In Science and Sanity, Korzybski stated one of the basic postulates of general semantics, non-identity, thusly:
"We must be aware continuously that in life on the un-speakable level we deal only with absolute individuals, be they objects, situations, or s.r [semantic (evaluational) reactions]." (p. 396, 5th Ed.)I found a lovely poem "Nothing Twice" by his fellow Pole Wislawa Szymborska who gives the notion of non-identity her poetic turn. The first verse:
Nothing can ever happen twice.A link to the rest of the poem—"Nothing Twice"
In consequence, the sorry fact is
that we arrive here improvised
and leave without the chance to practice.
