A Note on my GS Studies

As the two or three followers of my blog are aware, I have immersed myself in the studies of General Semantics this year. I believe I have progressed to such a point that I GS has changed my patterns and "way" I think to such an extent that my behavior has become more rational as a result.

As some of you already know, the territory (reality, etc.) is merely a space in which we project our beliefs and base our semantic reactions.

Therefore, my inference that an acquaintance of mine stopped dead in their tracks to avoid me due to fear, hatred or courtesy is as unverifiable as the inferences that they may make about me. However, to my advantage, my time-binding ability and my consciousness and the separation of first- and second-order functions makes the distinction between belief and fact, report and inference. I shall never know for a "fact" whether their behavior was from any of the reasons stated above, as they may not even know themselves or "know themselves."

From my own observations, I believe that my inferences "analyze" rather than "deceive"; that I would now rather use them deconstruct games and refrain from playing them; to find choice where others find a zero-sum defeat; to view failure as feedback; to feel that a prize and its attainment is for a rational purpose, well within the purview of second-order logic instead of first-order "infantile" stupidity.

Sure, Ellis and Korzybski and their followers teach us to "unconditionally accept" people as organisms as a whole in their environments, but allow ourselves to disagree with their actions and beliefs, if it so comes into conflict. Some people believe (or, rather, I believe they believe) that my ranting and raving is the result of a mind in disequilibrium, out of touch with "reality."

In actuality, it serves as an outlet for my thoughts and feelings, allowing my sometimes dormant creativity and critical analysis to take flight.

In recent months, I have begun to accept the way I am, and in doing so, I am able to lead a much more involving and rewarding life as result. To improve myself - from whatever conception I deem appropriate - is a set of goals I desire to attain; but it does not constitute an absolute necessity, causing grief or self-loathing if I do not achieve them to my satisfaction and within a reasonable time-frame. When one thinks about it, once the need for oxygen, food and other such requirements are met, most things "are not" needs after all.

Before the end of this year is through, I seek to submit an article to ETC., the General Semantics scholarly journal, as a tribute to the teachings of Korzybski, his contemporaries and to his legacy. I doubt any such intellectual contribution that I have ever encountered has given me so much when "it" asks so little in return.