Comments on: Bullshit: a modern art form, and more harmful than lies http://dublinopinion.com/2008/10/06/bullshit-a-modern-art-form-and-more-harmful-than-lies/ It's a group blog. What more do you need to know? Tue, 22 May 2012 21:47:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: S. Kerr http://dublinopinion.com/2008/10/06/bullshit-a-modern-art-form-and-more-harmful-than-lies/#comment-68633 S. Kerr Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:29:00 +0000 http://dublinopinion.com/2008/10/06/bullshit-a-modern-art-form-and-more-harmful-than-lies/#comment-68633 Dear Gerry, I haven't read Frankfurt on bullshit, but I'm not sure I agree with the idea that bullshit is an inherently new phenomenon. For one it takes for granted the perspective we have gained on nature through science in the past hundred years. Even from some of the most remote places on Earth people now have access to via the Internet to essential truths about what we really are. Church and state can no longer claim definitive authority on the nature of world around us (though I realise this is simplifying things to an extent…) If I was going to hammer out a rough theory on the origins of the current culture of bullshit, I'd say it is a kind of feedback effect originating from the sudden occurrence of mass access to a global multi-media. The natural inclination towards reporting favourably on ourselves added to the various new modes of communication through which this self reporting is possible, have caused a kind of feedback effect ,akin to someone speaking too close to the microphone. An important thing to note is that Sarah Palin was found out, bullshit is democratic, we can all take part and therefore all have a good level of expertise in it. Bullshit cannot function as a modus operandi in the long run as the global financial hoo ha would seem to indicate, and through the lens of history it can be easily found out. A lie on the other hand can last forever. A lie (and I would define state censorship as lying) on the other hand is profoundly undemocratic. I saw a recent documentary on the "tank man" of the Tiananmen Square massacre, wherein some Chinese students were shown the famous image and none of them recognised it. How truly odd that the rest of the world knows more about Chinese history than China itself? But of course if China doesn't know about it, then it has no effect on China, the Tank Man is therefore not part of Chinese history. In short a lie can erase history, bullshit may be able to from time to time change history (such as The US supreme court verdict in Harris vs. Gore) but it can't delete it. A lie can start a war but bullshit can keep one from happening. Dear Gerry,

I haven’t read Frankfurt on bullshit, but I’m not sure I agree with the idea that bullshit is an inherently new phenomenon. For one it takes for granted the perspective we have gained on nature through science in the past hundred years. Even from some of the most remote places on Earth people now have access to via the Internet to essential truths about what we really are. Church and state can no longer claim definitive authority on the nature of world around us (though I realise this is simplifying things to an extent…)

If I was going to hammer out a rough theory on the origins of the current culture of bullshit, I’d say it is a kind of feedback effect originating from the sudden occurrence of mass access to a global multi-media. The natural inclination towards reporting favourably on ourselves added to the various new modes of communication through which this self reporting is possible, have caused a kind of feedback effect ,akin to someone speaking too close to the microphone. An important thing to note is that Sarah Palin was found out, bullshit is democratic, we can all take part and therefore all have a good level of expertise in it.

Bullshit cannot function as a modus operandi in the long run as the global financial hoo ha would seem to indicate, and through the lens of history it can be easily found out. A lie on the other hand can last forever.

A lie (and I would define state censorship as lying) on the other hand is profoundly undemocratic. I saw a recent documentary on the “tank man” of the Tiananmen Square massacre, wherein some Chinese students were shown the famous image and none of them recognised it. How truly odd that the rest of the world knows more about Chinese history than China itself? But of course if China doesn’t know about it, then it has no effect on China, the Tank Man is therefore not part of Chinese history. In short a lie can erase history, bullshit may be able to from time to time change history (such as The US supreme court verdict in Harris vs. Gore) but it can’t delete it.

A lie can start a war but bullshit can keep one from happening.

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