We do not realise what tremendous power the
structure of an habitual language has. It is not an exaggeration to say that
it enslaves us through the mechanism of s.r. and that the structure which a language exhibits, is automatically projected
upon the world around us. This semantic power is indeed so unbelievable that I
do not know anyone, even among well-trained scientists, who, after having
admitted some argument as correct, does not the next minute deny or disregard
(usually unconsciously) practically every word he had admitted (our underline), being carried away
again by the structural implications of the old language and his s.r.
Alfred Korzybski: Science and Sanity The International Non-Aristotelian Library Publishing Company 6th Reprint 1980 pages 90
- 91.