It's weird to run across a connection between Eric Raymond and General Semantics. The influence of [GS] on Dianetics is not probable but certain. My grandfather was an early student of [GS] who flirted with Dianetics and knew L Ron Hubbard slightly. What he told me is backed up by documentary evidence; Hubbard latched onto some [GS] ideas during the '40s and folded them into Dianetics and what became later Scientology (Scientolog Ist). The [GS] content had been entirely discarded from Scientology by 1960; my personal suspicion is that Hubbard didn't want anything in the system that might actually teach his victims how to think effectively.

weird? --2003/09/06 06:05 [GMT]
Considering that Eric seems to love Robert Heinlein and says he became the male version of Eris once, it would surprise me if he knew nothing about General Semantics. Heinlein and the Discord Ian author Robert Anton Wilson both take inspiration from Alfred Korzybski, and they both mention him by name.

User Options Recent Changes Help Page