The General Semantics of Wall Street

Among the great questions of our times are: “Why do people, knowing better, get themselves into such terrible situations?” and “Why aren’t we able to use our own intelligence more effectively? The field of study called General Semantics is concerned with how people perceive the world around them and how they adapt to or cope with their environment. It is a subject much broader then the stock market, and for that matter, much broader than material considerations; for it involves emotional and psychological forces that affect every angle of life: business and play, family relations, fears, hopes, ambitions, frustrations and satisfactions. Some of the points discussed touch on basis problems of perception. Over and above everything else is the study of just what moves people to act, what motives drive them to decision. And the realization that the primary motivation of people is not money as such, nor love of family as such, nor sex, nor godliness, nor ambition as such, but concerns the preservation of “the self.” In this book, Magee outlines some of the basic principles of General Semantics with special reference to their meaning in the market.—Print ed.