We Live in the Era of Bullshit
“One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves.”
On Bullshit - Harry G. Frankfurt
We all know someone who someone who is full of bullshit. It’s like he has diarrhea of the mouth – the bullshit gets so deep that when we see him coming, we put on our wellies and get ready to start shoveling. He rambles on about himself; his latest business venture that will never get off the ground, a hole-by-hole account of his latest round of bad golf, and, of course, his obligatory replay of “His” college football team’s most recent victory. His conversation seems careless and lacks sufficient detail to determine the veracity of his stories. It’s not that his bullshit is false but that it’s phony, meant to mislead us from being able to recognize his true character – or lack thereof.
But he’s an amateur bullshitter, let’s consider a few highly trained professional bullshit artists and how they’ve practiced their craft.
How about the Afghanistan withdrawal? One clusterfuck after another, which resulted in thirteen of our heroic soldiers senselessly murdered by an Islamic suicide bomber and an unknown number of American citizens left behind, and our Commander-in-Chief applauded the “extraordinary success of this mission.”
Let’s consider Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, a black woman, who was unable to provide a definition for the word “woman,” saying, “I’m not a biologist.” In what alternate state of reality was a woman unable to define the word “woman?” If a Supreme Court Justice was unable to define woman, then how could we expect her to interpret our Constitution.
No list of bullshit artists would be complete without mentioning Anthony Fauci, the scientist turned political stooge who forfeited the scientific method in favor of power. First, he told us not to wear masks, then he mandated everyone, including infants, must wear masks. Next, he told us that the vaccine would not only protect us from COVID, but it would also prevent the spread of COVID. As fate would have it, soon after he was vaccinated, he became infected with COVID; however, he continued to demean and belittle the unvaccinated as unpatriotic threats to society.
All these bullshitters, whether amateur or professional, have one thing in common, the willingness to ignore the authority of the truth, intentionally or unintentionally.
On Bullshit
Several years ago, I came upon the book, On Bullshit, by Harry G. Frankfurt, a Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. In his book, Frankfurt defines the difference between the honest man, the liar, and the bullshitter:
“When the honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and the for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements to be false. (It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth.) For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.”
“He (the bullshitter) does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.”
Post-Truth Era
Aristotle believed that it’s not possible to live a “good life” without possession of the cardinal virtues – prudence, justice, temperance, and courage. He also believed that we become more virtuous when our irrational dispositions are regulated by reason.
Two-thousand years later, Postmodern philosophers rejected reason and objective reality in favor of subjective narrative as reality. When each person’s subjective narrative becomes “truth,” then objective “truth” becomes false, and can be changed by the will of the individual. The result is an infinite number of subjective “truths” that cancel objective “truth” that was once considered absolute, such as the biological difference between a man and a woman that our Supreme Court Justice was unable to define.
Postmodern subjectivism has resulted in our current “Post-Truth” Era – “an environment in which facts are viewed as irrelevant, or less important than personal beliefs and opinions, and emotional appeals are pursued to influence public opinion.” This has led to the deconstruction of our language and our culture. Our history, traditions, holidays, and other symbols of our culture are being demonized. The family structure is in jeopardy, with the parents’ role in raising children coming under attack. Stanley Fish, law professor, confessed the purpose of deconstruction, “it relieves me of the obligation to be right… and demands only that I be interesting.”
Without reason, we have no objective truth, and without objective truth, all that’s left is BULLSHIT.
I’m headed to Italy, so you probably won’t hear from me for a couple weeks. Hopefully I can find a story or two about my Italian adventure that I can share with you. Meanwhile, keep living the “good life.”
Thank you for reading my story. As usual, your comments are welcome – even bullshit comments are welcome. Hit the “comment” button below or email to Roger.BeachBum@gmail.com and fire away – don’t forget to flush!