January 20, 2014

January 20, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader,

 

Today’s letter type is called “Bauhaus.” It was chosen because it has the word house in it. The literal translation of this German word would be “Built House.” This author likes that word and everything it stands for. This letter type is used today to reflect on the new house this author and his wife have moved into. The house is beautiful on the inside and on the outside. Yesterday we sat in the garden, from where the outside of the house could be admired. 

This author has found a new way of communicating which stands like a house. The foundation and the structure of Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) are solid and reliable. One can’t have SVB with one’s brother, but not with one’s sister, with one’s mother, but not with one’s father. SVB involves the whole family. As long as someone is excluded it is not SVB, but Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB).  NVB excludes, but SVB includes. SVB is a house for the whole family.  SVB is no ordinary house, it is a home. If we leave it, we leave our home. When we go into NVB, we are far away from home, 

If we come back to SVB, we come back home and we feel how much we have missed it. This realization occurs to all who have come to know SVB. One can’t come home, if one doesn’t keep building it. One has to always be willing to create it, because it requires speakers and listeners to create the house called SVB. If the speaker is absent, it can’t be created, if the listener is absent, it can’t be created. The presence of the listener is determined by the fact that the listener also speaks and the presence of the speaker is determined by the fact that the speaker also listens. If this doesn’t happen, we create NVB. In NVB, the speaker doesn’t listen. In NVB, the listener doesn’t speak. In NVB, the listener is only allowed to speak if he or she talks in a predetermined fashion. In NVB, the listener is given freedom of speech, the illusion that he or she may say something. In NVB, you may say whatever you like, but nobody is really listening. Thus, in NVB, nobody can really speak, because nobody is really listening. Because nobody is listening, we may imagine that god or the scientific community is listening, but we need other people to listen. In SVB, someone is always listening when you speak and is talking when you listen.