Korzybski: A Biography (Free Online Edition)
Copyright © 2014 (2011) by Bruce I. Kodish
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By the fall of 1920, having completed the first draft of Manhood, Korzybski seemed full of the importance of his formulation of time-binding—perhaps too full of it. He felt convinced of the detrimental nature of what he considered a wrong definition of humanity—one which posited ‘Man’ as having an animal aspect combined with a divine spark. To him such a view must be incompatible with the notion of ‘Man’ as a time-binder. He found it easy to pick on the Jews as the obvious culprits for this ‘travesty’.
A letter he wrote to Keyser on August 16, soon after their first meeting, seems worth quoting at length since it provides the sole evidence for the extremity of Korzybski’s negative attitudes toward Jews and Judaism at this time. After a quite extensive discussion of issues related to his book, he ended the letter with the following rant:
By the fall of 1920, having completed the first draft of Manhood, Korzybski seemed full of the importance of his formulation of time-binding—perhaps too full of it. He felt convinced of the detrimental nature of what he considered a wrong definition of humanity—one which posited ‘Man’ as having an animal aspect combined with a divine spark. To him such a view must be incompatible with the notion of ‘Man’ as a time-binder. He found it easy to pick on the Jews as the obvious culprits for this ‘travesty’.
A letter he wrote to Keyser on August 16, soon after their first meeting, seems worth quoting at length since it provides the sole evidence for the extremity of Korzybski’s negative attitudes toward Jews and Judaism at this time. After a quite extensive discussion of issues related to his book, he ended the letter with the following rant:
….Human = Animal X Spark of god has formed the old testament utterly capitalistic, brutally selfish, with hatred as a base. Every not Jew was not human, a beast to be cheated, killed, and so forth. They [the Jews] violated the human nature for centuries. Their theory of selfishness and hatred could not have of course creative constructive inclination, THEY BECAME PARASITES preying upon other people[’s] [work]. They are today bankers and merchants, they follow their creed and their culture...It happens to be that the Christians are the biggest producers, it may happen that Christianity made productiveness, or naturally productive races, accepted the theory of love it means productiveness, no doubt any way that Christianity is strictly related to productiveness. The Jews remained parasites, and they had to be such, the productive element was lacking in them. Selfishness as a creed (in a particularly accentuated form) compelled them to their efforts to accumulate other people’s work and be parasites in the newer civilization. Selfishness and greed upon other people’s success, in capitalism made them more selfish and greedy, they got in their second stage of their selfish capacity to prey. To prey on the farmer and the poor was not enough. They proclaimed a new creed to prey on the accumulation of dead men’s work, to prey on the wealthy and the products of work of brain workers. They do not acknowledge the highest form of binding time, the brain work, practically they prey upon it. That’s socialism in the binding time light. If we analyze the lesser subdivision of the same series we will find a strange but so natural fact that modern capitalism has been the most developed on the survival of the fittest theory and selfishness by those nations who have adopted the reformation, it means BOTH BIBLES without discrimination, in those countries the church is mostly the church of the wealthy, with Adam Smith and his creed of selfishness as an economic prophet, the catholic countries have the churches for the poor, as leading spirit the new testament. Here the binding time scale of thinking explains these phenomena without mistakes. The degree of binding time element in all those theories and creeds is the crucial base which shapes life, and is the only base for understanding those apparently strange phenomena. [They’re] so simple [after] all if we only start from the right base. Today we see Jewish old testament creed Bolshevism build upon hate and DESTRUCTION (it cannot be different) in Mongol lands [knocking] at the doors of white people christian, love, constructive domain. Those things are not understood completely, because of the NOT analyzing of the human class of life from the binding time base. In my book I did not want to show too much of the value of this binding of time starting base, I put it in general terms only, not wanting to antagonize people in the start, I wanted them first to digest the first dose. Then it would [be] time enough to give the next dose, when the base for understanding would be prepared. I wonder if this is wise. I simply am afraid of the bad effect of putting too much upon the people for the start. Too much of a medicine brings often a new illness. I will keep a copy of this letter to you as notes for my further books. I would love if time will permit you to have a short expression of your opinions about these few important points I have touched in this letter. Of course I have to apologize for taking too much of your time, and for the rotten language, but I had not time to correct the letter and copy it again. The time is pressing a shake up of human thoughts is imperative, or unprecedented calamities are in store. We are in the stage of confusion here, the very existence of the white race is in danger, only vigorous thinking, Mathematical thinking, binding of time standards can save the Aryan race from the semits [sic] and Mongols.
With every appreciation and gratitude (1)
Notes
You may download a pdf of all of the book's reference notes (including a note on primary source material and abbreviations used) from the link labeled Notes on the Contents page. The pdf of the Bibliography, linked on the Contents page contains full information on referenced books and articles.
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