Bullshit Is A Greater Enemy Of The

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 Was Raised In Brooklyn And In Baltimore. My Father Was A Bookkeeper. When I Was 36 Years Old, My Mother Told Me I Was Adopted.

It Is Impossible For Someone To Lie Unless He Thinks He Knows The Truth. A Person Who Lies Is Thereby Responding To The Truth, And He Is To That Extent Respectful Of It.

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.

It Is Only Because A Person Has Volitions Of The Second Order That He Is Capable Both Of Enjoying And Of Lacking Freedom Of The Will.