Bullshit Is A Greater Enemy Of The

Recognizing Truth Requires Selflessness. You Have To Leave Yourself Out Of It So You Can Find Out The Way Things Are In Themselves, Not The Way They Look To You Or How You Feel About Them Or How You Would Like Them To Be.

It Is Only Because A Person Has Volitions Of The Second Order That He Is Capable Both Of Enjoying And Of Lacking Freedom Of The Will.

Bullshit Is Unavoidable When 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 Exceed His Knowledge Of The Facts That Are Relevant To That Topic. This Discrepancy Is Common In Public Life, Where People Are Frequently Impelled-whether By Their Own Propensities Or By The Demands Of Others - To Speak Extensively About Matters Of Which They Are To Some Degree Ignorant.

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, Or Attracted Much Sustained Inquiry. In Consequence, We Have No Clear Understanding Of What Bullshit Is, Why There Is So Much Of It, Or What Functions It Serves.

I Used To Teach At Yale, Which Was At One Time A Center Of Postmodernist Literary Theory. Derrida Was There. Paul De Man Was There.