[lbo-talk] Imus

Jerry Monaco monacojerry at gmail.com
Fri Apr 13 17:02:43 PDT 2007


On 4/13/07, Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
>
> [WS:] .... I did not say that I refuted leftist
> positions, mainly because most of them are bullshit (as defined by Harry
> Frankfurt) that cannot be confirmed or refuted....
>
> Wojtek
>

Woj,

What in the hell is your recent obsession with Harry Frankfurt's amusing and bogus little essay "On Bullshit"?

I mean you are like some leftist who once read Marx's "Eighteenth Brumaire" and analyzes all political events by its terms. (Bush is a Bonapartist you know, or perhaps the "imperial presidency is a bonapartist phenomena.) At one time your obsessional tic was "path dependence" and at another time it was "sheeple". Well leave that be..... My question now is --- Why Frankfurt's silly bullshit? What made you think that you can analyze everything you hate by reference to it?

Sure a good analysis of bullshit is not a bad idea. Zeus knows a philosophical look at everyday phenomena, gossip, bullshit, cliche, "niceness", "meanness," self-deception, smiles, handshakes, etc. is more useful than what many philosophers write about and Frankfurt should be commended for looking at an everyday phenomena such as "bullshit". But the guy can't see around the corner or tell the difference between a con artist and a vast industry of public relations, or the difference between the needful bullshit of gossip and the bullshit of hucksterism. Or (to lead into a piece of bullshit self-promotion) Frankfurt can't tell the difference between "retail" and "wholesale" bullshit and thus misses why the production of bullshit is an industry in our society and might have been a form of social networking in other societies.....

But see my little review _Retail & Wholesale Bullshit: Criticism & Quotes on Frankfurt's 'On Bullshit"_ http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/31891.html

Of course I'm bullshitting you a little.

Jerry



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