Two interesting stories today from NPR:
*This one is about the brutal fight currently going on between Clinton and Obama, both of whom are making a lot of accusations towards the other.
*This one is about Robert Lewis and his compiling of every lie told by senior White House officials between Sept 11, 2001 and Sept 11, 2003.
What do these two stories have in common? They are both about political bullshit - this insane desire to get what is wanted no matter the cost to truth, integrity, self, or other.
Here's what Henry Frankfurt has to say about this in On Bullshit:
"When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements to be false. For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyse of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose."
Ponder that, my friends.
Peace,
Matt
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3 comments:
I like this. And so if the age old saying, "you can't bullshit a bullshitter" is true, then I guess the Clinton-Obama feud is going to go nowhere. But I guess I already knew that.
So, do you know who you'll vote for?
No, I really just don't know. I used to have so many opinions on this, but now I just see so many negatives with every candidate. I guess I'm waiting to have an opinion until after the primaries.
I'm waiting to see who my church says to vote for and then I'll have my candidate!!!
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