The Counter-deception Blog

SAY ANYTHING

Three books find truth under cultural and conceptual assault.

by JIM HOLT

New Yorker issue of 2005-08-22

http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/articles/050822crat_atlarge

Sample:

However one feels about the authority of truth, there is a separate reason for deploring bullsh*t; namely, that most bullsh*t is ugly. When it takes the form of political propaganda, management-speak, or P.R., it is riddled with euphemism, cliché, fake folksiness, and high-sounding abstractions. The aesthetic dimension of bullsh*t is largely ignored in Frankfurt's essay. Yet much of what we call poetry consists of trite or false ideas in sublime language. (Oscar Wilde, in his dialogue “The Decay of Lying,” suggests that the proper aim of art is “the telling of beautiful untrue things.”) Bullsh*tting can involve an element of artistry; it offers, as Frankfurt acknowledges, opportunities for “improvisation, color, and imaginative play.” When the bullsh*tting is done from an ulterior motive, like the selling of a product or the manipulation of an electorate, the outcome is likely to be a ghastly abuse of language. When it is done for its own sake, however, something delightful just might result. The paradigm here is Falstaff, whose refusal to be enslaved by the authority of truth is central to his comic genius. Falstaff's merry mixture of philosophy and bullsh*t is what makes him such a clubbable man, far better company than the dour Wittgenstein. We should by all means be severe in dealing with bullsh*tters of the political, the commercial, and the academic varieties. But let's not banish plump Jack.

[Thanks to Bea O for forwarding this]