It Is Only Because A

It Is Impossible For Someone To Lie Unless He Thinks He Knows The Truth. Producing Bullshit Requires No Such Conviction.

Someone Who Lies And Someone Who Tells The Truth Are Playing On Opposite Sides, So To Speak, In The Same Game. Each Responds To The Facts As He Understands Them, Although The Response Of The One Is Guided By The Authority Of The Truth, While The Response Of The Other Defies That Authority And Refuses To Meet Its Demands. The Bullshitter Ignores These Demands Altogether. 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.

Bullshit Is A Greater Enemy Of The Truth Than Lies Are.

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.