In his seminal essay On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt seeks to show the difference between lies and bullshit. He argues that lying requires subversion of the truth, that one needs to at least think he knows the truth before lying. On the other hand, bullshit does not care if the truth exists. It is indifferent to the truth. This means that it is easier to come up with BS than lies. And you are likely to get away with it.
We are all guilty of BS every now and then. When comforting people, we often tell them that “everything is going to be alright”. That’s just some low-grade BS. Of course, we don’t know if everything is going to be alright. No one knows. And we are not interested in finding out if everything will be alright.
Such kind of BS is however not as harmful as the BS we see in serious matters such as healthcare, education and unemployment.
When the government says that they are solving the unemployment problem by shipping young, industrous and intelligent kenyans to the gulf for menial jobs. That bullshit.
Many government policies are bullshit wrapped in kizungu mingi.
If a person is in a position to find out the truth, but does not care to do so. He is a bullshit peddler. Many politicians and bureaucrats are full of it.
Bullshit generates a lot of smoke that obscures the truth.
Blind of obedience and a lack of imagination.
That is the fodder that feeds the BS we see in our society.
Life is life
Fabio