This has just moved to the top of my reading list. It explains an awful lot about the neo-conservative movement, FOX "news," and this administration. What it doesn't explain (or, at least what this review doesn't explain--I'm hopeful the book will) is why people believe bullshit.
Available from Princeton University Press
"Telling a lie is an act with a sharp focus. It is designed to insert a particular falsehood at a specific point in a set or system of beliefs, in order to avoid the consequences of having that point occupied by the truth. This requires a degree of craftsmanship, in which the teller of the lie submits to objective constraints imposed by what he takes to be the truth. The liar is inescapably concerned with truth-values. In order to invent a lie at all, he must think he knows what is true. And in order to invent an effective lie, he must design his falsehood under the guidance of that truth. On the other hand, a person who undertakes to bullshit his way through has much more freedom. His focus is panoramic rather than particular. He does not limit himself to inserting a certain falsehood at a specific point, and thus he is not constrained by the truths surrounding that point or intersecting it. He is prepared to fake the context as well, so far as need requires."
3 comments:
I have a suggestion, if you consider yourself educated, why not just use words that exist. Neo-conservative is not a word in case you did'nt know that. /Aspermates
If it's not a word, how did you just manage to use it?
LOL!!!
From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
neoconservative
Main Entry: neo·con·ser·va·tive
Pronunciation: \ˌnē-ō-kən-ˈsər-və-tiv\
Function: noun
Date: 1952
1 : a former liberal espousing political conservatism
2 : a conservative who advocates the assertive promotion of democracy and United States national interest in international affairs including through military means
— neo·con·ser·va·tism \-və-ˌti-zəm\ noun
— neoconservative adjective
Now can I use the word "neo-conservative???
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