Who'd have guessed that my introduction to behavior almost 40 years ago would come full circle to my study of behavior today. This poem written back then reflects my lack of understanding of Skinner's accomplishments and my fascination with Gestalt's Fritz Perls.
Is the world funny? No not at all.
Cause and effect just may cause the fall
Of people who see the mystery great
In even so little as uneven gait.
B.F. knows where it's all going to end;
He's predicted much and is willing to send
All his knowledge to bear, in order to bend
Our behavior, that we are able to share
The wealth that stability's bound to make,
As in Huxley's "New World". What was the date?
"We'll just never make it!";that's what some pray.
"no more confusion!" behaviorists say.
What will become of our freedom of mind?
Skinner suggests it's a matter of time.
There's something that seems to be missing somehow.
It's Berkeley and Hume and Skinner that cloud
What Fritz Perls purports in his non-conformed way,
That "here and now" makes man unique every day.
April 27, 1974
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