here - The Institute of General Semantics

THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS
56 TH ANNUAL
ALFRED KORZYBSKI
MEMORIAL LECTURE
AND THE SYMPOSIUM
CREATING THE FUTURE:
CONSCIOUS TIME-BINDING
FOR A BETTER TOMORROW
FRIDAY 14 THROUGH SUNDAY 16
NOVEMBER 2008
THE PRINCETON CLUB
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY
LINCOLN CENTER CAMPUS
NEW YORK CITY
CO-SPONSORED BY
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS
THE NEW YORK SOCIETY FOR GENERAL SEMANTICS
THE MEDIA ECOLOGY ASSOCIATION
THE LI FWYNN FOU NDATI ON FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH
FRIENDS OF THE INSTITUTE OF NOETIC SCIENCES
FORDHAM U NIVERSITY’S DEP ARTMENT OF
COMMUNICATI ON AND MEDI A STU DIES

THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS
CELEBRATING 70 YEARS IN 2008
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS
http://www.generalsemantics.org
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, Lance Strate
EDITOR, ETC: A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS, Bill Petkanas
WEBMASTER, Ben Hauck
OFFICE MANAGER, Judith Clarke
GRADUATE ASSISTANT, Pamela Miller
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
PRESIDENT, Martin H. Levinson
VICE-PRESIDENT/TREASURER, Jacqueline J. Rudig
SECRETARY, Vanessa Biard-Schaeffer
AMBASSADOR AT LARGE, Milton Dawes
Corey Anton
George J. Barenholtz
Walter W. Davis
Allen Flagg
Thom Gencarelli
Irene S. Ross Mayper
Gerard I. Nierenberg
Frank Scardilli
Lynn E. Schuldt
HONORARY TRUSTEES
Sanford Berman
Harry Maynard
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Annemarie Colbin, Milton Dawes, Allen Flagg, Lloyd Gilden, Ben Hauck,
Martin H. Levinson, Irene S. Ross Mayper, Jacqueline J. Rudig, Lance Strate
WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO:
James VanOosting, Edward A. Wachtel, Bruce Kodish, Robert Francos,
Roberta Palmerio, David Coiro, Gabriella Loutfi, Doug Petrullo, James Page
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS
1

THE ALFRED KORZYBSKI
MEMORIAL LECTURE
THE PRINCETON CLUB OF NEW YORK
15 WEST 43 RD STREET (BETWEEN 5 TH AND 6 TH AVENUES) NEW YORK 10036
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2008
6:00 PM DINNER
8:00 PM PROGRAM
Moderator: Lance Strate – Executive Director of the Institute of General Semantics, President of
the Media Ecology Association – Fordham University
PRESENTATION OF THE J.TALBOT WINCHELL AWARD
Martin H. Levinson – President of the Institute of General Semantics, Vice-President of the New York
Society for General Semantics
Allen Flagg – Trustee of the Institute of General Semantics, President of the New York Society for
General Semantics
THE FIFTY-SIXTH ANNUAL ALFRED KORZYBSKI MEMORIAL
LECTURE
Playing the Future: Towards a Creative Society
Douglas Rushkoff – New York University
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 14 THRU
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 22,
2008
2
At IGS Seminar at NYU, Feb. 1945.
M. Kendig standing, Mrs. Mario n Harp er at recorder.
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS

The Trustees of
The Institute of General Semantics
Present
THE 2008 J. TALBOT WINCHELL
AWARD
to
ALLEN FLAGG
In Recognition of His Lifelong
Service, Accomplishments and
Time-binding Efforts
November 14, 2008
New York City
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS
3

THE ALFRED KORZYBSKI MEMORIAL LECTURERS
1952 William Vogt
M.F. Ashley Montagu
1953 F. J. Roethlisberger
1954 F. S. C. Northrop
1955 R. Buckminster Fuller
1956 Clyde Kluckhohn
1957 Abraham Maslow
1958 Russell Meyers
1959 William J. Fry
James A. Van Allen
Charles M. Pomerat
1960 Warren S. Mcculloch
1961 Robert R. Blake
1962 Harold G. Cassidy
1963 Henri Laborit
1964 Joost A. M. Meerloo
1965 Henry Lee Smith, Jr.
1966 Alvin M. Weinberg
1967 J. Bronowski
1968 Alastair M. Taylor
1969 Lancelot Law Whyte
1970 Gregory Bateson
1971 Henry Margenau
1972 George Steiner
1973 J. Samuel Bois
Elton S. Carter
Walter Probert
1974 Kenneth G. Johnson
Neil Postman
1975 Harley C. Shands
1976 Roger W. Wescott
1977 Ben Bova
1978 Elwood Murray
1979 Don Fabun
1980 Barbara Morgan
1981 Thomas Sebeok
1982 Robert R. Blake
1983 Allen Walker Read
1984 Karl H. Pribram
1985 Russell Meyers
1986 George F.F. Lombard
1987 Richard W. Paul
1988 Jerome Bruner
1989 William V. Haney
1990 Warren M. Robbins
1991 Albert Ellis
1992 Steve Allen
1993 William Lutz
1994 Lotfi A. Zadeh
1995 Nicholas Johnson
1996 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
1997 Robert Anton Wilson
1998 Theodore R. Sizer
1999 Ellen J. Langer
2000 Robert P. Pula
2001 Lou Marinoff
2002 J. Allan Hobson
2003 Sanford I. Berman
2005 Robert L. Carneiro
2006 Renee Hobbs
2007 Leonard Shlain
2008 Douglas Rushkoff
4 THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS

ANNOUNCING
THE INAUGURATION OF THE
INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS
SAMUEL I. HAYAKAWA BOOK PRIZE
Competition for the Hayakawa Book Prize is open to any book published in 2004 or later on topics
and themes of direct relevance to the discipline of general semantics, including time-binding,
abstraction, language, symbols, meaning, communication, media, perception, consciousness,
epistemology, scientific method, etc.
To enter, send a letter of nomination and four copies of the book to Executive Director,
Institute of General Semantics, 2260 College Avenue, Fort Worth, TX 76110 by March 1,
2009.
For more information, contact Lance Strate, Executive Director of the Institute of General
Semantics, via e-mail executivedirector@generalsemantics.org, or by telephone at
718.817.4864.
THE WINNER WILL RECEIVE A CASH AWARD OF
$1,000
http://www.generalsemantics.org
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS
5

SYMPOSIUM
CREATING THE FUTURE:
CONSCIOUS TIME-BINDING FOR A BETTER TOMORROW
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY, LINCOLN CENTER CAMPUS
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2008
8:30 AM BREAKFAST AND REGISTRATION
Fordham Law Building, West 62 nd Street and Columbus Avenue
MORNING SESSION IN MCNALLY AUDITORIUM
Moderators:
Lance Strate – Fordham University
Jacqueline Rudig – Institute of General Semantics
Martin H. Levinson – Institute of General Semantics
9-9:30 AM Beyond iCelebrities: Social Networking and Social Activism on the Internet
Kathleen Sweeney – The New School
9:30-10 AM Rhetorical Overload
David Berreby – Institute of General Semantics
10-10:30 AM Mediation and Fusion: The Case of Barack Obama
Tom de Zengotita – New York University, The Dalton School
10:30-11 AM Why We Hate Us: American Discontent in the New Millennium
Dick Meyer – National Public Radio
11-11:30 AM What Every Thinking Person Should Know About Law, Lawyers and the Tyranny of Illusion
Frank Scardilli – Institute of General Semantics
11:30 AM-12 Glut: Mastering Information through the Ages
Alex Wright – The New York Times
12-12:30 PM What is a Sphere?: Metapatterns and Scale-Transcending Functional Principles
Tyler Volk – New York University
12:30-1 PM What Did Alfred Want? A Biographer's Notes on Korzybski's Life and Work
Bruce Kodish – Institute of General Semantics
6 THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2008
1-2:30 PM LUNCH BREAK
AFTERNOON SESSIONS HELD SIMULTANEOUSLY IN MCNALLY AUDITORIUM AND MCMAHON HALL LOUNGE
McMahon Hall is located at 155 West 60 th Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues
2:30 – ACTIVISM AS CONSCIOUS TIME-BINDING
3:45 PM Moderator: David Linton – Marymount Manhattan College
McNally
Consciousness Without Activism is Ceding the Future
Jeanne Posner – Western Connecticut State University
Social Networking and the Campaign Against Astroturfing
Paull Young – Converseon
Empowerment of Women in Africa: The Role of Media Technology
Bosco Ebere Amakwe – HFSN, Seton Hall University
Post 9/11 Health Crisis: Reactions of the Whole Organism, Delayed Reaction of the Culture
Donna Flayhan – State University of New York, New Paltz
2:30 – ON THE LOGIC AND ILLOGIC OF SYMBOLS
3:45 PM Moderator: Margot Hardenbergh – Fordham University
McMahon
Visual Propositions
Gerald Erion – Medaille College
Deleting “I,” Updating “We”
Philip Ardery – Louisville (KY) Sustainability Forum
Language, Dao, Etc
Zhenbin Sun – Fairleigh Dickinson University
Practical Fairy Tales for Everyday Living
Martin H. Levinson – Institute of General Semantics
4:00 – DISPATCHES FROM THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
5:15 PM Moderator: Robert Albrecht – New Jersey City University
McNally
A New French President, Nicolas Sarkozy
Vanessa Biard-Schaeffer – Institute of General Semantics
General Semantics in India
Prafulla Kar – Director, Centre for Contemporary Theory and General Semantics, Baroda, India
The Epistemoscope: From Time-Binding to Space-Minding
Devkumar Trivedi – Centre for Contemporary Theory and General Semantics, Baroda, India
In Praise of Delayed Reactions: Israel and the Culture of Talkbacks
Eva Berger – School of Media Studies, The College of Management, Israel
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS
7

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2008
4:00 – THE CONTENTS AND DISCONTENTS OF THE NEW MEDIA ENVIRONMENT
5:15 PM Moderator: Paul Lippert – East Stroudsburg University
McMahon
Why We Need Cyberspace: A Response to Neil Postman’s Essay “Cyberspace, Shmyberspace”
Mary Ann Allison – Hofstra University
Navigating Life in the Age of Google and Garmin: Answers and Directions vs. Wonder and Mystery
Robert Berkman – The New School
Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk: Revisiting Postman and the Relational Dynamics in the Emergent Semantic
Environment of 21 st Century Digital Media
Stephanie Bennett – Palm Beach Atlantic University
Creating a Civil Culture: The Need to Resist Trash Talk in Contemporary Media
Janet Sternberg – Fordham University
EVENING SESSION IN MCNALLY AUDITORIUM
Moderators:
Allen Flagg – Institute of General Semantics
Janet Sternberg – Fordham University
5:30-6 PM The Green Flaneur
Paul Guzzardo – The Geddes Institute for Urban Research
David Walczyk – The Pratt Institute
Alicia Gibb – NYC Resistors and Bug Labs
6-6:30 PM How to Live in the 21st Century Without Multi-Tasking
Andrew Postman – Media Ecology Association
6:30-7 PM General Semantics Writ Large
Terence P. Moran – New York University
7-7:30 PM Tools for Creating Better Futures
Milton Dawes – Institute of General Semantics
8 THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2008
ALL SESSIONS IN MCMAHON HALL LOUNGE
8:30 AM BREAKFAST AND REGISTRATION
9:00 – MEDIA FUTURES
10:15 AM Moderator: Brian Cogan – Molloy College
The End of Intellectual Property
Thom Gencarelli – Manhattan College
Things Come in Fours
Robert Blechman – St. George's University
The Umbilical Cord: Corrections, Connections and the Role of Media in America's Prisons
Jessica K. Crowell – Fordham University
10:30 – SCIENCE FICTION: SEQUELS AND ADAPTATIONS
12:00 PM Moderator: Meir Ribalow – Fordham University
Null – A Continuum
John C. Wright – Tor Books
12-1:30 PM LUNCH BREAK
Science Fiction Tells Us Why the Obama Family is a Sequel to The Cosby Show
Marleen Barr – Fordham University
From the Page to the Screen
Paul Levinson – Fordham University
1:30 – MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE
2:45 PM Moderator: Jacqueline Rudig – Institute of General Semantics
Thus Spoke the Spectacle
Eric Goodman – Institute of General Semantics
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS 9

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2008
3:00 – TEACHING GENERAL SEMANTICS
4:15 PM Moderator: Margaret Cassidy – Adelphi University
Frank Gastner – Institute of General Semantics
Renée Cherow-O'Leary – Teachers College, Columbia University
William Petkanas – Western Connecticut State University
4:30 – THE FUTURE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS
5:45 PM Moderator: Vanessa Biard Schaeffer – Institute of General Semantics
A Better Tomorrow for General Semantics
Ben Hauck – Institute of General Semantics
Development of the Ability to Experience Greater Integration with the Environment
Lloyd Gilden – Lifwynn Foundation for Social Research
Time-binding, Yes! But Time-bound, No! Change is Universal, But So Is Stability
Hillel Schiller – Institute of General Semantics
Con II: The Future of Consciousness
Allen Flagg – Institute of General Semantics
10 THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Robert Albrecht is the author of numerous articles on the relationship of media and culture in both Latin America
and here in the United States. Albrecht is the recipient of an Organization of American States Fellowship for study in
Brazil as well as the Carlos Vigil Prize for his publications in Latin American popular culture. While a doctoral student in
the Media Ecology program at New York University, he served as Arts Editor to ETC. He worked for several years as a
music and drama workshop leader with children in Jersey City public schools. Albrecht currently serves on the editorial
board of several communication journals and teaches theory and media history courses in the Media Arts Department
at New Jersey City University in Jersey City. His book, Mediating the Muse (Hampton Press, 2004) was the winner of the
Dorothy Lee Award for outstanding scholarship in the area of cultural ecology.
Mary Ann Allison is an interdisciplinary scholar at Hofstra University who uses media theory, sociology, and complex
systems theory to study the ways in which individuals, communities, and institutions are changing. In addition to
teaching Media Studies in the School of Communication, she conducts research for the Hofstra University National
Center for Suburban Studies and the Urban Communication Foundation. Her study of social evolution won the Media
Ecology Association's 2005 Harold A. Innis Award for Outstanding Dissertation in the field of Media Ecology.
Sister Dr. Bosco Ebere Amakwe, HFSN finished a PhD program in Communication (affiliating to the Department
of Social Sciences) in June, 2006 from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Her dissertation, of which excerpts
were published, is "The Factors Influencing the Mobility of Women to Leadership and Management Positions in Media
Industries in Nigeria." She specialized in gender studies and interpersonal communication. Sister Dr. Amakwe is an
Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Seton Hall University, New Jersey.
Phil Ardery joined the Institute of General Semantics in 1974, after reading Science and Sanity one-and-a-half times
and attending a summer seminar-workshop whose instructional staff included Charlotte Read and Robert Pula. The
New York Society for General Semantics elected Phil to its Board of Directors in 2007. In Kentucky, aside from
exercising his trade as a specialist in Electronic Data Interchange, Phil helps steer the Louisville Sustainability Forum
and has co-founded a local chapter of the Green Party USA (www.greenparty.org). Phil holds degrees from Harvard
College and New York University.
Marleen S. Barr is known for her pioneering work in feminist science fiction theory and teaches in the Department of
Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University. She has won the Science Fiction Research Association Pilgrim
Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction criticism. Barr is the author of Alien to Femininity: Speculative Fiction
and Feminist Theory, Lost in Space: Probing Feminist Science Fiction and Beyond, Feminist Fabulation:
Space/Postmodern Fiction, and Genre Fission: A New Discouse Practice for Cultural Studies. She has edited many
anthologies, authored the novel Oy Pioneer!, and co-edited the special science fiction issue of PMLA.
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS 11

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Stephanie Bennett is Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Palm Beach Atlantic University,
West Palm Beach, Florida, where she enjoys teaching and continuing research in the area of media ecology, philosophy
of communication, and the church and culture. Dr. Bennett has been interacting on Internet discussion lists since the
early 1990's, enjoys Facebook in small doses, and invites dialogue at steffasong@aol.com. She and her husband, Earl,
make their home in Palm Springs, Florida.
Dr. Eva Berger is the Dean of the School of Media Studies of the College of Management - Academic Studies Division
- in Israel. She is also consultant to public and private organizations, and has written various programs for the study of
Communication in Israel's elementary and high school systems. Eva served as a member of the Israel Film Council for
six years, is an advisor to Israel's Educational Television and Commentator on media matters for Israel's various daily
newspapers, radio and television stations. She holds a BA in Film and Television from Tel Aviv University, and an MA
and PhD in Media Ecology from New York University.
Robert Berkman is an Associate Professor in the Media Studies program at the New School where he has taught
since 1996. He is also the editor of The Information Advisor, a monthly journal he founded in 1988 for professional
researchers. He has authored several books on research, technology, the media, and ethics. Robert Berkman lives in
Rochester New York.
David Berreby's book, Us and Them: The Science of Identity won the 2006 Erving Goffman Award for Outstanding
Scholarship from the Media Ecology Association. A paperback edition was published in October, 2008 by the University
of Chicago Press. Berreby, an independent writer and researcher, has written for The New Yorker, the New York Times
Magazine, Smithsonian, The New Republic, Slate, Lingua Franca and many other publications. His website can be found
at .
Vanessa Biard-Schaeffer is a French-American, third generation General Semanticist. Graduated in Linguistics
(Paris 10), Management (Solvay School), and Coaching (Paris 8), Vanessa represents the Institute of General
Semantics in Paris, France. She has been working in politics, at local and European levels, and is currently running her
own company.
Robert Blechman, an experienced information technology executive, is currently Associate Director in the Office of
Information Technology at St. George's University. He has held senior technology positions at Columbia University
Medical Center, the New York City Board of Education, PricewaterhouseCoopers, HarperCollins Publishers and CBS. As
an adjunct professor at Fordham University, he taught courses in communication theory, mass media and society and
media industries. He has a PhD in Media Ecology and a Finance MBA, both from New York University. His doctoral
research concerned the impact of television advertising on our culture, and he discusses media ecological musings and
speculations in his blog, "A Model Media Ecologist" which can be found at www.robertkblechman.blogspot.com.
12 THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Margaret Cassidy is an Associate Professor at Adelphi University, where she has been Chair of the Communications
Department for seven years. Her research focuses primarily on issues related to media, children, and K-12 education.
She is the author of Bookends: The Changing Media Environment of American Classrooms.
Dr. Renee Cherow-O'Leary is a Professor of English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is a
member of the Media Commission of the National Council of Teachers of English and is President of Education for the
21st Century, a New York consulting group that develops educational materials and curriculum in multiple platforms for
children's, school and family media. Renee recently was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard where she studied arts and
technologies in education, literary theory and entrepreneurship and education reform. She was formerly a Director of
Research at the Children's Television Workshop, National Coordinator of Creating Critical Viewers, a media literacy
program for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Renee presents at many educational conferences
on literacy, language and 21st century literacies.
Dr. Brian Cogan is an Associate Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Molloy College in Long Island,
New York. He is the author, co-author and co-editor of numerous books, articles and anthologies on popular culture,
music and the media. His specific areas of research interest are punk rock, comic books, media ecology and the
intersection of politics and popular culture. He is the author of The Punk Rock Encyclopedia (Sterling 2008), co-author
with Tony Kelso of The Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Media and Politics (Greenwood Press 2008) as well as coeditor
with Tony Kelso on an anthology from Lexington Press, Mosh the Polls: Youth Voters, Popular Culture, and
Democratic Engagement (Lexington 2008), about youth culture and political involvement. Dr. Cogan is also the coauthor,
along with William Phillips, of the Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal Music and Culture (Greenwood Press 2009). He
has also written about these topics for publications such as the New York Post, Chunklet, Go Metric, Punknews.org and
Muze.com. He is currently working on a new project, a history of punk in film over the last thirty years.
Jessica Crowell is a New York-based writer, policy analyst, and former graduate assistant for the Donald McGannon
Communication Research Center at Fordham University.
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS 13

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Milton Dawes is a Trustee and Ambassador-At-Large of the Institute of General Semantics, having been a
"student","teacher", and "practitioner" of general semantics for over forty years. He was awarded the Institute's two
highest honours the "Irving J. Lee Award for "Excellence in Teaching General Semantics" (1995), and the "Talbot
Winchell Award" for "Significant Contribution to the Spread of General Semantics (2000)". He has presented papers on
general semantics (including Bernard Lonergan's Transcendental Method and ideas) at 5 Institute's International
Conferences. His many articles published in ETC. were designed to help 'students' translate general semantics
principles to practice. He gives seminar-workshops (based on general semantics principles) on Organizational
Behaviour. He was The Key Note Speaker for The United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Services "Area
Planning and Development Conference" held in Reno Nevada 1978. He gave a workshop on "Creativity" to civil servants
attending The United States Civil Service Commission, Middle Management Training Institute, held in Washington D.C.
1977. He was a member of the Jamaica National Dance Theatre Company and performed at Expo 67 in Montreal
Canada. He was a member of the Jamaica Pistol Team competing at The Pan American Games held in Winnipeg 1967.
He gives drumming workshops in Montreal and was one of the seven individuals, who in 1978 started the "Tam-tam on
the Mountain" in Montreal, Canada (now a tourist attraction). His seminar-workshops are based on insights and ideas
gained from his experiences in these diverse areas of activities. For more information about Dawes and his work, visit
Thomas de Zengotita is a contributing editor at Harper's magazine. He teaches at at the Draper Graduate
Program at New York University. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University. Recent essays include
"The Romance of Empire" and "Attack of the Superzeroes" in Harper's. Recent fiction includes "Hannah's Birthday" in
Fiction, and "The Other Side" in Logos. His book Mediated won the 2006 Marshall McLuhan Award for outstanding
work on the media from the Media Ecology Association.
Gerald J. Erion is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Medaille College in Buffalo. His work covers topics in
ontology, philosophy of mind, and moral philosophy; he also writes on philosophy and popular culture,
and is currently working on a project on visual argumentation.
Allen Flagg is a Trustee of the Institute of General Semantics, the President of the New York Society for General
Semantics, and the Vice-President of the Friends of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. He has taught 130 GS courses, at
Fairfield University Graduate School, New School for Social Research, Queens College, I.B.M., Great Neck Public Schools,
Huntington Public Schools, and NYSGS. He was on the staff of IGS and NYSGS summer seminars. His articles have
been published in General Semantics Bulletin: "Non-Artistotelian Epistemology Applied to the Resolution of Paradoxes,"
and "Actualizing Our Potentialities; Multiordinality for Self-Actualization and Health." He was Arrangements Chairman of
the 1963 International G S Conference at New York University. Allen is the 2008 recipient of the Institute of General
Semantics' J. Talbot Winchell award for outstanding service in the field general semantics.
14
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Donna Flayhan is an Associate Professor of Communication and Media at the State University of New York at New
Paltz. In 2004 Flayhan founded and began directing The Lower Manhattan Public Health Project to work on the public
health needs and consequences of the toxic aftermath of 9/11. In that public health work, Flayhan has presented her
work in a variety of forums including the Council of Europe's workshop training in Warsaw Poland in 2007, as the expert
on toxic synergy and acceleration of disease states in the A&E Documentary (9/11's Toxic Dust), and has received
awards for her public health work in organizing two symposia (SUNY New Paltz, 2006; Fordham University 2007), and
partially funding a film on the Toxic Aftermath of 9/11. Flayhan's areas of expertise are in both cultural studies and
public health. After graduating Summa Cum Laude from the University of New Hampshire in 1990 with a double major
in Communication Studies and Political Science, Flayhan's graduate studies began that same year at the University of
Iowa. Flayhan earned an MA in 1994 and a PhD 1997 from University of Iowa, where she studied in the areas of
cultural studies (media ecology, media studies) and researched in the area of public health (toxins and toxic synergy).
Frank Gastner grew up bilingual (Polish then English) in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural mill town. This experience, plus
the depression, wartime rationing, scrap drives, a Boy Scout troop in a middle class neighborhood, all provided a fertile
field for future General Semantics study. He graduated from Drexel University in 1953 with a degree in Commerce and
Engineering, followed up with studies in metallurgy at Temple. While at Drexel he took a class from Harry Weinberg, and
found himself utilizing the General Semantic principals in his business. Drexel had a requirement that all engineering
students work in industry six months a year, so he had an opportunity to apprentice as a toolmaker and work on a
factory floor as a machine operator for one six month period. After graduation, Gastner performed the obligatory two
years in the service, primarily as an instructor of artillery fire direction. As a member of the American Ordnance
Association, Gastner participated in Department of Defense seminars on quality improvement and cost reduction. In
addition, over the years, he taught religious education to both adults and children. At a time when soccer was just
catching on in suburbia and experienced coaches were scarce, Gastner was the exception, having played at Drexel and
in the Philadelphia Adult League. To prepare for coaching, he attended clinics and schools, and received coaching
publications from England. He passed on what he knew to young players and their dad "coaches" while running a
program for over 100 youngsters, 6 to 10 years old. He also coached winning teams at different age levels up to
senior high school. As a change of pace, Gastner went back to school and became a referee for adult and school
teams. About 30 years ago, Gastner rekindled his formal interest in General Semantics. He joined both the Institute of
General Semantics and the International Society for General Semantics. This included attending lectures, workshops, a
weeklong training session, and a General Semantics teacher training class. His own experience with children convinced
him that youngsters could learn General Semantic principles, a belief which has led to his present efforts.
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS 15

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Thom Gencarelli is the Chair of the Communication Department at Manhattan College—a department he was hired
to build from the ground up in 2007, after spending 14 years at Montclair State University in New Jersey, and beginning
his full-time academic career at Iona College from 1989 to 1993. Thom also spent seven years as a member of the
faculty of the New School's MA in Media Studies program, and has taught as a member of the adjunct faculty of
Fordham University's Department of Communication and Media Studies. Thom is the current Vice President of the
Media Ecology Association, a Past President of both the New York State Communication Association and the New Jersey
Communication Association (the latter of which he has twice served as President), and is a Member of the Board of
Trustees of the Institute for General Semantics. He writes about popular culture, and in particular popular music, media
education and media literacy, and new media, and is currently at work on a book with the tentative title Jean Piaget as
Reluctant Communication Theorist: Cognitive Development and Language Acquisition. In addition, Thom's musical CD
with his band, blue race, is slated for release in early 2009.
Alicia Gibb is a researcher and rapid prototyper. When she is not doing research on the crossroads of technology
and art, she is prototyping hardware that blinks, twitches, and might even be tasty to eat. She has a master's degree
in information science and soon art history. As Bug Lab's chief laboratory technician, she considers the instant
innovation available with modular technology. In her spare time she is known as the cake hacker at NYC Resistor and
creates eatable cakes full of electronics.
Lloyd Gilden is an Associate Professor Emeritus in Psychology at Queens College, CUNY, apracticing clinical
psychologist, the President of the Lifwynn Foundation for Social Research, and a member of the board of the New York
Society for General Semantics.
Eric Goodman studied digital music composition and film scoring at Cornell University and the New York City Center
for the Media Arts. For over ten years Eric has produced and performed Thus Spoke The Spectacle ,
, a music video lecture presentation fusing original compositions, video clips, and scholarship
on issues of media, technology, and society. Thus Spoke The Spectacle was recently awarded the Media Ecology
Association's 2008 John Culkin Award for outstanding praxis in the field of media ecology.
Paul Guzzardo is a lawyer and media activist/artist affiliated with the Geddes Institute for Urban Research of the
University of Dundee. His new media praxis probes the effect of emerging digital information archives on the design
and occupation of public space. His work examines the relationship between this current wave of digital information
technology and the street.
Margot Hardenbergh teaches in Fordham University's Department of Communication and Media Studies, has a
background in television documentary, and has published articles and book chapters on community media, the role of
women in media and the history of technology.
16
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Ben Hauck is Webmaster for both the Institute of General Semantics and the New York Society for General Semantics,
has published essays in the journal ETC: A Review of General Semantics, and taught a three-part introduction to general
semantics for the New York Society for General Semantics. In a forthcoming essay, he provides a simple definition of
"general semantics" that can help people in the field easily and quickly explain GS to someone who has never heard of
it. A New York City-based actor, Ben performs and teaches improvisation, and is currently writing a book on the
subject. Find him online at .
Prafulla C. Kar is the Director of the Center for Contemporary Theory and General Semantics in Baroda, India, and is
a Convener of the Forum on Contemporary Theory, an interdisciplinary organization in Baroda devoted to promotion of
interdisciplinary studies. He is also one of the founding editors of the Journal of Contemporary Thought published by
the Forum on Contemporary Theory. He was formerly Professor and Chair of the Department of English at M. S.
University of Baroda. He also taught at Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India and was Deputy Director and
Academic Fellow at the American Studies Research Center, Hyderabad, India. He has a PhD in American Literature from
the University of Utah, Salt Lake City on the thesis Saul Bellow and the Defense of the Self. He was a Fulbright postdoctoral
fellow at the Universities of Texas at Austin, Chicago, and California at Berkeley, and a Fellow of School of
Criticism and Theory at Dartmouth College. His areas of scholarly interest are: American Studies, new literatures in
English, literary theory and criticism, and cultural studies. He has published widely in these areas.
Bruce Kodish at various times and places, has worked as a census taker, a factory worker, and a fish farmer, among
other things. For the last 27 years he has held various positions as a physical therapist in hospitals, outpatient clinics
and nursing homes and in home care. He currently has a private practice in physical therapy and the Alexander
Technique of posture-movement education in Pasadena, California. He has studied general semantics since 1965. His
association with the Institute of General Semantics began with his first two-week seminar-workshop in 1979. Since that
time, he has served the Institute as a writer, editor, teacher, and seminar administrator, among other things. He is a
former member of the IGS Board of Trustees. With his wife, Susan Presby Kodish he wrote, Drive Yourself Sane, an
acclaimed modern introduction to general semantics which the Institute first published in 1993, and whose second
revised edition came out in 2001. In 1996, he received a PhD in Applied Epistemology/General Semantics from The
Union Institute Graduate School in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1998, Bruce and Susan received the IGS's esteemed J. Talbot
Winchell Award "for their contributions severally and together to the wider understanding of general semantics as
authors, editors, teachers, leaders." Bruce has also written two other general-semantics related books, Back Pain
Solutions and Dare To Inquire. He is now completing his biography of Alfred Korzybski—the first book-length treatment
ever done—which he began working on in mid-2004.
Martin H. Levinson is the president of the Institute of General Semantics, the vice president of the New York Society
for General Semantics, the book editor of ETC: A Review of General Semantics, and the author of three general
semantics related books. His PhD dissertation, done at NYU under the capable guidance Professor Neil Postman,
involved using general semantics to reduce student alienation. He is currently working on a volume of satires titled
When Good Things Happen to Bad People.
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS 17

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Paul Levinson's The Silk Code won the 2000 Locus Award for Best First Novel. He has since published Borrowed
Tides (2001), The Consciousness Plague (2002), The Pixel Eye (2003), and The Plot to Save Socrates (2006). His
science fiction and mystery short stories have been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards. His
eight nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997), Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003), and Cellphone
(2004), have been the subject of major articles in the New York Times, Wired, the Christian Science Monitor, and have
been translated into ten languages. His next book, New New Media will be published in 2009. Paul Levinson appears
on "The O'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News," the "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" (PBS), "Nightline"
(ABC), and numerous national and international TV and radio programs. He reviews the best of television in his
InfiniteRegress.tv blog. Paul Levinson is Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University.
David Linton is Professor of Communication Arts at Marymount Manhattan College. His published research includes
articles and book chapters covering a wide variety of communication topics: Shakespeare as a media theorist, the
reading behavior of the Virgin Mary, the history and representation of the Luddite movement, the impact and role of the
metacanonical texts, media themes in popular music, the impact of new media on Austrialian Aboriginal relations, the
history of menstrual product advertising. Presently he is writing a book about the cultural construction of menstruation.
Paul Lippert is Professor of Communication Studies at East Stroudsburg University, and was Managing Editor of ETC
under Neil Postman for close to a decade. He teaches courses on film, media, and communication, and is currently
researching the rise and fall of modernity.
Dick Meyer is editorial director for digital media for NPR (National Public Radio), and author of Why We Hate Us:
American Discontent in the New Milllennium. He is on the board of the Online News Association, the leading
organization for online journalists. He regularly writes on politics, culture and media for various Web and print outlets,
including The Washington Post. Prior to joining NPR, Meyer was editorial director of CBSNews.com, where he wrote the
popular "Against the Grain" column for many years. Before that, he was a producer for The CBS Evening News with Dan
Rather, in Washington (1993-99), where he focused on political and investigative reporting and produced the
broadcast's "Reality Check" segments with correspondent Eric Engberg. Meyer also served as Rather's anchor producer
for three election-night broadcasts and other major political events.
18
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Terence P. Moran is Professor of Media Ecology in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at the
Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University where he has been a faculty
member since 1967. He is the co-editor (with Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner) of Language in America (1969)
and the co-author of Selling War to America: From the Spanish-American War to the Global War on Terror (2007).
Currently he is writing a textbook for Peter Lang Publishers, An Introduction to the History of Communication: Evolution
and Revolution. He has taught courses and written articles on communication and media, language, and propaganda
for academic and popular publications. After four years of active service in the United States Marine Corps, he enrolled
in New York University in 1960, received his bachelor's degree in 1964, his master's degree in 1965, and his Ph.D.
degree in 1971. With Neil Postman, he co-founded the MA and PhD programs in Media Ecology in 1970 and served as
the program director for over thirty years. In 1985, he was principle founder of the undergraduate program in
Communication Studies. For ten years, (1976-1986) he served as an associate editor of ETC. From 1974 through
1975, he wrote a regular column in College English on Public Doublespeak, part of his service on the Committee on
Public Doublespeak of the National Council of Teachers of English. Among his awards are: a Good Conduct Medal from
the U.S. Marine Corps (1955-58), A Research Award from the New York Society for General Semantics (1971), A New
York State Communication Association Award (2005), the Louis Forsdale Award for Outstanding Educator in the Field of
Media Ecology from the Media Ecology Association (2006), and a Teaching Excellence Award from the Steinhardt
School of New York University (2005-6). A producer and writer of video documentaries, he received a 1987 New York
Area Emmy Award for Outstanding Arts/Cultural/Historical Programming for McSorley's New York, a history of the oldest
continuing operating saloon in Manhattan. In dedicating the play Dirty Story, John Patrick Shanley, his former student
and longtime friend, provided these words that Moran would like for his epitaph: "This play is dedicated to Prof.
Terence Patrick Moran, A tremendous enemy of bullshit."
Bill Petkanas is Professor and Chair of Communication at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury,
Connecticut, and Editor of ETC: A Review of General Semantics. His interest in general semantics started as an
undergraduate when he took a course in general semantics and continued through graduate school. He studied with
Neil Postman at New York University, and received a PhD in Media Ecology. He teaches a course in general semantics
at WCSU called Language and Communication where he hopes to help others discover the study of symbols and
meaning making and the practical benefits of understanding how we use language and how language uses us. He
contributes to spreading the word about general semantics at academic conferences and writing about language and
meaning making.
Jeanne Posner has taught media and culture courses at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury,
Connecticut since 1979. She also teaches courses on Language and Communication and the impact of new
technologies on all social environments that impact our lives. She earned her PhD from New York University's Media
Ecology Program, writing her dissertation on teachers' language and students' attitudes toward school: an application
of General Semantics Principles to the "real world." Dr. Posner served as education editor of ETC. She lives in
Manchester, CT.
Andrew Postman is the author or co-author of nine books, on an odd variety of subjects, including
children's health, sports, computers, mortality, and the novel Now I Know Everything. His work has
appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post and numerous national magazines.
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS 19

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Meir Ribalow has had 24 of his plays receive some 180 productions worldwide, including at Dublin's Abbey Theatre
and numerous times in London and New York. They have won awards in London, New York, and regionally, and his
work is published and anthologized. He has won national awards for fiction, his widely published poetry, and musical
lyrics; co-written ten children's books; and published articles on sports, music, theatre, literature, film, travel, and
chess. He is co-author of three books on sports, and is director of an award-winning sports website. Several of his
screenplays have been optioned; he was film columnist for The Sciences magazine, and has appeared as a film
historian on The Discovery Channel and on several DVD releases of classic films including High Noon and Sergeant
York. He is Artistic Director of New River Dramatists, which in seven summers has developed 315 new plays and
screenplays, 140 of which have already been produced or optioned; and he has directed plays in London and New York
with Blythe Danner, Eli Wallach, Zero Mostel, and Christopher Walken, among many others. He was Joseph Papp's
Production Associate at the New York Shakespeare Festival for several years, and founded The American Repertory
Company of London . He was Vice-President of The Creative Coalition with President Alec Baldwin as well as
International Arts Coordinator of The Global Forum, where he worked with Robert Redford, Mikhail Gorbachev and The
Dalai Lama. He is currently full-time Artist-in-Residence at Fordham University.
Jacqueline J. Rudig currently serves as Vice-President and Treasurer of the Institute of General Semantics She has
worked as a real estate investor, teacher, writer, and community activist in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for over 25 years.
Rudig holds advanced degrees from the University of Wisconsin and Marquette University. Her current focus is
developing and directing mentoring programs that help inner-city high school seniors transition more successfully to
higher education.
Douglas Rushkoff is an author, teacher, and documentarian. His ten best-selling books on new media and popular
culture have been translated to over thirty languages. They include Cyberia, Media Virus, Coercion, and Screenagers.
Rushkoff also wrote the acclaimed novels Ecstasy Club, and Exit Strategy, the graphic novel Club Zero-G, and the
monthly Vertigo comic book Testament. He has written and hosted two award-winning Frontline documentaries, The
Merchants of Cool, and The Persuaders, and is Advisor to the United Nations Commission on World Culture, on the
Board of Directors of the Media Ecology Association, The Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, and was a founding
member of Technorealism. Rushkoff has been awarded Senior Fellowships by the Markle Foundation, the Center for
Global Communications, and the International University of Japan.
20
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Frank Scardilli has 50-plus years at the Bar with extensive experience as legal practitioner, law professor and Chief
Mediator Emeritus of the U.S. Court of Appeals where for the last 30-plus years he has professionally
negotiated/mediated thousands of cases of all types some involving stakes as high as billions of dollars. He has won
his prestigious court's highest honor, "The 2nd Circuit Merit Award" which "signifies the esteem the 2nd Circuit holds for
his mastery of the art of negotiation and ability to solve difficult legal problems." He has also served as adjunct
professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law for 15 years where he taught "Negotiation and Conflict
Resolution"—a course consistently ranked by students among the best in the school. He has also been honored by
the establishment of a Chair in his name at the law school. He has trained judges across the nation in negotiation and
mediation, has lectured at the United Nations, to Bar associations, and over a dozen colleges and universities. He has
also been a full-time visiting professor for one year at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration where
he was honored by being asked to continue on the faculty. A 1949 graduate of Yale Law School, he was a Fulbright
Scholar in international and comparative law at the University of Rome, studied at Cambridge University on a full tuition
and board scholarship, and holds a Master of Laws degree from New York University. He was also a weekly TV guest
lecturer on Law for Non-Lawyers in Washington, D.C. A member of the New York, New Jersey and Washington, DC Bars,
he has practiced extensively in both the public and private sectors and is listed in "Who's Who in American Law."
Hillel A. Schiller is an independent scholar who has previously taught at Bernard Baruch College. He has an MA in
Linguistics from the University of Chicago.
Zhenbin Sun received his PhD from the media ecology program at New York University and pursued his postdoctoral
research at Harvard. He teaches communications at Fairleigh Dickinson University and is mainly interested Chinese and
Western theories of language and comparative philosophy.
Kathleen Sweeney, writer, media artist and educator, recently published Maiden USA: Girl Icons Come of Age (Peter
Lang Publishing, 2008). She has been an artist-in-residence at DIA: Beacon and Reel Grrls, Seattle, with funding from
the National Endowment for the Arts. She is currently an Adjunct Professor of Media Studies and Film at The New
School.
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS
21

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Janet Sternberg first learned about general semantics from Neil Postman while earning her doctorate in the Media
Ecology Program at New York University. Since then, she has gone on to write about Postman's legacy in the general
semantics journal ETC, and to become a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Society for General
Semantics. (And whenever possible, she uses E-Prime.) Janet also counts herself among the Media Ecology
Association's most active members, serving as one of its Directors as well as its Executive Secretary. At Fordham
University, Janet enjoys teaching and advising in her position as Assistant Professor of Communication and Media
Studies. A native New Yorker and former Fulbright scholar who grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Janet speaks and
writes in several languages, and has published and presented on topics as diverse as linguistic theory, the history of
technology, misbehavior and legal dilemmas in cyberspace, and mediated interpersonal communication. Inspired by her
studies with Postman, Janet's current research involves the relationships among communication technologies and
issues such as information overload, rampant consumerism, social fragmentation and alienation, and declining levels of
civility, for a book project entitled Mediating Ourselves to Death. She draws on this research for her symposium
presentation, entitled "Creating a Civil Culture: The Need to Resist Trash Talk in Contemporary Media."
Lance Strate is Executive Director of the Institute of General Semantics, President of Media Ecology Association
(which he helped to found), and Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University. He is the
author of Echoes and Reflections: On Media Ecology as a Field of Study, and is currently writing a companion volume,
Understanding Media Ecology. Moreover, he has published numerous articles and book chapters, co-edited several
anthologies, including The Legacy of McLuhan, and Communication and Cyberspace: Social Interaction in an Electronic
Environment, and is the Supervisory Editor of the Hampton Press book series in media ecology. He is also a Past
President of the New York State Communication Association. A former editor of the Speech Communication Annual, and
Explorations in Media Ecology, he currently co-edits the "Poetry Ring" feature for ETC, and maintains a poetry blog,
, as well as a blog about media, technology, language, symbols, etc.,
< http://lancestrate.blogspot.com>.
Devkumar Trivedi is a former Secretary to the Government of Delhi. Widely travelled, he handled public service at
the highest level in making policies and has vast experience heading Home, Finance, Education, Health, Forest,
Development, and several other departments. Academically, a student and teacher of philosophy, he is a poet, writer,
musician, free-thinker, and communicator in management and human resource development and relations. Associated
with management of Universities, colleges and schools, he is essentially an educationist, and on the roving faculty of
general semantics with the Center for Contemporary Theory and General Semantics, India. At 70, after sustained
scholastic studies, is convinced that he is an oceanic encyclopedia of unplumbed ignorance.
Tyler Volk is science director of environmental studies and a professor of biology at New York University. In his work
and writing, he examines reasons for phenomena across a number of different scales, and is the author of a number of
books, including Metapatterns Across Space, Time, and Mind, and the newly released CO2 Rising: The World's Greatest
Environmental Challenge.
22 THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
David Walczyk is an Assistant Professor of Information Science and Manager of the Cultural Informatics Design Lab
at Pratt Institute. Educated in media ecology and interaction design at Columbia University, his research focuses on the
sensing and controlling of physical space using computational design, and his pedagogy in the areas of usability,
information architecture, physical computing, and human-centered design.
Alex Wright is a writer and Information Architect at The New York Times and the author of Glut: Mastering Information
Through the Ages, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "a penetrating and highly entertaining meditation on our
information age and its historical roots." Alex's writing has appeared in The New York Times, Salon.com, The Christian
Science Monitor, The Believer, Harvard Magazine, Utne Reader, Yankee, Think, Interactions, Boxes and Arrows, New
Architect, WebTechniques, Boston Business, Design Times and Library Journal, among others. As an information
architect, Alex has led projects for Harvard University, IBM, Microsoft, The Long Now Foundation, Internet Archive, and
Yahoo!, among others. His work has won numerous industry awards, including a Webby nomination, Cool Site of the
Year award, the PRSA Silver Anvil and an American Graphic Design Award. A popular speaker and lecturer, Alex has
presented at The Long Now Foundation, Gartner Group, UC-Berkeley, the Institute of Design-Chicago, Seybold, the
ASIS&T Information Architecture Summit, CMP Web conferences, Association of Internet Professionals, Creating for the
Web, and numerous IBM conferences. Alex holds a B.A. in English and American Literature from Brown University and
an M.S. in Library and Information Science from Simmons College. He has also completed graduate coursework in
journalism at Harvard, and in usability engineering at UC-Berkeley.
John C. Wright is a retired attorney, newspaperman and newspaper editor, who was only once on the lam and forced
to hide from the police who did not admire his newspaper. In 1984, he graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis,
home of the "Great Books" program. In 1987, he graduated from the College and William and Mary's Law School (going
from the third oldest to the second oldest school in continuous use in the United States), and was admitted to the
practice of law in three jurisdictions (New York, May 1989; Maryland December 1990; DC January 1994). His law
practice was unsuccessful enough to drive him into bankruptcy soon thereafter. His stint as a newspaperman for the St.
Mary's Today was more rewarding spiritually, but, alas, also a failure financially. He presently works (successfully) as a
writer in Virginia, where he lives in fairy-tale-like happiness with his wife, the authoress L. Jagi Lamplighter, and their
three children: Orville, Wilbur, and Just Wright.
Paull Young is a Social Media Strategist at social media communications agency Converseon in New York City. A
guest and speaker at public relations and social media conferences around the country, Paull is widely known for his
insights on both strategy and implementation of social media. His blog, Young PR (http://youngie.prblogs.org) was
Australia's first student PR blog, and currently ranks as one of the world's leading blogs on the topic of public relations.
Since moving to the US in 2007 Paull has been a part of teams producing campaigns that have been recognized with
awards from the Public Relations Society of America, Word of Mouth Marketing Association, Society for New
Communications Research and the Webbies.
THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS 23

ETC:
A Review of General Semantics
et cetera
ETC: A Review of General Semantics is a journal founded in 1943 by the International Society for General Semantics.
That organization merged with the Institute of General Semantics in 2003 and the institute has published the journal
since that time. ETC is devoted to publishing material which contributes to and advances the understanding of
language, thought and behavior: time-binding (and its failures), map-territory confusion, word-meaning problems,
dating, indexing, two-valued thinking, categorical thinking, non-allness, signal reactions, problems with the abstraction
process, self-reflectiveness, and other facets of general semantics.
ETC welcomes submissions about the symbolic environments that humans spend their time in. We are interested in
approaches to the nature of language, how we make what we call meaning, and how we can be better meaning-makers
through an understanding of the relationships among symbols, mind, meaning, language, thought and culture.
Submissions fall into four main areas, keeping in mind, of course that these categories are tentative, artificial, and
subject to revision. The categories are meant to express the broad range of possible contributions, not limit them and
contributors are not required to specify which area a particular piece falls into.
1. Articles about the symbolic environment, emerging or persisting metaphors, current or historical study of symbol use
which advance the academic understanding of symbols and human behavior and culture.
2. Cases and observations of language use and misuse in politics, commerce, relationships, and self-talk which
contribute to our personal understanding of the relationship of symbols and behavior.
3. Instructional schemata for educators to illustrate general semantics principles: lessons plans, activities,
demonstrations, etc.
4. Poems, diagrams, short fiction, artwork or other vehicles for thought which express or explain some idea about
symbols and behavior, such as maps and territories, abstractions, non-categorical thinking, extensional thinking, or the
principle of etcetera.
Article submissions are accepted electronically at editor-etc@generalsemantics.org
The "Guidelines for Submission" are available at
http://www.generalsemantics.org/index.php/browse/pubs/review/writers-guidelines
Submission to the Poetry Ring Editor, Lance Strate: strate@fordham.edu
Submissions to the Book Review Editor, Martin H. Levinson: MandkLevin@aol.com
24 THE INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS

INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
Name:
Address:
City:
State/Province:
Country:
Postal Code:
Email:
Home Phone:
Mobile Phone:
Work Phone:
Fax Number:
Occupation:
Membership Categories
□ Student $25
□ Member $50
□ Supporter $250
□ Sponsor $500
□ Time Binder $1000
The value of an IGS membership is $50.
Contributions above this amount may be tax
deductible.
Members of the Institute receive:
ETC: A Review of General Semantics
(published quarterly)
Time-Bindings Member Newsletter
(published quarterly)
The General Semantics Bulletin
(published annually)
20% discount on most books and
merchandise
20% discount on gift memberships.
Discounts on lectures, seminars, and
other programs
Members at the Contributor level and
above receive other IGS merchandise
Total enclosed or to be charged: $
Credit Card: ___ Master Card
___ Visa ____ American Express
Account #__ __ __ __ - __ __ __ __ - __ __ __ __ - __ __ __ __ Expiration: __ __/__ __
Signature _______________________________
Please make checks payable to:
Institute of General Semantics
2260 College Avenue, Fort Worth, TX 76110
817-922-9950 FAX: 817-922-9903
www.generalsemantics.org igs@generalsemantics.org