BAD WORDS, BAD WARS
by Andrew Williams

"Either you're with us or against us."--George W. Bush
"America--Love It or Leave It."--bumper sticker common in the 1960's

The two statements above are examples of Aristotelian or two-valued logic,
also known as "either-or" logic: i.e., left/right, war/peace, evil/good.
Either you're with US or against US. Love US or leave US. The flaw in this
system should be obvious: it recognizes no middle term, no grey area. What
of those citizens who are neither for nor against? What of citizens like
yours truly, who style themselves the loyal opposition--a centuries-old
political tradition? That's the problem with either-or statements: they
tend to be semantic noise driving out signal, as described in information
theory.
Human beings express their thoughts and feelings almost entirely with
symbols--e.g., words, sounds, formulas. (I am not discounting anecdotal or
scientific evidence of non-verbal communication methods such as ESP,
telepathy, etc.) So the symbols we use must be carefully considered. As
Mark Twain wrote, "The difference between the right word and almost the
right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."
Alfred Korzybski--the father of General Semantics--taught that if we use
our symbols correctly, then our thoughts and speech are logically
oriented. If we use our symbols incorrectly, then we distort our
perceptions, leading to misevaluations of environment.
When William S. Burroughs wrote that "(l)anguage is a virus," he derived
that from Korzybski's work, which, as a student of that eminent man, he
was well acquainted with. Illogical thinking (or "stinking thinking") can
be as pervasive and destructive as a virus. It can destroy individuals,
communities, nation-states--perhaps even worlds or galaxies, if allowed to
spread. It corrupts our view of reality. It turns our brother into "the
other." It turns our friends into "enemies." It turns our fellow humans
into "the enemy."
Walt Kelly was right: "We have met the enemy and he is us." And we cannot
face that. When we look at our dark selves, we see a wo/man without a
face. Therefore, we externalize our dark selves and turn them into
enemies, give them strange names, foreign-sounding tongues and the fanatic
zeal to destroy. That's why we're so miserable without an enemy (drugs,
terrorism, Iraq) to fight. We take the energy that we should be using to
heal ourselves, to correct our neurolingustic and neurosemantic processes,
and use it against a perceived enemy.
That doesn't mean that men like Saddam Hussein are not to be opposed.
Hussein represents a word-virus run amuck that could infect millions of
people. The same can be said of George W. Bush. His either-or statements
are semantic noise drowning out civilized debate and thought. They are
symbolic of a mind that reacts but does not reflect--a reflex-mind as
rigid as any ideologue's. And, like Hussein, he has the capacity to infect
millions with this kind of semantic virus. After all, who needs to think
when your mouth just roars?
People like me, who actually like to think and think about what our
symbols mean when expressed in/correctly, are highly alarmed by the
dangers of noise driving out signal, by the "is of identity" clamping down
on human minds with its either-or tyranny. We see our nation as a Nazi
state: scared of its own shadow, seeing enemies everywhere, locking up and
interrogating citizens without warrant simply because of their ethnic
background. By that argument, every US citizen should be locked up and
interrogated, since none of our ancestors was truly native to this
soil--not even the so-called Native Americans. But then, of course,
there'd be no point, since even the jailers would be jailed. Hunter S.
Thompson, in his new book *Kingdom of Fear,* says we are experiencing a
national nervous breakdown, due--I would submit--to misevaluations of
environment on a mass scale.
Much of the world--particularly the so-called Third World--sees the United
States as the problem, not the solution. This argument has considerable
evidence to back it up: our meddling in the affairs of sovereign nations,
our arrogant presumptions in every sphere from commerce to politics. Any
student of history worth his/her sodium can rattle off half-a-dozen
examples of our arrogant stupidity.
So what can be done about these word-viruses that go by the names of
Hussein and Bush? First, do not blindly follow propaganda and
disinformation. Learn to recognize both. Question every statement made by
Hussein, Bush and their support staffs. Do as Peter Gabriel advises--"turn
up the signal, wipe out the noise." And whatever you do, dare to think for
yourselves. It ain't illegal--yet.

Science and Sanity--Alfred Korzybski
Expanded Universe--Robert A. Heinlein
The Demolished Man--Alfred Bester
The Naked Ape--Desmond Morris
The Joys of Yiddish--Leo Rosten (for when you need a laugh)

www.rawilson.com (links to General Semantics sites)
www.sacredcow.com (multiplicity of viewpoints)
www.billhicks.com
www.petergabriel.com ("Signal to Noise")