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SCIENCE_AND_SANITY

                                             March 08, 2021        
                                                                   
                                                                   
So, I was babbling about Korzybski again                           
the other day, and it occurred to me I                             
haven't really *read* that much of his                             
stuff, so I picked up my hardback copy       (A bookmark receipt informs me I
of "Science and Sanity"                      spent over $26 on this at Adobe
                                             Books, back in the days when it
                                             was still on 16th Street).
                                                                   
                                                                   
I decided to skip past the front matter, which is a solid          
quarter inch of this book's one-and-a-half inch total, once         
you add up all the introductions to the Nth edition,              
prefaces, "prelimenaries", and so on.  I began reading at          
the true beginning: Chapter One of the 1933 edition.               
                                                                   
This book is one of the funniest things I've read in a long        
time, it's so transparently ridiculous it makes the long           
list of people impressed by it seem really crazy: Heinlein,        
Englebart and William S. Burroughs were all reportedly fans        
of this work.                                                      
                                                                   
In case you haven't heard, this is a book of new                   
discoveries of new ways of thinking which will                     
transform humanity.                                                
                                                                   
There's an analogy to the revolutions                              
in physics (relativity/quantum                                     
mechanics) that isn't actually stated                              
as an analogy. A close reading shows                               
that Korzybski is claiming that these                              
are merely special cases of his new                                
style of thinking.                                                 
                                                                   
He leads off with what he presents as an                           
observation that the key aspect of humanity--                      
in fact, he claims this is the essence of          Actually, he doesn't      
humanity, this is his *definition* of              explain what he means      
humanity-- is that it engages in "time-binding"    by "time-binding" at      
(which is to say delayed gratification).           this point, I've heard      
                                                   it explained already by      
He then immediately states that most human         some of his acolytes      
beings aren't doing this, they're behaving         because I'm an SF nerd.      
in a mode more like animals.  So what                                       
happened to this as the *definition* of            THE_SECRET_MASTERS_OF_DESTINY
humanity?  If it isn't what most humans do,                        
how can that work?                                                 
                                                                   
Korzybski then states-- or strongly implies-- that                         
working through this "time-binding" insight has led                
to his grand discovery of "non-aristotelian" logic,                
which leaves him in awe of the tremendous scope of                  
his own work (he forgives the reader for any shock                  
they might feel).                                                   
                                                                    
He then wanders around a bit and says, with a
straight face, that one must be careful about
over-generaliztion.
                                                                   
And I put the book aside for the nonce,
giggling like a madman (admittedly one of my
specialties).
                                                                   

                                                                       
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