November 20, 2014

November 20, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

 

Yesterday evening this author and his students went to listen to Guy McPherson, who presented his grim picture of environmental decline, which is going to result in the total extinction of life on earth. The various questions that were raised signified that the atmosphere was very tense. Immediately on arrival, this author felt a sense of loss, despair, fear, hopelessness, and, yes, also a sense of defiance, that it can’t be too late to do anything. He listened to the speaker, who spoke in a calm, but negative tone of voice and turned to his students to see what they thought about it.

The question he asked them was: is it “Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) or Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB)?” The students recognized that the speaker and his audience were having NVB. Since people were asking questions and giving their opinions, this writer too raised his hand. When the speaker finally gave him permission (he kept talking, even though other people had been given the chance to say something much quicker), this writer said he had an idea. He described the negative atmosphere in the room and called it NVB, the kind of conversation that is going everywhere. Then, he contrasted it, by describing SVB, the way of talking in which we no longer aversively influence each other. This led to various responses. The speaker, initially, agreed we should be having this peaceful interaction, but this writer interjected he doubted that, because the speaker’s way of interacting was clearly based on negative emotions. Then the members of the audience asked this writer how we can present the facts without having this effect and this writer replied that one can’t have SVB by continuing with NVB, which has been going on all along. As this writer spoke when the speaker tried to speak, the speaker told him in a forceful tone not to interrupt him. This writer, however, stated calmly that the NVB communication even continues in the name of environmentalism. At this, the speaker suddenly became very angry and shouted "shut the fuck up.”

This author then left the room. He has been avoiding these kind of NVB interactions for a long time, but because another faculty had invited him to this lecture, he thought he might be actually able to explain something is very wrong with the way in which we communicate. The speaker’s response shows where we are at with our communication. We may talk about environmental decline, but don’t want to know that our NVB, that is, our way of talking is totally toxic.