December 17, 2013

December 17, 2013

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

 

Imagine you know how spoken communication can be improved, but nobody wants to hear about it or talk about it? Only once in a while there is a person who wants more teaching. Your teaching depends on the readiness of someone who wants to be taught. No matter how much you know, you can’t help those who don’t want to be taught. There is nothing wrong with what you know. You worked hard for it and you know it through and through, but nobody wants it. However, you know that people would want it, if they knew what it was, but they can’t want it, because they don’t know what it is. 

It is from this dilemma that this writer is writing these words. There have been thousands of people already that have shown interest in SVB, but they all came and went. One person, far away, only available by letter, once in a while lets this writer know he is still willing to be taught. Through the years many letters have been written to him by this writer. He also received many letters from him. Each time this is a delightful event. His student is an artist, who uses colored ink to write with a brush on rice paper. This writer has a closet full with his letters. It took him a long time to get his student to make more sense in his writings. Initially, the letters were ramblings about everything and nothing, but as the years went by, they became more coherent and interesting. He began to write about what is really going on. The letters replaced the hours-long conversations they used to have when they were together back when this writer lived in the Netherlands. 

There was and still is this writer’s goal of changing the whole world, by changing how we communicate. It is a huge task he has taken onto himself. The science of spoken communication has been discovered and is now waiting to be implemented. This writer can no longer try to reach people. He has done that and he has seen the poor results. It did not result into what he envisioned, but he is not disappointed, because his success was proportionate to that what was possible. 

This writer knows that if more would have been possible, then more would have happened. Very few people are capable, based on their history of reinforcement, to grasp and hold on to SVB. To grasp it is one thing, but to hold on to it is another. Of course, there is nothing to hold onto. Holding onto is figuratively speaking, but those who are capable of holding onto SVB, like this writer, are holding on, because there is nothing else better to do. By holding on, this writer continues to be benefitted by SVB, even though he can’t teach it to others and doesn’t have the energy anymore to approach them. 

This writer’s approach behaviors are worn out and outdated. He is tired of going after people and he realizes his own limitation. This writing is his last attempt to reach others. These words don’t sell and aren’t fancy. They weren’t meant to be. They aren’t having academic appeal. Like anyone who speaks their own voice, this writer doesn’t like or need to quote others. He has his own say and since these words have been used by millions of others, he doesn’t think of language as belonging to one person, who gets some special treatment. Words are sounds, vibrations produced by air coming out of our mouth. 

We have made language into a sordid affair. The idea that someone can have property rights on names and phrases is an infringement on our freedom of speech. Nobody owns anything. We simply fool ourselves. When we die, we can’t take anything with us. Wise, knowledgeable words fade away in the face of death. Nothing remains. These words are not going to do what this writer had wanted them to do. They will be forgotten. Unless someone with a similar behavioral history gets a hold of these words, SVB is not going to stay alive and will die with this author. This writer feels a sense of relief with his legacy. There is peace in the fact that one can do only so much. Knowledge is limited and so is our ability to understand. This writer believes that we need each other to know and that that alone is reason for us to communicate, scientifically. According to this writer, science is the only ongoing dialogue which has any real meaning.