finally got around to reading harry g. frankfurt’s on bullshit, which has sat on my living room table for months. many folks read this slim volume (it was all over the news when it was published last january) and most people couldn’t suppress a wink or wry smirk considering its content, as though bullshit were not, in fact, a “serious” subject for inquiry. i bought the book with no smirk whatsoever, but with high hopes. i’ve long held an unspoken suspicion that bullshit might be more dangerous and damaging to the human condition than anyone is prepared to accept.

i mean that sincerely and am not secretly winking here on my end, i promise.

when i picked up on bullshit i’d hoped that frankfurt’s inquiry into the subject might address and lend credence to my own suspicions.

the book begins as follows:

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. bur we take the situation for granted. most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. so the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, nor attracted much sustained inquiry.

in consequence, we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. and we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. in other words, we have no theory…

promising. as it turns out though, the book’s ultimately concerned with defining what exactly bullshit is, and little else. obviously this is perfectly sensible method of approaching the subject. first things first, right? we must agree on a definition before we can go any further.

he approaches a definition mainly by contrasting bullshit with seemingly synonymous concepts like humbug, balderdash, claptrap, hokum, drivel, etc, and drawing a finer distinction between them; essentially trying to zero-in on what bullshit is by calling out what it is not.

the most important distinction is likely that between bullshitting and lying. the distinction being that lying requires an acknowledgement of a “truth” in order to construct a lie in relation to it. bullshit on the other hand need not be concerned with “truth” at all. bullshitting does not require a subversion of “truth” but can ignore it altogether. in as much the conclusion made is that bullshit is a greater enemy of truth than straight ought lies.

frankfurt touches on the question of why there is so much bullshit around (people feel compelled to have an opinion on every subject, even those which they have no knowledge of) as well as the notion of “sincerity” as an ideal for people who do not believe an “objective truth” exists (devotion to the truth of oneself since there is no external truth [postmodernism?] which, itself, he flags as bullshit) but unfortunately in this very slim volume there is no chance to take the inquiry further. my own questions on the subject go unasked and unanswered.

my question about bullshit is essentially what effect does it have, in the long term, on the people barraged with it?

first off i must say that though frankfurt is sensibly noncommittal about whether, in fact, there is more bullshit today than there was in days past i will commit readily to the stance that, yes, there is more bullshit today than ever before, or rather, that each individual is obliged to absorb a greater portion of the total than ever before, which effectively amounts to the same thing.

my reasons? they might be distilled down into two words: technology and capitalism.

if profit is the driving force behind most human endeavors, as typified by capitalism, and technology has exponentially expanded both our reach and our intake of information then i believe it is fair to say each person is faced with more bullshit today than ever before.

selling anything very nearly necessitates bullshit and television, radio, the internet, etc, which statistically each of us spend more time engaged with than ever before, are models run on advertising revenue. hence our (statistically greater amounts of) leisure time is spent absorbing huge quantities of bullshit.

i think the brute measure of “intake per time” must be considered. we can each individually absorb as much bullshit in 10 minutes of internet time as a man in 1460 might come across in an hour of wandering the market. and that’s not even taking into account the proliferation of advertising into non-commercial space. so even if we assume bullshit as a constant each of us is faced with more of it in any given time period.

of course bullshit is not limited to matters of commerce. as frankfurt mentions in his book it is part of general discourse.

we might also think of it then in this way: democracy and ideas of equality can by definition increase the amount of bullshit. sound’s awful but hear me out on a strictly mathematical level. there was a time, not long ago, when whole swaths of the population were not expected to “know” much. their opinions were not sought after, their outlook not valued, their voice not appreciated. women for instance were not consulted on matters of business, or philosophy, or state. in america blacks were not consulted on matters of, well… anything.

in our democratic and equal present each person is theoretically just as likely as another to “know” about any given subject. broader knowledge on everything is available but the likelihood is not greater that anyone would actually possess it. people have more choice in what knowledge they pursue but that does not diminish the odds for specialization.

it would seem to me that mathematically, when every voice must be heard on every subject the chances for bullshit are much greater. not because knowledge can (or ought) to be divided on lines like sex or race but because the ideals of equality and democracy, statistically at least, would seem to allow for more discourse by people on subjects they know nothing about.

not everyone can know about evolutionary biology for example, but that does not stop those ignorant on the subject from speaking about it (at length) in a democratic and equal society.

let me list a few words and phrases here:

spam / media / news / ratings / commercials / t.v. / movies / blockbusters / blurbs / actors / awards /  rappers / public personas / models / celebrity / tabloids / cosmetic surgery / professional athletes / pharmaceuticals / “age defying” / diets / “anti-balding” / tell all books / p.r. / advertising / marketing / focus groups / engineered obsolescence / packaging / sloganeering / rhetoric / politicians / talking points / press secretary / partisanism / pork barrel / lawyers / law suits / ambulance chasers / loopholes / war on drugs / war on terror / wmd / “no child left behind” / “haters of freedom” / conspiracy / political correctness…

those are just a few things which pop into my head for whatever reason. if i took time to try and make a comprehensive list of things which came to mind on the subject of bullshit in modern life the list would likely be 10 times as long. if i were to attempt to catalog all the possible causes of bullshit, or all the reasons i believe it is running rampant, this post would also be 10 times as long. but that’s not really my aim.

let me get back to my question: what effect does bullshit have on the people barraged with it? anyone have any ideas? what are the effects of the ubiquity of bullshit?

• do we lose the ability to differentiate between truth and lies because the field is crowded with this smoke screen of bullshit?

• do we become more skeptical, working under the assumption that everything is bullshit, in an effort to distance ourselves from it?

• do we become less open and engaged because we are trying so hard to shut all the bullshit out?

• do we become more and more cynical?

• do we simply get sucked in and become unrepentant bullshitters ourselves?

• do we find it easier to swallow big lies because we are so used to the little ones?

• are we less outraged at true injustice? are we less scandalized by scandal because we are so used to shrugging off bullshit?

• do we lose faith in the idea of “truth” in general? (is post modernism a cause or an effect in regard to higher levels of bullshit?)

• do we stop valuing truth because it’s so frustratingly hard to discern?

• do we become so confused that we stop listening to “experts” and start relying on our own instincts? even in cases where it is detrimental to do so?

• do we become less trusting of humanity on the whole?

• does our opinion of our fellow man diminish in dangerous ways as a result?

• do we assume everyone else is full of shit?

• do we take bullshit as a given a pre-judge anyone unfamiliar to us as a charlatan and enemy?

• does the constant working of the set of intellectual muscles involved make us less tolerant?

• do we fracture into ever smaller groups who happen to share the same views?

• do we become more insular?

• do we become bitter and angry at the sensation of being lied to and bullshitted at every turn?

• does it become harder to connect with our fellow man?

• does it raise our anxiety and stress levels as a species?

• do we take out our anger at being bullshitted constantly on those who don’t deserve it? on strangers or loved ones?

• do our short lives become less enjoyable?

i ask these questions in all seriousness. i know that, personally, i find myself cursing at the television (be it ad spot, politician, or pundit) a lot. i find myself getting pissed off at advertising just about everywhere. i get pissed off by that feeling of having your intelligence insulted by every bit of text on a poster, every sound byte, every slogan, every attempt to convince me of some nonsense. i get annoyed at people for being “friendly” when it smacks of bullshit (think fake smile, small talk, obligatory hello.) i fear i’m becoming ever more cynical, that my fuse is getting shorter, that i have zero patience for a sales pitch or any other disingenuous slab of banter, and that, if possible, i “suffer fools even less gladly” than ever before. i have to assume i am not the only one.

i want to know what the effect on the bullshit which surrounds us has on our psyche. i want to know if it’s causing damage culturally and as a species in general. and if so i want to know why we are so tolerant of it?

Frankfurt’s book is a nice starting point and i recommend it to anyone who hasn’t read it yet. i think, however, that this is a serious subject which deserves further scrutiny.

anyone with any ideas on the subject is encouraged to share them. even if you think this whole post is a bunch of bullshit. ones man’s thoughts are always anothers bullshit. that’s the nature of the stinky infuriating beast.