephen Brookfield. (University of St. Thomas professor Stephen Brookfield) (Interview)
March 22, 1994... Stephen Brookfield, presently Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, was educated in England. He received his B. A. in History and Politics from Coventry University, his...

Millions-billions. (numbers and meanings)
March 22, 1994... "LAST YEAR," stated Carroll Bogert from Moscow in the June 21, 1993, issue of Newsweek, "nearly 2.6 billion passengers rode the Moscow subway." The Mathsemantic Monitor enjoyed the rest of the article, "What's Right With Russia," subtitled...

Education for survival: helping humans to be more human.
March 22, 1994... I ASKED MY GRANDDAUGHTER'S second grade enrichment class, "Who made it possible for you to be here today?" Several hands shot up. They started with the obvious: "Mom woke me up." "Dad drove me to school." "Mom and dad -- it takes two...

No laughing matter: eight scholars in search of a joke. (analyzing jokes based on different disciplines)
March 22, 1994... THERE ARE MANY WAYS to analyze a joke, each of which is tied to the perspective of the person making the analysis. To demonstrate this, I will offer a joke and then present eight different interpretations of the joke, each one derived from a...

How to think superstitiously.
March 22, 1994... ON THE WAY to my astrologer, I turned left to escape a black cat, then crossed the street to avoid walking under a ladder. I rubbed my lucky rabbit's foot, crossed my fingers, and took the elevator up thirteen flights to the fourteenth floor....

Language and labels - how we describe ourselves.
March 22, 1994... OVER MANY YEARS Of teaching general semantics to high school students, I have found the following small group exercise very successful in engaging the interest of these highly active though self-conscious and self-centered adolescents. These...

On the use of quotation marks.
March 22, 1994... I HAVE FOUND in formal writings that philosophers, linguists, and mathematician share a very specific convention regarding the use of single quotation marks -- one that differs from the conventions adopted by the General Semantics Bulletin |See...

An episode of flaming: a creative narrative.
March 22, 1994... Introduction YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ a creative narrative. A creative narrative according to Brown & McMillan (1991), tells "a story that is factual in content, but uses fiction writing techniques, including plot, scene and characters". The...

Structure: the intellectual's metaphor.
March 22, 1994... I REMEMBER WHEN the metaphor of "structure" arrived across the ocean from France. I became aware of it in the late 1960s, from remarks from professors wh dismissed it, and from books displayed in the new books sections of bookstores where...

Critical analyses of social issues.
March 22, 1994... I DEVELOPED a mid-term group assignment in which students apply certain general semantics formulations to a disciplined analysis of a social issue. This activity demonstrates how using general semantics as an analytical tool can increase...

A general semantics glossary (part 6).
March 22, 1994... identity/non-identity. I have used the word "central" to describe most of the korzybskian terms I have presented so far in this glossary. That's how it goes in a system, a neuro-linguistic cohort, where every defining term is directly related to...

How language collectives compromise journalistic accuracy.
March 22, 1994... JOURNALISTS, despite their cherished notions of objectivity, still find themselves constrained to using language. And if general semanticists agree on anything, they agree that language intertwines with the culture and experience of its users and...

Korzybski memorial lecture and colloquium. (Alfred Korzybski)
March 22, 1994... AN EDUCATION that includes general semantics and critical thinking can help an individual wade through the flood of doublespeak and propaganda that surrounds us. That seemed to be the consensus among those who participated in the 42nd annual...

Fantasies of the Master Race: Literature, Cinema, and the Colonization of American Indians.
March 22, 1994... Annette Jaimes sets the tone for this volume when she begins with these words: Literature crafted by a dominating culture can be an insidious political force, disinforming people who might otherwise develop a clearer understanding of the...

Race Matters.
March 22, 1994... Cornell West's latest collection of essays focus on several important racial issues. Chapter titles include: "Nihilism in Black America," "The Pitfalls of Racial Reasoning," "The Crisis of Black Leadership," "Demystifying the New Blac...

The Call of Service: A Witness to Idealism.
March 22, 1994... Coles has authored this deeply personal text "to explore the 'service' we offer to others and, not incidentally, to ourselves. I am hoping to document the subjectivity, the phenomenology of service....how this kind of work fits into a life."...

ISGS goes on line. (International Society for General Semantics' computer bulletin board system)
March 22, 1994... ISGS has begun operating its own computer bulletin board system, sometimes called a BBS. The following may answer some of your questions about this form o electronic communication. What does a computer bulletin board do? A computer bulletin...