February 14, 2016

February 14, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

In Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971, p. 182) Skinner writes “It is not the benevolence of a controller but the contingencies under which he controls benevolently which must be examined. All control is reciprocal, and an interchange between control and counter-control is essential to the evolution of culture. The interchange is disturbed by the literatures of freedom and dignity, which interpret counter control as the suppression rather than the correction of controlling practices.”  

I identify Skinner’s benevolent controller’s way of talking as Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB).  During SVB, the speaker affects the listener with an appetitive contingency.  I don’t believe the interchange was suppressed by the literature, by the written forms of verbal behavior.  Skinner, like most academics, has overestimated the power of the printed word, but underestimated the power of the spoken word. 

Interchange between control and counter control was never suppressed by the literature of freedom and dignity, but by hostile environments which gave rise to Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB). During such spoken communication, the speaker controls the listener with an aversive contingency. The “misinterpretation” then, which, according to Skinner,  led to “the suppression of counter control rather than the correction of controlling practices” signifies the high rates of NVB and the low rates of SVB.  It is an artifact of academia that printed words are seen as more important than spoken words. 

In the United States, the conservative supreme-court judge Scalia just died. He had made it his life work to defend the Constitution and lived by what is written rather than by what is said.  His departure will expose the big gap between spoken and written communication. Skinner wrote “In spite of remarkable advantages [our constitution], our culture may prove to have a fatal flaw [words added (p. 183).” It is not only America’s flaw, but it is the misinterpretation of modern man to think that what is written is of greater importance than what is said. Talking and listening are lawful behaviors which can only be explored and acknowledged while we engage together in SVB.