On Bullshit
Importance: 2 | # | philosophy, terminology
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. 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.
Frankfurt draws a distinction between lying and bullshitting. One lies when one is aware of the truth and intends to misrepresent it. A bullshitter is not concerned about the truth — at all. The liar recognizes the truth, is constrained by the truth. The bullshitter does not care. So bullshit need not be false.
We as a society are also more tolarant of bullshit than lies. It is more excusable. It feels like less of a personal affront. Frankfort argues that bullshit is more sinister than lying — because of the indifference to truth.
Someone who lies and someone who tells the truth are playing on opposite sides, so to speak, in the same game. Each responds to the facts as he understands them, although the response of the one is guided by the authority of the truth, while the response of the other defies that authority and refuses to meet its demands. The bullshitter ignores these demands altogether. He 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.
MBAs are said to have bullshitting as a job requirement, and Frankfurt captures it here:
Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person’s obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic are more extensive than his knowledge of the facts that are relevant to that topic.
The liar knows the rules, and thus can break it. The bullshitter is indifferent.
Never tell a lie when you can bullshit your way through.