That's Bull
I think we all need a refresher course on how to call BS. And maybe also on how to avoid becoming artisans of the stinky medium ourselves.
Forty years ago, a professor from Princeton was frustrated by the growing prevalence of bullshit artists in the student body, so he wrote a wonderful essay with the not-very-academic title On Bullshit. It is a masterpiece, really. Despite the intentionally crude title, Dr. Frankfurt laid out a brilliant and prescient analysis … decades before banal social media, amateur journalism, and anti-intellectual tribal leadership became the knee-deep stockyard slop through which we all trudge daily.
Here’s my twist on the professor’s tests for recognizing when something is BS:
Instrumental: The primary criterion a speaker uses when choosing a statement is whether it achieves a desired effect, not whether it is true or false.
Proudly Ignorant: The speaker regards mastery of facts as unnecessary, placing higher value on his/her unique intuition and opinion.
Self-aggrandizing: The speaker’s primary goal is to convey an impressive image of the self, to elevate the speaker relative to the listener.
Let’s frame those definitions into questions we can ask ourselves when someone communicates with us in our daily lives (and also to ask ourselves before we communicate with others):
Is the speaker characterizing a problem as existential, such that all costs become irrelevant when determining what should be done? Stinky.
Does it seem that the speaker, rather than the topic, is the focal point of this conversation? Stinky.
Is the speaker essentially saying, “trust me”, asking us to rely on their unique personal sense of how to solve this problem? Stinky.
Does the speaker claim that the problem is too complicated to explain in a way that you can understand, so they are not even going to try? Stinky.
Does the speaker acknowledge facts, opinions, or understanding of others that do not support his/her position, without reducing them to strawman caricatures? If not, Stinky.
Does the speaker express any sort of humility or regret at the incompleteness of their knowledge and explicitly invite others to contribute new information and options even if those would contradict or modify the speaker’s present position? If not, Stinky.
Why This is Important
It is not good for humans to live alone. We need each other to help us navigate reality via sense perceptions that are often hard to distinguish from delusion. Thus, Community depends upon a Shared Sense of Objective Reality. By ignoring truth-v-falsehood, BS devalues and corrodes our Shared Sense of Objective Reality, which even liars acknowledge by trying to hide it. That is why BS is worse than lies. So, whatever harsh reaction you express toward lying, you should express an even harsher reaction toward BS.
Have a great week, and watch where you step!
Scott
ps. The professor published a book in 2005 based on the 1986 essay. You can get it here at Amazon. Fun little book. Enjoy.
Keep reading on this theme…