Introduction
Of the many words used to describe the features of our culture, the word “bullshit” appears to be one of the harshest and yet strangely sincere ones. The omnipresence of this “bullshit” in our lives is dwelled upon in the essay “On Bullshit” by Harry G. Frankfurt. The author states that a great part of our lives is taken up by bullshit and we could hardly disagree with this idea. It becomes crushingly obvious that people are surrounded by bullshit and do not attempt to change the state of affairs, believing it to be natural or, possibly, convenient.
Main body
The essay, structured as a research paper, is mostly devoted to defining the term “bullshit”, and the first paragraph, which is the one we are going to analyze, is used to describe the problem and the author’s aim. It states that while the “bullshit” is omnipresent and most people are aware of its existence, it is considered to be a natural part of our lives (Frankfurt 1). While the nature of the phenomenon will be described in detail on the following pages, the abstract under analysis states a number of reasons as to why the author decided to address the issue in the first place, the primary of them being the ubiquity of bullshit.
The term “bullshit”, as described by Frankfurt, could be defined as blatant and intentional lies. The word is labeled as “vulgar slang” in the Oxford dictionary (par 2). The contrast between the scholarly character of the essay and this vulgar word is quite harsh, which is bound to attract the attention of the reader. It adds a certain “comic flavor” to the paper, but it also appears to imply that the author could not find another, milder, and more universally accepted word for the phenomenon he is describing. This presupposes a certain degree of “honesty”: as if by stating what the phenomenon should truly be named in his opinion, the author prevents “bullshit” from appearing in his own work.
Frankfurt starts by defining bullshit as a most noticeable or a “most salient” feature of the modern human culture, emphasizing the all-pervading character of this feature along with its importance (1). Another important “characteristics” of bullshit is that its existence is not a secret: this can also be deduced from the adjective “salient”, but it is also directly stated by the author. According to Frankfurt, people know that their life is full of bullshit, but they regard it as a normal course of events (1). As a result, they do not attempt to change the current situation and, what is more important, they find it possible to “contribute” to the production of bullshit, which explains why the amount of it in everyday life is so great. This fact has another implication though: since every person is capable of producing bullshit, people tend to believe that they are capable of detecting bullshit and this helps them to content themselves with this state of events. Being certain that they are smart enough to keep themselves safe from harm that bullshit may inflict, people do not find it necessary to fight bullshit in any shape or form. Finding bullshit harmless or useful, people may either choose to ignore it or deliberately increase its amount.
Finally, the author states that there is another reason for the fact that bullshit is allowed free reign in modern society. It is the lack of theoretical knowledge about it. People appear to be arrogant enough to believe that there is no need for them to investigate the forms and sorts of bullshit that prohibit them from directing their efforts to research and describe this phenomenon. This leads to ignorance and eventually to the deterioration of the situation: those who want to fight bullshit are destined to fail since they have no information and no chance of choosing a suitable weapon and a proper strategy to aid them in the battle. Having explained the state of affairs, and in order to change it, the author intends to provide the reader with a proper description of bullshit, which is the aim of his essay as it is stated in the analyzed paragraph.
Conclusion
Joking aside, it may be concluded that the message that appears to be hidden in the described paragraph is transparent and thought-provoking. The problem of blatant lies finding their way in every corner of human life is addressed by Frankfurt with honesty bordering on rudeness. The essay was very well received and became a bestseller which proves that this question has been occupying the minds of people for some time already (Belfiore 343-345). It does appear that bullshit has wormed its way into every part of our lives, including those where it can cause serious problems, for example, politics or science. Therefore, it is not surprising that essays like this one appear in an attempt to address the issue and direct the attention of people towards this problem.
Works Cited
Belfiore, Eleonora. “On Bullshit In Cultural Policy Practice And Research: Notes From The British Case.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 15.3 (2009): 343-359. Web. 2015.
Frankfurt, Harry G. On Bullshit. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005. Print.
Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press, 2015. Web.