On Bullshit (Frankfurt’s Short Treatise)

A discovery at Books, etc. at the Angel yielded an unusually interesting personal reward last week: a tiny hardbound book and treatise on bullshit written by Harry G. Frankfurt (Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Princeton). A quick read (less than an hour on nightshift) goes a short way to explain the essence of bullshit of which there is abundance in our lifetime, thanks in part to the information age. By way of Wittgenstein, Ezra Pound and St. Augustine, Frankfurt proceeds to explain that bullshit is born from a necessity to express an opinion on something that we all too often know nothing or little about. According to Frankfurt liars respect the authority of truth (they respond respectfully to the truth), but bullshitters have scant regard for the truth. They misrepresent what they are up to, irrespective of the truthfulness of their facts. This leads him to conclude that (2005: 61) bullshit is the “greater enemy of the truth than lies are”.

Now there is something to be said about the abundance of bullshit in our age. We see it on T.V. , we hear it on the radio and occasionally it finds its way into government policy documents. Whether it is Bush, Blair or Mugabe (all are bullshitters par excellence) or Mbeki's bullshit about the causes of HIV/AIDS. A worthy treatise and excellent guide for those who are in search of the truth, whatever it is.

Frankfurt, Harry G. 2005. On Bullshit. Princeton University Press: Princeton & Oxford.

How did he do that?

"John Webb (Carte Blanche presenter): 'The Knysna police station doesn't have a very good reputation. It is widely believed to be corrupt and inefficient. In fact, one of its officers (Selwyn Bruiners) was arrested for drug dealing. He was suspended on full pay for two years, only to be reinstated and then promoted.' ... Inspector Selwyn Bruiners is a real crack cop. He's been on the force for fifteen years, eight of those as a drug addict - starting with Mandrax and then going all out on crack cocaine ..."

Selwyn replied after his arrest: "Not really. I was shocked, to be honest with you. I was shocked. Getting promoted after being suspended for two years with a full salary and all of a sudden they read my rights to me. And I know the public as well, they were shocked because a lot of my friends asked me, 'How did you get that right?' "

Source: http://www.carteblanche.co.za/Display/Display.asp?Id=3038

Comment: There was a good reason why I left the South African Police Service after eight years service. At the time I left, I was as a so-called non-designated person (read white, male and 30 something) and consequently with the bleak prospect of promotion. Five years later I have no regrets, except that I feel all but the greatest empathy for those dedicated police officers who are excluded from promotion on the basis of their race, gender and age and obedience to the law, irrespective of their skills, qualifications and most important of all their dedicated service to the communities of South Africa.

To Selwyn: You're a loser and a shame to the South Africa Police Service!

On a happy ending: Selwyn has been "suspended from the South African police service without salary or benefits."

South Africa - Annual Visit

I spent a lot of my time in bookshops and walking through the changed (still changing) city centre of Pretoria like the days of old. Reorganised my hoards of dusty books. Read Dan Roodt's translation of Stephen Smith's Negrology and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Met up with lots of friends (and sadly missed a few) and departed with a hole in my heart. No, there were no hijackers that caused that. It was just the big verlange! Now I'm back and all ready for my next adventure. Somewhere. Probably by way of teaching English and / or the (Anglo-Saxon) evangelism of secularism to the predominently unenlightened world lest humankind slips back into the dark ages. Tall order, I know.

Me having a lekker groot brannewyn & diet coke at home (Feb 2006)!