A master´s thesis in E-Prime, and General Semantics

Procrastination may well be my middle name since I have postponed my talk with a future supervisor on my master´s thesis about this big task. For the time being I will try to write in E-Prime until I have reached the decision to write in E- Prime for a full year, but it might prove harder than I can imagine. But I will try my best from now on. 

For those who have no idea what E-Prime means, I will tell you, but surely keep it sweet and short. Writing in E-Prime means that I will not use any form of the verb "to be" like am, is, are, were, was. In short, this verb gives a statement that appears like an objective truth, while any human being who utters an opinion about some matter can never convey objective meaning, but will always tell their subjective opinion.

 The reason for this endeavour comes from a class I had last semester, where we learned about Alfred Korzybski, the founder of a "philosophy" or theory called General Semantics. If you want to categorize General Semantics, which Korzybski did not like to do, it may belong to sociolinguistics as it entails behavior, reactions, abstractions, evaluations/re-evaluations, and much more, within yourself and towards others and the world around you. Or as "they" say: General Semantics..."it´s not what you think...it´s how you think, how you feel.. what you see..what you hear...it´s what you do.."

Without putting anyone off, I just want to say that General Semantics appeals to me greatly, as it concerns my behavior and how it affects everything around me, including how I think of myself. You may say it transgresses boundaries of philosphy, neuro-biology, neuro-pshycology, psychology and probably many other areas I cannot think of at the moment. 

Alfred Korzybski wanted to show and tell the world about his experience with it and wondered why people did not learn from their past mistakes, like war, violence, past mistakes in general like not putting back down the toilet seat (before your girlfriend gets another fit about your inconsiderate behavior), or keep choosing the same old bastard boyfriends over and over again. He simply wanted us to think about our doings and re-evaluate our actions and thoughts to improve our lives as well as others. In other words: show consideration and use your brain!

Anyway, before I get carried away here, all I ask of my friends and readers, do as Aretha Franklin says in her song : "You better think!" Think about what you do to me...yeah yeah..Think think think...

And if you can find any form of "to be" in here, let me know:)