No I have not, but I like Amazon's review; indeed Mr. Bush must therefore know something about bullshit if what he does is to simply ignore the facts. We put in office a man who wanted to hear some magic words from the CIA and as soon as he heard them, he felt justified in relying on them. They said weapons in Iraq was a "slam dunk" and that was all Bush needed to hear, end of story.
We only have ourselves to blame for this. We elected him. In fact, if we didn't elect him the first time, we re-elected him. And if Ohio was corrupted, it's still our fault - we didn't protest loud enough.
I agree, bullshit is more dangerous than lying. Lying is somewhat detectable; bullshit is harder to pin down. Nixon lied, Bush bullshitted. And bullshit is probably not an impeachable offense although it should be. Maybe we need a "Bullshit Amendment" to the Constitution, but it would never pass the bullshit Senate.
It's all bullshit isn't it?
Editorial Reviews
"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit," Harry G. Frankfurt writes, in what must surely be the most eyebrow-raising opener in modern philosophical prose. "Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted." This compact little book, as pungent as the phenomenon it explores, attempts to articulate a theory of this contemporary scourge--what it is, what it does, and why there's so much of it. The result is entertaining and enlightening in almost equal measure. It can't be denied; part of the book's charm is the puerile pleasure of reading classic academic discourse punctuated at regular intervals by the word "bullshit." More pertinent is Frankfurt's focus on intentions--the practice of bullshit, rather than its end result. Bullshitting, as he notes, is not exactly lying, and bullshit remains bullshit whether it's true or false. The difference lies in the bullshitter's complete disregard for whether what he's saying corresponds to facts in the physical world: he "does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are."
This may sound all too familiar to those of use who still live in the "reality-based community" and must deal with a world convulsed by those who do not. But Frankfurt leaves such political implications to his readers. Instead, he points to one source of bullshit's unprecedented expansion in recent years, the postmodern skepticism of objective truth in favor of sincerity, or as he defines it, staying true to subjective experience. But what makes us think that anything in our nature is more stable or inherent than what lies outside it? Thus, Frankfurt concludes, with an observation as tiny and perfect as the rest of this exquisite book, "sincerity itself is bullshit." --Mary Park
