Sensible Thinking for Turbulent Times: Revised Second Edition

By Martin H. Levinson

In these times of rapid change and constant upheaval, can we learn to think and communicate more effectively—at home, in school, on the job, and as citizens in the larger world? This book, which is based on the formulations of general semantics, says yes, yes,and yes! Topics in it include practical ways to improve your thinking ability, em

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Institute of General Semantics
• Release date: Apr 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781970164015

Martin H. Levinson

Martin H. Levinson has published ten books, numerous articles, and dozens of poems. He is a member of the Authors Guild, the National Book Critics Circle, and book editor of ETC: A Review of General Semantics. He holds a PhD in Organizational Studies from NYU and lives in Forest Hills, New York.

Book preview

Introduction

Our current society is characterized by rapid change. In technology, computers are obsolete almost as soon as they hit the market, audio components keep getting smaller, TVs are becoming bigger, and smartphones have revolutionized the way we connect with each other. In communications, instant internet information is making newspapers superfluous.

We also continuously experience change on a personal level. Sometimes the changes are large ones—a marriage, new home, baby, new job, divorce, or bereavement. Sometimes they are small—setting your alarm half an hour earlier, cutting your hair short, changing your room around. Whatever the case, change can be very stressful and difficult to cope with.

Is there an approach that can help us get through the day without being overwhelmed by the constant upheaval that surrounds us? With so much information and change to contend with, is it possible to maintain an emotional equilibrium? In this time of unceasing commotion, can we learn to think and communicate more effectively—at home, in school, on the job, and as citizens in the larger world? This book, which is based on the formulations of general semantics, says yes, yes, and yes!

General Semantics: An Effective Problem-Solving Approach

In the early part of the twentieth century, Alfred Korzybski, a trained engineer and a keen observer of the human condition, noted that scientists have great success solving technological problems and uncovering the mysteries of nature, while the nonscientific community has a poor record dealing with psychological and social issues. To improve the situation, Korzybski developed a science-based self-help system to help individuals and groups make more intelligent decisions in all aspects of their lives. He called this system general semantics (GS).

A wide variety of writers, educators, therapists, and other professionals have drawn on and added to his system. Notable contributors include: Steve Allen, polymath and writer of numerous books, including Dumbth: 81 Ways to Make Americans Smarter (Idea Number 81 is to learn general semantics); Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock; Albert Ellis, originator of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy; former US Senator S.I. Hayakawa, a protégé of Korzybski; and Neil Postman, founder of the media ecology program at NYU.

Many books have been published using general semantics to analyze and solve problems in areas such as education, communication, negotiation, management, social science, journalism, and personal adjustment. In addition, numerous articles on the benefits of general semantics have appeared in the General Semantics Bulletin and ETC: A Review of General Semantics, and more than 150 doctoral studies have demonstrated its efficacy. General semantics is clearly a highly pragmatic discipline with a proven record of analyzing situations and solving problems.

Who Should Read Sensible Thinking for Turbulent Times?

Sensible Thinking for Turbulent Times will appeal to general readers interested in improving their problem-solving abilities, as well as to college students, therapists, educators, employers, employees, politicians, leaders, thinkers, and others. It offers practical ways to gather information more accurately, evaluate it more clearly, and act upon it more successfully. While the book can be profitably read in its entirety, each of the chapters can also stand alone. This means every chapter can be understood without the need to read preceding chapters.

Outline of the Book

Topics covered in Sensible Thinking for Turbulent Times involve the use of general semantics ideas and tools to improve thinking ability and emotional self-management at home, in school, on the job, and in the larger world. Specifically, the book contains thirteen chapters that are divided into four parts:

Part I explores how to improve one’s thinking ability, manage one’s emotions, become more creative through scientific thinking, and acquire enhanced communication skills.

Part II applies scientific strategies to motivate students to do better in school, prevent school-age bullying, and reduce anger and violence.

Part III employs scientific techniques to strengthen organizational leadership, increase on-the-job effectiveness, and decrease workplace distress.

Part IV uses a scientific approach to suggest ways to prevent international conflicts, consider how attitudes toward time and time-management have evolved in the modern world, and examine violent American overthrows of foreign governments.

Chapter Summaries

Part I—At Home: Practical Ideas for Personal Development

Chapter 1, Sound Thinking for Everyday Life, presents a variety of general semantics ideas and tools that can increase one’s thinking ability and emotional wellbeing. It demonstrates how GS formulations can help us to get along better with others, reduce unnecessary worrying, and become more effective in daily living.

Chapter 2, Mastering Indecisiveness, shows how difficulty in making decisions can block emotional growth and development, lead to multiple failures (especially in relationships), and contribute to the repression of feelings. To avoid such negative effects this chapter offers useful ideas and formulations for effective decision-making.

Chapter 3, A Guide to Creativity, explores the traits of exceptional individuals who have contributed to the evolution of our culture and society. In addition, suggestions are provided on how to heighten personal creativity—the ability to come up with fresh perceptions and make important discoveries for one’s own welfare.

Chapter 4, Some Useful Ideas to Enhance Communication, presents a philosophy of everyday language and practical techniques to enhance interpersonal communications. Also discussed is how general semantics can improve the way we think and speak and why it is a useful discipline for preventing crazy and stupid talk.

Part II—In School: Helping Students to Succeed

Chapter 5, Motivating Problem Students, uses pragmatic examples to illustrate how general semantics can help problem students succeed in school. This chapter also furnishes solutions to difficulties like acting out in class, lack of positive relationships, substance abuse, and poor academic achievement.

Chapter 6, Reducing School-Age Bullying, provides a scientific approach to effectively reduce and prevent the problem of school-age bullying, from elementary school to high school. (According to the US Department of Justice, one out of every four children is bullied monthly by peers.)

Chapter 7, Anger and Violence Prevention: A Holistic Solution, confirms that schools in America have become violent and dangerous places. To address this situation school officials often resort to using metal detectors and police security. This chapter presents a more holistic solution by examining the roots of school violence and proposing proven techniques and strategies to manage it.

Part III—At Work: Effective Job Strategies

Chapter 8, How to Become a More Effective Leader, supplies a logical framework for improving one’s leadership abilities. It shows that effective leadership can influence people far beyond routine compliance with directives and orders. Other topics covered deal with how to help employees and others cope with change, manage conflict, and team-build.

Chapter 9, How to Effectively Manage Your Career, features strategies for effective career management. GS counsel is also furnished to answer questions such as: What are my strengths? How do I perform? What are my goals and values? How can I effectively interact with others?

Chapter 10, How to Manage Stress in Organizations, examines how the physical and psychological demands of a job can lead a person to become anxious, depressed, angry, and even physically ill. Additionally, this chapter looks into the different causes of stress, and provides specific knowledge to prevent and counter its destructive effects.

Part IV—In the World: Down-to-Earth Solutions

Chapter 11, Ten Ways to Prevent International Conflicts, analyzes key reasons that led to World War I and offers a practical approach for preventing future international hostilities. The volatile politics of the Middle East stem directly from the Great War.

Chapter 12, How America Has Dealt with Time, dates and examines American attitudes toward time. This chapter also explores how, in the modern era, to give us the illusion that we have more time, we have tried to expand time’s boundaries.

Chapter 13, American Fueled Regime Change: Fourteen Nations and Counting, focuses on the coups, revolutions, and invasions by which the United States has toppled fourteen foreign governments— not always to its own benefit.

PART 1

At Home: Practical Ideas for Personal Development

1

Sound Thinking for Everyday Life

Sound thinking is a vague term that can be interpreted in various ways. An operational definition of that term, which will be used in this chapter, is the following: Sound thinking is a method of human cognition that tends to make foresight as accurate as hindsight. It allows individuals to more efficiently and effectively solve problems of everyday living.

How important is sound thinking to the public? Ken Keyes, Jr., a student of general semantics and an author of several self-help books, conducted a nationwide survey to find out. It consisted of two questions:¹

1. Which of the following would you most hate to have people say about you?

a. You do not win friends easily.

b. You cannot think clearly.

c. You have trouble influencing people.

d. One day your pants fell down when your arms were loaded with packages.

2. Why did you make that choice?

A vast majority of the survey’s respondents, 72.5 percent, thought it most important to be known as a clear thinker. Interestingly, 6.5 percent chose sartorial security as most significant.

Clear thinking (sound thinking) is clearly a useful attribute. In order to become better at it, this chapter offers a variety of general semantics (GS) strategies and techniques. They are presented in the context of overcoming ten blocks to sound thinking.

Ten Blocks to Sound Thinking—with General Semantics Correctives

1. Allness Attitudes

²

—If you’ve known one Arab, Jew, Black, Hispanic, etc., you’ve known them all.

—I understand that in its entirety.

—Let me tell you all about what’s going on in the Middle East.

No one can know all about anything. This statement may seem obvious, but every day people say or imply that they do know it all. Individuals who speak like this are demonstrating allness attitudes. They think they know what it is impossible to know—everything about a particular topic.

Allness attitudes are quite common and relatively easy to spot in others. But detecting them in ourselves is a more difficult task. Tougher still is coming up with ideas to keep us flexible and away from allness thinking. Fortunately, there are GS tools and formulations that can help us to achieve these goals. For example, Alfred Korzybski’s admonition that the map is not the territory (what we say or think about something, our verbal maps, does not cover all there is to know about that subject, the territory).

Science tells us that we can’t know all about the world or anything in it. Therefore, our mental maps are always incomplete. Understanding that it is impossible to discern and describe every aspect of the territory (events in the world) allows us to be more open to acquiring new data and new knowledge on various subjects.

Indexing items is another way to overcome allness attitudes. For instance, John may say, I hate sports. But sports, in the way John is using it, is a very broad term. If we examine the term more closely we see sport1 (tennis) is not sport2 (bowling), is not sport3 (golf), etc. Has John tried all sports? Probably not. Indexing can help individuals to find differences that may make a difference.

Employing words like to me, I think, and it seems, when making statements, is one more approach for blocking allness tendencies. These expressions make it clear that our observations and opinions have definite limits—e.g., To me, pizza is the most delicious food. I think New York City is the best place to live. It seems that it is going to snow today.

Finally, we can follow Korzybski’s advice to add a silent etc. to our thinking to remind us that there is always more that can be learned, more that can be said.

2. Knee-jerk Reactions

If someone insults you, do you immediately fire back with a slur or epithet of your own? Have you ever gotten into an argument over some ism (e.g., feminism, liberalism, capitalism) based on your uncritical assumptions about that particular word? If you answered yes to either of these questions you are allowing words to use you, rather than choosing to behave and react in a mature manner.

Words are not the things they represent. Being labeled an idiot doesn’t make you an idiot. But you act idiotically when you don’t take time to figure out an appropriate response to situations and instead let others push your emotional buttons.

Why do humans act impulsively? We do so because we have been conditioned to respond that way. Like Pavlov’s dogs, we automatically behave in certain ways under certain conditions. Political propaganda, as well as commercial advertising, is premised on the idea that individuals will respond to slogans, names, designs, etc., in the same way that dogs can be induced to respond to bells and buzzers.

But we do not have to unthinkingly react to stimuli. We can learn to delay our reactions long enough to investigate conditions and respond to them in a thoughtful manner. This can have a far more salutary effect in situations than reacting precipitously, as the following story demonstrates.

A hunter lived with an infant in a cabin, guarded by his dog. One day the hunter returned from the fields and saw the cradle overturned and the baby nowhere in sight. The room was a mess. The dog had blood all over his muzzle. The hunter, enraged, shot the dog. He then found the baby, unharmed under the bed, and a dead wolf in the corner.

Many people take for granted the human ability to delay one’s reaction. But this is not true for students of general semantics. They know the capacity to delay reacting, and bring our higher brain functions into play, is a key characteristic that distinguishes our species from the rest of the animal kingdom.

3. Either-or Thinking

The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) was a careful observer of his culture and its language structure. From his observations he derived what has come to be known as the laws of thought—tools of logic that are very much with us today. One of those laws is the law of the excluded middle—A thing is either A or not A.

The law of the excluded middle encourages us to think that every question can be answered in terms of either-or. The structure of the English language also pushes us in that direction. With its many polarizing terms (good/bad, hot/cold, tall/short, thin/fat, etc.), English supports reasoning through extremes rather than with gradations.

Either-or thinking keeps us from seeing the great diversity in the world. For example, individuals do not come in two varieties: tall or short. If we lined up everyone in the United States and arranged them