Sunday, October 7, 2012

Indifferent To The Truth: Bullshitters

Excerpt from On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt:

It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction. A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and he is to that extent respectful of it. 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 eyes 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.
- via Wikipedia
Harry raises an interesting question: Why are we so tolerant of bullshit? As a manager, do you treat bullshitters differently than liars?

A lesson in self-awareness: We fabricate bull**** because we are tying to impress. I can identify with that - - you?

Fascinating.


- great video

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