Overview

Designed for those discovering general semantics for the first time as well as for scholars who are well versed in it, this collection provides vital analytic tools for understanding the contemporary world of politics. It brings together essays that span a wide range of concerns, including the underpinnings of democracy, the challenges of media bias and the two-party system, the difficulties in thinking about money and inequality, the struggle against polarization, how to deal with conspiracy theories, and, along the way, provides ample resources for engaging in fair and rational dialogue. In today's world, where so many people are confused and disgruntled, and perhaps on the verge of giving up on the possibility of constructive political discourse, this collection is a breath of fresh air. It reminds us that hope is not lost so long as we are willing to openly and honestly think about what is going on. Essential reading for anyone interested in general semantics, the contemporary world of politics, and/or the connection between them, it is a collection not to be missed.

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9781970164367

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Reviews

Could a non-Aristotelian understanding of politics help us avert the seemingly inevitable civic conflict before us? Once again, General Semantics comes to the rescue of a society that needs to retrieve the feedback mechanisms that keep it stable, or even alive. Anyone who has questioned the red/blue TV image that defines democracy today will relish this opportunity to come to terms with the terms themselves. --Douglas Rushkoff, author, Team Human, Present Shock, Program or Be Programmed, and Survival of the Richest As conscious time-binders we hope to keep on moving along the curving path of spiral ascent towards greater truth. Along that path, which continually bends, it's an infinite journey for us fallible humans with detours and dead ends along the way. An unbending fixation upon any one point along the curve, a completely unbending fixation to your own current outlook, will likely lead you along an ultimately unworkable tangent. With this in mind, General Semantics And Politics takes on present-day issues of politics and polarization and can help you explore some possible unbending fixations of your own. It's not necessary to agree with all of the political opinions expressed herein. I don't. But at the very least your engagement with General Semantics And Politics may help you to clarify, refine, or even revise your views-applying all the extensional devices you can muster. As a result it can help you to prevent yourself from getting pulled along the fixed paths of your own unviable tangents and to get back onto the spiral path towards greater truth again. Reading General Semantics And Politics may provide just the stimulus you need and give you some necessary background for doing that. Engage! --Bruce I. Kodish, author of Korzybski: A Biography and Drive Yourself Sane: Using the Uncommon Sense of General Semantics, Third Edition General Semantics and Politics is a welcomed extension of the rich insights into media, culture, and communication provided by general semantics and media ecology, or what Neil Postman said was ""general semantics writ large."" Its twelve chapters cover a wide and diverse range of contexts in which we need to learn to think, communicate, and act more sanely. The scholarship is well-informed and the writing both clear and challenging. A central strength of this collection is that the contributors do not present the principles and methods of general semantics and media ecology as closed systems of group-think but as useful guides for individual critical thinking. As my Marine Corps Drill Instructor told me in Boot Camp, ""Rules and regulations are for the guidance of the wise and the obedience of fools."" In this book the editors and contributors have provided us with some very useful guides for individual critical context analyses of some key socio-political environments in the cybernetic age of media, culture, and communication. --Terence P. Moran Professor Emeritus, Media, Culture, and Communication New York University

Author Information

Corey Anton (Ph.D., Purdue University) is Professor of Communication Studies at Grand Valley State University and a Fellow of the International Communicology Institute. He is author of Selfhood and Authenticity (2001, SUNY Press), Sources of Significance: Worldly Rejuvenation and Neo-Stoic Heroism (2010, Purdue University Press), Communication Uncovered: General Semantics and Media Ecology (2010, IGS Press), How Non-being Haunts Being: On Possibilities, Morality, and Death Acceptance (2020, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press), and A.EYE CANDY: A Museum of Imaginary Robots and Other Digital Delights (2023, IGS Press). He is the editor of Valuation and Media Ecology: Ethics, Morals, and Laws (2010, Hampton Press), the co-editor, with Lance Strate, of the collection Korzybski And... (2012, IGS Press), and co-editor, with Robert K. Logan and Lance Strate, of the collection, Taking Up McLuhan's Cause (2017, Intellect Publishing). A past Editor of the journal Explorations in Media Ecology and Past President of the Media Ecology Association, Anton currently serves as Vice President of the Institute of General Semantics, and on the editorial boards of The Atlantic Journal of Communication, ETC, New Explorations, and Explorations in Media Ecology. Thom Gencarelli (Ph.D., New York University) is Professor of Communication, Sound & Media Arts at Manhattan University in Riverdale, New York. He is a Past President of the Media Ecology Association, the New York State Communication Association, and the New Jersey Communication Association, Treasurer and member of the Board of Trustees of the Institute of General Semantics, and the current Editor of the IGS journal ETC: A Review of General Semantics. He is co-editor (with Brian Cogan) of Baby Boomers and Popular Culture: An Inquiry into America's Most Powerful Generation and author of the forthcoming Searching for the Right Notes: Essays on Media, Music, and Meaning. He is a recipient of multiple awards including, in 2023, the J. Talbott Winchell Award for Outstanding Contributions and Service to the Cause of General Semantics from the IGS. He is also a songwriter, musician, and producer, and has released four albums with his ensemble bluerace: World is Ready (2009), Beautiful Sky (2013), Mistral (2019), and INDYeGO (2024).

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