A while ago, I wrote a couple of posts about Henry Frankfurt's terrific little book, On Bullshit. Since then, I've come across several more interesting points of view about the book.
Several stand out.
Here's a great post by a designer who achieved the exalted status of "designated bullshitter" in his firm. While others were more proficient designers, he was the one who'd tell the client the story that sold the deal. Always with a soupcon of BS. Read it, it's fun.
And then I remembered a great moment in dealing with my mother. A workingclass storyteller herself, Josie recognized good BS when she heard it. Her own mother was a mythic bullshitter. Once, while in graduate school studying to be a clinical psychologist, my mother was upset with me and said, "don't give me any of your bullshit psychology." At the time I was probably aloof, supercilious and mildly disdainful of her inability to grasp the subtle nuances of human nature I was being trained to plumb.
Today, I realize she was probably right on the button.
Much of psychology is bullshit; superficial understanding of complex matters; smooth rationalization of impenetrable motivation; fast-talking, ex-post-facto explanations of things we'd rather not have to explain. Much of it designed to get you to see me as a sympathetic figure. Not all of it, mind you, but plenty.
And then, there's Chris Locke, whose Chief Blogging Officer is one of the more intriguing corners of blogoworld. In this post, he weighs in on Frankfurt's book and continues his in-depth exploration of the relationship between New Ageism, a twitchy strain of psychoanalysis, eugenics (although not specifically in this post), and anti-Semetism. Got that? That's Locke's particular kind of genius.
And finally, Morley Safer discovered On Bullshit tonight on 60 Minutes and conducted an interview with Frankfurt, Jon Stewart and others. The upshot: as a culture, we're full of it!
I guess this didn't turn out to be as organized as I intended it but the point is this: awash in images and fairy tales of all stripes and flavors, it's exceedingly difficult for us to refrain from engaging in daily bullshit.
What this will do to us in the short and long run is hard to predict. Besides, the prediction itself would probably be bullshit.
thanks for the good words!
of course, everything I write is *total* bullshit.
including this. ;-)
Posted by: clocke | May 23, 2005 at 04:17 AM
Ah, self-referentiality by the CBO! Thanks for stopping by, Chris.
Posted by: Tom Guarriello | May 23, 2005 at 07:56 AM