Monday, December 19, 2011

Friday, December 16, 2011

From the Stray Thought Bin - 'The Heroic Task of Every Generation'

The heroic task of every generation of time-binders (that's us humans): appropriating our inheritance from those who came before us. Every generation does the task to some degree poorly or well. What makes the task heroic?: The stakes are always high and for every new generation, including our own, its particular inheritance is never the same as—indeed is necessarily different than—any that came before. 

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Friday, December 9, 2011

ONLY MAYBE On GENERAL semANTICS? Nothing But!

Nice blogpost with lots of links from a student(s) of Robert Anton Wilson on RAW, Korzybski, GS, and my biography of Korzybski. Thanks, guy(s).

GENERAL semANTICS

Graham Rae on Korzybski and William Burroughs

William Burroughs, a rapt student with perfect attendance at Korzybski's 1939 August seminar, later said that he "...was very impressed by what Korzybski had to say. I still am. I think that everyone, particularly all students should read Korzybski. [It would] save them an awful lot of time." (Korzybski: A Biography, p. 457)

Scroll down on the linked page to read Graham Rae's piece on Korzybski and Burroughs.

Korzybski on Wealth - Something for Tea Party Patriots and Occupy Wall Street Enthusiasts

"...[W]ealth consists of those things—whether they be material commodities or forms of knowledge and understanding—that have been produced by the time-binding energies of humanity, and according to which nearly all the wealth of the world at any given time is the accumulated fruit of the toil of past generations—the living work of the dead. It seems unnecessary to warn the reader against confusing the "making" of money by hook or crook, by trick or trade, with the creating of wealth, by the product of labor." 
—Alfred Korzybski, Manhood of Humanity, p. 115

Thursday, December 8, 2011

From the Stray Thought Bin - 'The Speed of Thought'

If relativity theory has abolished infinite speeds in physics, then the speed of 'thought' is not infinite either.

Quote of the Day: Lies & Truth


"Things are generally other than they seem, and ignorance that never looks beneath the rind becomes disabused when you show the kernel. Lies always come first, dragging fools along by their irreparable vulgarity. Truth always lags last, limping along on the arm of Time. The wise therefore reserve for it the other half of that power which the common mother has wisely given in duplicate. Deceit is very superficial, and the superficial therefore easily fall into it. Prudence lives retired within its recesses, visited only by sages and wise men."
——Bathasar Gracian, Aphorism #146  from The Art of Wordly Wisdom

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

From the Stray Thought Bin - 'Confined by a System'

The fact that you reject all systems of thought as confining, doesn't mean that you are not confined by one.