Retrospect.

Retrospect. One of the foremost authorities of our time in the field ofpsychological warfare psychological warfareUse of propaganda against an enemy, supported by whatever military, economic, or political measures are required, and usually intended to demoralize an enemy or to win it over to a different point of view. It has been carried on since ancient times. has written a volume of extraordinary interest tostudents of semantics. And Mr. Barrett's qualifications areexceptional: he has served as one of the editors of Newsweek, wasentrusted with setting up the world-wide news distributing system of theUnited States United States,officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. Government during World War II, and he succeeded Robert E.Sherwood Robert Emmet Sherwood (4 April1896–14 November1955) American playwright, editor, and screenwriter.Born in New Rochelle, New York, he was the son of the prominent American portrait artist Rosina Emmet Sherwood. as director of international operations Internal Operations (I.O., IO or I/O) is a fictional American Intelligence Agency in Wildstorm comics. It was originally called International Operations. I.O. first appeared in WildC.A.T.S. volume 1 #1 (August, 1992) and was created by Brandon Choi and Jim Lee. of the Office of WarInformation. In the Eisenhower headquarters he did top-level work in thePsychological Warfare Branch, and for two years--beginning in 1950--hewas Assistant Secretary of State, responsible for developing the"campaign of truth" by the Voice of America Voice of America,broadcasting service of the United States Information Agency, est. 1942. Originally set up as a means of fighting the cold war, the Voice of America produces and broadcasts radio programs in English and foreign languages to other countries in order and the UnitedStates Information Service. His book is divided into three parts--embracing 25 chapters and anappendix. The first part illuminates some of the costly errors throughwhich we learned our propaganda lessons; ten of these chapters tell ofthe days of World War II. The second part seeks to take the measure ofour foes without and within, and the author describes the Soviettechniques. In the third part, the author makes constructive suggestionsas regards the many methods by which America can put its best footforward in a propaganda-laden world. Here, he opens new doors on thecontroversial Voice of America operations and relates many facts whichcongressional committees have yet to place in the public record. One chapter in particular, "The Problem of Words," issemantically exciting. Writes Barrett: "So complex have theproblems of semantics become to those operating in forty-six languagesthat one weary propaganda executive once broke up a meeting by rising,mopping his brow, and announcing, 'I'm afraid I'mbecoming anti-semantic.' Nonetheless, because officialannouncements must necessarily deal in words, top information officersof the government have no choice but to search continually for thoseword-concepts with the greatest appeal to the greatest number ofpeople." To assist in this search he once prepared a list of 42 positiveword-concepts, that is, words like peace, liberty, honor, and humandignity Human dignity is an expression that can be used as a moral concept or as a legal term. Sometimes it means no more than that human beings should not be treated as objects. Beyond this, it is meant to convey an idea of absolute and inherent worth that does not need to be acquired and . To this list be added 14 negative word-concepts, that is, suchterms as slavery, thought control, and foreign domination. The StateDepartment then sent the lists to its public affairs Those public information, command information, and community relations activities directed toward both the external and internal publics with interest in the Department of Defense. Also called PA. See also command information; community relations; public information. staffs in 157different cities around the world. The public affairs officers, who weresystematic students of public opinion in their areas, were asked to ratethe terms (on a scale of 0 to 100) on the basis of "propagandaeffectiveness in the immediate area." Barrett writes: The answers proved fascinating. No single key word was scored highly by all posts. Peace ranked highest in most of the Far East but lowest in Indonesia (where the accepted translation implies "peace at any price"). It ranked well down the line in Europe, Latin America, and the Near East-perhaps because of Soviet distortion of the term. Liberty stood high in many countries of Latin America and Europe but low in Japan, Hong Kong, and Indochina. Independence ranked second (just below peace) in the Far East but well down the list in Latin America. Though there was not even near-unanimity on any word, the highest rated positive words for all areas, on the average, were independence, freedom, education, prosperity, security, national culture, peace, liberty, justice, progress, and honor. The lowest rated positive words on the average represented the concept of cooperation and mutuality: mutual assistance, world friendship, neighborliness, brotherhood, democratic unity, and harmony. The most effective negative word, on the average, turned out to be slave labor, followed by Soviet imperialism, slavery, foreign domination, Communism, and iron curtain. There were wide variations, however. Iron curtain understandably rated high in Europe, low in the Far East. Foreign domination ranked first in the Far East, low in Latin America. From his detailed studies of the emotive polarities ofword-concepts in many areas of the world, Barrett suggests a number ofspecific strategies in the conduct of psychological warfare. Forexample: Wartime events proved how "honorable capitulation" could persuade an enemy who would never be influenced by "prompt surrender;" how the "Peace Movement" in Germany made respectable what was unthinkable as "a plot against Hitler." Later, "campaign of truth" proved far superior to "propaganda offensive." "Captive peoples" meant far more than "Soviet allies" or even "satellites." "Mutual security," while not ideal, was infinitely better than "U.S. foreign aid." CEDRIC CEDRIC UK Customs & Excise Intelligence Computer Data System LARSON, "REVIEW OF TRUTH IS OUR WEAPON, BY EDWARD W.BARRETT." Don't know Don't know (DK, DKed)"Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. if the editor of ETC ETC - ExTendible Compiler. Fortran-like, macro extendible. "ETC - An Extendible Macro-Based Compiler", B.N. Dickman, Proc SJCC 38 (1971). will print this. There aresome who will call it advertising. Actually, it is advertising--for anentirely satisfactory weekly news magazine, such as I have never yetbeen able to find, nor, I suspect, has anyone else. On every page of every news magazine I pick up, I run into someprejudice, political, national, philosophical, that annoys me. Someitems strike me as trivial. Nonentities are given prominence for somesensational idiocy IDIOCY, med. jur. That condition of mind, in which the reflective, or all or a part of the affective powers, are either entirely wanting, or are manifested to the least possible extent. 2. Idiocy generally depends upon organic defects. . A momentous discovery by a brilliant intellect isnoted only in passing, and with flippant flip��pant?adj.1. Marked by disrespectful levity or casualness; pert.2. Archaic Talkative; voluble.[Probably from flip. contempt. I do not think I amalone in being annoyed, and I am sure such annoyance is dangerous. Itcan produce rashes. It has been known to upset family relations. Thereis no telling what chains of causation these annoyances set off, leadingto who knows what remote consequences--all because we do not get thenews we want to read. It is high time that modern scientific methods were applied tomagazine production. This is exactly what the publishers of YOUR SLANT:A PERSONAL NEWS MAGAZINE intend doing. They intend to bring out amagazine which every member of the reading public without exception willbuy. The motives of the publishers in preparing such a magazine are, ofcourse, mercenary. They see and see dearly that existing magazines--withtheir present leanings and slantings--attract always only a part of thereading public, while repelling another part. YOUR SLANT will bedesigned for all the reading public. It will snugly fit every crook ofevery reader's crotchets. How is this universally satisfactory magazine to be produced? As follows: first, every subscriber will be asked to fill out aquestionnaire which gives a full schema of his religious, political,philosophical, national, racial, and ideological loyalties andpredilections. This information is coded on punch cards, with a separatecard for each subscriber. These cards ultimately insure that eachsubscriber will get the tailor-made, individually-fitted magazine thatfollows exactly the contours of his attitudes and prejudices. This does not mean that there will be as many different editions ofthe magazine as there are subscribers. The mass-producing tailors findthat after being in business for a while they do not have to make anymore patterns; every new set of measurements that comes in can be foundalready cut in their files. Just so, the editors of YOUR SLANT havefound in experiments that combinations of viewpoints recur often enoughso that the number of separate editions required to capture the totalaudience can be kept within practical bounds. The number will be largebut not staggeringly so, and at any rate it will be but a small fractionof the total number of subscribers. The cost? Trivial, with modern production methods. News events arewritten up, separately interpreted from a wide variety of viewpoints.These viewpoints will also be expressed in numerous editorials, eachgiving a different evaluation of the world scene. The articles are thenset and electrotyped on mats. The punched cards, serving as the memoryof an electronic calculator, will control the selection and rejection ofthese mats at the rate of about 100,000 mats a minute. Every series ofmats so selected by similarly coded cards falls into a neat stack, andeach stack is automatically correlated with headings. An employee pagesthem. We have a magazine. Other stacks of mats form other editions ofthe magazine. From then on, everything is gloriously automatic--untilthe Post Office finally sorts the wrapped magazines. Since the circulation will be world-wide, each of the separateeditions will reap a profit. There will be an AFL-Republican-female-NewEngland edition, a CIO-Democrat-Negro-male-Michigan edition, a NewZealand-industrial-cooperative-engineer edition, aSocialist-Scots-Oxonian-male-soldier-vegetarian edition, and a Texasedition. Plus a large but still manageable number of others. What would be the outcome of this enlightened procedure? I willgive just one example. A Russian communist might be glad to hear thatMr. Churchill was dead. The electronic censor would be quick to let thisnews item through to the Russian communist edition of the magazine, butany eulogistic eu��lo��gize?tr.v. eu��lo��gized, eu��lo��giz��ing, eu��lo��giz��esTo praise highly in speech or writing, especially in a formal eulogy.eu comment on his career would be, just as promptly, tossedout. Now it may be argued that this sort of thing is already done. Butit is done, after all, in a prescientific pre��sci��en��tif��ic?adj.1. Of, relating to, or occurring at a time before the advent of modern science and the application of its methods.2. and slipshod slip��shod?adj.1. Marked by carelessness; sloppy or slovenly. See Synonyms at sloppy.2. Slovenly in appearance; shabby or seedy.slip manner. Evenwithin the Soviet Union, there must be a dissident minority of Russiancommunists who break out in a rash as they read present Russiancommunist magazines. (I myself once heard an American capitalistexecutive of the kind celebrated in Fortune magazine excoriating Fortuneas "run by a bunch of socialists"!) YOUR SLANT, with itsscientific method of selecting the news and the interpretations thereof,will dovetail dovetail(dov´tāl),n a widened or fanned-out portion of a prepared cavity, usually established deliberately to increase the retention and resistance form. neatly with everybody's prejudices. Some readers of ETC may deplore de��plore?tr.v. de��plored, de��plor��ing, de��plores1. To feel or express strong disapproval of; condemn: "Somehow we had to master events, not simply deplore them"the introduction of such amagazine. There are always captious cap��tious?adj.1. Marked by a disposition to find and point out trivial faults: a captious scholar.2. persons to cavil CAVIL. Sophism, subtlety. Cavilis a captious argument, by which a conclusion evidently false, is drawn from a principle evidently true: Ea est natura cavillationis ut ab evidenter veris, per brevissimas mutationes disputatio, ad ea quce evidentur falsa sunt perducatur. Dig. at every forwardstep. They will say that such journalism will do nothing more thanpersuade people that the world is the sort of place they think it is,and that each reader will only become more convinced than ever that heis right and everyone else is wrong. Such a charge is, of course,absurd. The old journalism does that. The new journalism New Journalismn.Journalism that is characterized by the reporter's subjective interpretations and often features fictional dramatized elements to emphasize personal involvement.New Journalist n. is really new,in that it builds on what has already been accomplished. It has long been recognized that people's personalities take aset shortly after they have succeeded in discarding everything theirfathers believed in and doing all the things their mothers considereddisgraceful. From this point on their minds are closed. And since theage at which this closure occurs is gradually moving toward infancy, itis safe to suppose that the closed mind now characterizes practicallythe entire reading population. People with closed minds are, underpresent conditions, constantly being made uncomfortable by the barrageof other points of view. When they are uncomfortable they are disturbingto their friends and family. The new journalism avoids all this.Therefore the new journalism can bring nothing but happiness tohumanity. There may remain a few odd folk who like the jolt of a differingviewpoint now and then. Such people are so few that no system of massproduction could properly be asked to cater to them. Fortunately,however, the new journalism is methodologically so sound that even forthese deviates YOUR SLANT can be of service. For example, aHindu-cooperative-pacifist-handweaver could put his name down for thePakistani-militarist-industrialist edition. For a couple of weeks, untilhe came to his senses and canceled the edition, he would be able to peerwith horrified hor��ri��fy?tr.v. hor��ri��fied, hor��ri��fy��ing, hor��ri��fies1. To cause to feel horror. See Synonyms at dismay.2. To cause unpleasant surprise to; shock. disbelief into a strange and topsy-turvy world. Then,having returned to his own edition with a sigh of vast relief, he willforever after know better than to try that again. ADRIAN YOUNG Adrian Samuel Young (born August 26, 1969, Long Beach, California) is the drummer for the third wave ska band, No Doubt. BiographyYoung's parents were hippies, and his mother left the family when he was young. "YOUR SLANT: A PERSONAL NEWS MAGAZINE LOGIC. "In Los Angeles Los Angeles(lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. it was found that one of the mostdamning pieces of information about [Dr. J Noun 1. Dr. J - United States basketball forward (born in 1950)Erving, Julius Erving, Julius Winfield Erving . Robert]Oppenheimer--according to the California investigators responsible formany of the current charges against him--was that he was classified insecret Communist party Communist party, in ChinaCommunist party,in China, ruling party of the world's most populous nation since 1949 and most important Communist party in the world since the disintegration of the USSR in 1991. communications as unsympathetic to communism....The committee's explanation of this paradox was that, in secretCommunist party communications, the scientist's status wasdeliberately misrepresented in order to deceive anyone who interceptedthe communications." Kansas City Kansas City,two adjacent cities of the same name, one (1990 pop. 149,767), seat of Wyandotte co., NE Kansas (inc. 1859), the other (1990 pop. 435,146), Clay, Jackson, and Platte counties, NW Mo. (inc. 1850). Times, April 14, 1954. How widely and how well is general semantics gen��er��al semantics?n. (used with a sing. verb)A discipline developed by Alfred Korzybski that proposes to improve human behavioral responses through a more critical use of words and symbols. understood nowadays?Evidence on this question in books and magazines is conflicting. In mostof the places where we would expect general semantics to bemisunderstood, it is misunderstood. But sometimes it is misunderstood inquarters where understanding might be expected. Such, at least, were thefeelings of the Editor when he dispatched the following letter to TheSocialist Call. The editors of The Call were so courteous as to publishthis letter, almost in full, in their March, 1955 issue, along withtheir own vigorous rejoinder The answer made by a defendant in the second stage of Common-Law Pleading that rebuts or denies the assertions made in the plaintiff's replication.The rejoinder allows a defendant to present a more responsive and specific statement challenging the allegations made . The letter is printed here in full, notany longer to scold SCOLD. A woman who by her habit of scolding becomes a nuisance to the neighborhood, is called a common scold. Vide Common Scold. The Call, but to call the attention of readers tomisconceptions about general semantics which are held, whether or not bythe editors of The Call, by a surprising number of other equallywell-read people: Sirs: I have just read with amazement your editorial references inthe February issue of The Socialist Call to Irving Lee's article,"Procedures for 'Coercing' Agreement," and to IrvingFlamm's article, "How to Sell a Vision," both of whichappeared in the Spring, 1954 issue of ETC. My God, can't you guys read? You say that Dr. Lee "didnot appreciate all the implications of the title he chose to give hisarticle," and you cite this supposition as an instance of current"pressures toward conformity" (which Dr. Lee no doubt deploresno less than you). Why do you suppose the author put quotation marks quotation marksNoun, plthe punctuation marks used to begin and end a quotation, either `` and '' or ` and 'quotation marksnpl → comillas fpl around the word "coercing" if not to indicate that he does notmean by the word what is ordinarily meant? If you had read the article beyond the title, you would havediscovered that he meant by "coercing" no more than theestablishment of semantic rules of discourse, no more"coercive" in their effect or intent than Robert's Rulesof Order Robert's Rules of Order:see parliamentary law; Robert, Henry Martyn. Robert’s Rules of Ordermanual of parliamentary procedure by General Robert. [Am. Hist.: Hart, 717]See : Orderliness . Concerning Irving Flamm's article you write that he "isbothered by the fact that Norman Thomas and Peter Viereck Peter Robert Edwin Viereck (August 5, 1916 – May 13, 2006), was a Pulitzer Prize - winning poet and influential political thinker as well as a professor of history at Mount Holyoke College for five decades. ... shouldfind it possible to disagree on political and economic policies. Mr.Flamm insists that they have no differences and should not be arguingwith each other." This is far from what Mr. Flamm said. What hesaid is that until the high-level abstractions of the Thomas-Viereckdebate (i.e., the particular debate in the April, 1953 issue of TheProgressive to which Mr. Flamm was referring) are translated intoconcrete proposals, it is not possible to tell to what extent they agreeor disagree. As Mr. Flamm wrote, "Had Viereck and Thomas formulatedremodeling remodeling/re��mod��el��ing/ (re-mod��el-ing) reorganization or renovation of an old structure.bone remodeling plans to display their respective concepts of the goodsociety, we could examine each, compare their respective mechanisms toinsure democracy, freedom, and economic stability.... Wide debate onboth plans would then be fruitful." Your editorial also states, "The theory of these intellectualsis that the only thing that's wrong is our'communications.' If only we could understand each other, theysay, we would find that we all mean the same thing!" The mistaken cliche to the effect that semanticists are people whobelieve that there are no problems except problems of communicationcomes from two sources that I know of. The first is the Communist Party,which in such places as The New Masses, The Bolshevik: A TheoreticalPolitical Journal (Moscow), and the Soviet Short PhilosophicalDictionary, has declared that semanticists are "lackeyphilosophers" of "decadent bourgeois imperialism" who tryto allay the "seething seethe?intr.v. seethed, seeth��ing, seethes1. To churn and foam as if boiling.2. a. To be in a state of turmoil or ferment: discontent of oppressed op��press?tr.v. op��pressed, op��press��ing, op��press��es1. To keep down by severe and unjust use of force or authority: a people who were oppressed by tyranny.2. masses in capitalistsocieties" by telling them that "all problems are merelyverbal." The fact that communists should have such a distorted viewof semantics is not all surprising in view of their own doctrinalpropositions. Knowing your attitude towards communism, I am sure thatthe foregoing are not your sources of information about semantics. Another source of misinformation mis��in��form?tr.v. mis��in��formed, mis��in��form��ing, mis��in��formsTo provide with incorrect information.mis about semantics is the cocktailparty. Many people derive their knowledge of semantics at cocktailparties from people who got their knowledge of semantics at othercocktail parties. From such conversational exchanges, they usuallyemerge with the impression that "semanticists believe thateverything is just a matter of words." Now I would be loath to deny that the cocktail party is animportant medium of communication, but in some areas of concern (such assemantics or socialism) I have never found it a substitute for readingthe literature. Hence if you are planning to venture any more remarksabout semantics in The Call, you might take the trouble to read whatsemanticists have written. What have semanticists written? They have written that language,unconscious assumptions about the relation of language to fact, andconfusions created by language are often a factor in human problems.They have written that human beings, instead of confronting reality,often dissipate their energies combating verbally-created bogeymen.(Isn't "creeping socialism" one of these?) They havewritten that in the absence of communication, imaginings imaginingsNoun, plspeculative thoughts about what might be the case or what might happen; fantasies: lurid imaginingsare oftenmistaken for fact. They have warned against and provided tools withwhich to avoid cliche-thinking, slogan-thinking, formula-thinking, whichare the verbal manifestations of the "pressures towardconformity," which you deplore. Finally, by insisting on cautionabout reacting to unverified inferences, they have tried to reduce thetendency (which we all have to greater or less degree) to go offhalf-cocked To be discharged prematurely, or with the trigger at half cock; - said of a firearm.To do or say something without due thought or care.See also: Halfcock Halfcock . May we therefore enter your name to receive regularly from now, onan exchange subscription to ETC? Perhaps you will do the same for uswith The Call to prevent us in our turn from holding mistaken notionsabout what it is that Socialists believe and advocate. SINCERELY YOURS Adv. 1. sincerely yours - written formula for ending a lettersincerely , S. I. HAYAKAWA Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa (July 18 1906 – February 27 1992) was a Canadian-born American academic and political figure. He was an English professor, served as president of San Francisco State University and then a United States Senator from California from 1977 to 1983. In the comic strip "Pogo," in the newspapers of the samedate as the foregoing: Pogo says, "Albert, you suspects one man,catches the WRONG one an' you claims the one you is got is GUILTY!Jus' CATCHIN' a man don't prove he's aCULPRIT!" Albert the Alligator alligator,large aquatic reptile of the genus Alligator, in the same order as the crocodile. There are two species—a large type found in the S United States and a small type found in E China. Alligators differ from crocodiles in several ways. replies, "It's a goodstart, ain't it?" DATES AND INDEXES EDITOR: NORA MILLER