Ghost Office

I was going to write a tedious rant about how people hate other people and how cigarettes are awesome because they kill you, but I thought it would be prudent and less shit to have some lulz. A corruption of LOL. Which stands for Laugh out Loud.

PRESENTING!

THE UNSENT SECRET LETTERS FROM FAMOUS PEOPLE TO OTHER FAMOUS PEOPLE (USLFFPTOFP)

My rampant unemployment has led me to devour books at an alarming rate for a member in a society taught to think as little as possible and react as much as possible. These letters will never be sent because, well, people are pussies. And some of the mentioned are dead (or at least, dead to me.) Here's the first USLFFPTOFP:

Rick Astley is a cult internet phenomenon. Everyone's been rick rolled. If you haven't yet, you're either over 40 or living in Sierra Leone. Bill Hicks in his masterful Half-Sane pilloried Astley for being a general jackass and complete wanker. Here's what Astley would send to Mr. Hicks if his tarred lungs didn't give out on him:

From: Rick Astley
To: Bill Hicks
Subject: Funny

Hey Bill, hope you're well. I've almost forgiven you for calling me all those horrible names you did in that video. It's funny because even though my video is a source of derision, it does generate a lot of laughs - more laughs in a shorter length of time than you ever got in your entire career, and i'm not even a professional comedian! And I didn't have to do shit!

Your pal,

Rick "Roll'd" Astley

The truth hurts. So does this:

To: Jeff Walker, Bill Steer, Mike Amott (Carcass)
From: Mille Petrozza (Kreator)
Subject: Raise, the flag, of hate

I want my GOD DAMN RIFFS BACK!

- Mille

Actually, that could be sent to absolutely everyone after 1994.

Here's some more from the wonderful world of comic books:

To: Paramount Pictures
From: Stan Lee

I love my Marvel creations as if they were my babies and my gold-plated Mack Trucks, and I want to you to treat them with due care and diligence like you do with your million-strong audience and teams of dedicated, hard working writers.

Love,

"The Man"

They've only released the same movie about 15 times already, who is realistically going to notice now?

Here's one I would personally like to see sent:

From: Roadrunner Records Promotions Department
To: The Metal Community at Large
Subject: LOL

HAHA WE R IN UR BANDS, MARKETIN THEM TO COMERSHUL INCHRESTS

P.S NO, I WILL NOT MAKE OUT WITH COREY TAYLOR

SLAYERRRRRR! (FIRST)

- RRPD

Then this one, if the Parliamentary Spam Filter didn't catch it:

From: Andrew Fisher, John Watson, James Scullin, Ben Chifley, Gough Whitlam
To: Kevin Rudd
Subject: BASTARD

YOU GOD DAMN, SON OF A BITCH - WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU, STAN MOTHERFUCKING BRUCE?

Signed,

The Australian Labor Movement

If only. If only.

Here's another one that I think would be quite appropriate

From: Endemol Southern Star Productions
To: The four remaining Big Brother viewers
Subject: Why Bother?

We were going to write a letter to make fun of your incalculable idiocy, then we figured you wouldn't be able to read it.

And I'm out. Stay tuned!

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http://twitter.com/crushtor

Dust and Neglect

I've embarked on the road to success only to be confronted by obstacles in my path. I've lost all sense of direction, I can't seem to figure out where up goes or if down is where it is supposed to be. I've wiped my mind of fugues of discontent with books and other such written sense, and its transformed me into a saner person. Even though I began to hallucinate the other day - it was unbelievable. I believed that a person that is dead to me now was suddenly living; as if they had never left.

I guess it's a matter of believing myself over my eyes, at any rate. I think there are some ghosts left over in my brain that I need to exorcise. But writing that down won't help me, and doing all the terrible things that I vowed to do can't alleviate the constant imaginary crises I'm experiencing either. When I was sucking down another cigarette the other day with accompanying piece of shit cup of coffee, I thought to myself; "I can't realistically drift forever.

I'll die eventually."

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http://twitter.com/crushtor

General Semantics: Null-Sanity

Welcome to Part 5 in my introductory series on General Semantics.

General Semantics and Sanity
In my own research, I generally don't approach it scientifically - I usually familarize myself with what is current and work my way backward. What came before or what influenced this idea until I find the very core of what I'm getting at or trying to fully understand. This was evident when I started to familiarize myself with NLP - neuro-linguistic programming. NLP is a set of "models", that was devised by two researchers, namely John Grinder and Richard Bandler, in the 1970s in order to find out how the techniques used by leading therapists such as the hypnotherapist Milton Erickson, gestalt therapist Fritz Perls and anthropologist Gregory Bateson (among others) could be replicated by others for achieving success and mental health (success being the buzzword there.)

In the opening paragraphs of one of the books I've read on the subject (and several since) were printed the words the map is not the territory. Bereft of any mention of where this idea originated, I went and discovered the linchpin that bound all these various therapies together - Alfred Korzybski and General Semantics.

Influence on Psychotherapy
Dr. Albert Ellis, founder of Rational Emotive Therapy was the first to apply Korzybski's General Semantics into a complete doctrine of psychotherapy. The most obvious link between GS and REBT is the consciousness of abstraction - that we miss the lower-order abstractions and "awfulize" almost through unconscious reflexes. (The Activating Event-Belief-Consequence model.) Ellis succinctly explains the link in his 1991 Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture:

"[B]oth general semantics and [Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy] hold that if people think about their thinking, and minimize their "natural" tendency to overcategorize, they can significantly--though perhaps never completely--free themselves from some of their thought-language limitations and achieve a more self-fulfilling life."

Gestalt therapy, extemporized by Fritz Perls also owes a great debt to Count Korzybski, although he only gets a passing mention in his literature. One of his great "Gestalt experiments" that he asks his patients to perform are no less than Korzybski's own examples of the consciousness of abstraction!

For an illustration, let us consider such an ordinary object as a pencil...Notice first that the pencil is this unique thing. There are other pencils, to be sure, but not this very one. Say its name, "pencil," and realize vividly that the thing is not the word! The pencil as thing is non-verbal. (italics mine.)

It is no wonder that Perls and Bateson were used as models by Bandler and Grinder, as their therapies and theories all stem from the denial of the essence or "is" of identity and the consciousness of abstraction. They most importantly encouraged precise thinking arising from otherwise muddled and improper confusions of language. The idiom "map is not the territory" is simple enough to read and say, however when probed and explored for oneself, becomes a wondrous and powerful tool for inspiring and maintaining mental health and preventing "un-sanity."

References
Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, Alfred Korzybski, Institute of General Semantics, 1950, 4th edition.
Language in Thought and Action: Fourth Edition, Samuel I. Hayakawa, Harcourt, 1972.
Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Gregory Bateson, University Of Chicago Press, 1972.
A New Guide to Rational Living, Dr. Albert Ellis and Dr. Robert Harper, Wilshire Book Company, 1975.
"A General Semantics Glossary" by Robert Pula in ETC.: A Review of General Semantics, Dec. 22, 1993.
Gestalt Therapy: Growth and Excitement in the Human Personality, Dr. Frederick Perls, Gestalt Journal Press, 1951.
Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming, John Seymour and Joseph O'Connor, Thorsons Publishers
Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Dr. Milton H. Erickson, M.D., John Grinder and Richard Bandler, Metamorphous Press, 1996.
"General semantics and rational-emotive therapy: 1991 Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture." by Dr. Albert Ellis, ETC.: A Review of General Semantics, Oct. 1, 2007.

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http://twitter.com/crushtor