Bullshit Is A Greater Enemy

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.

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.

Bullshit Is Unavoidable Whenever Circumstance Require Someone To Talk Without Knowing What He Is Talking About.

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.

As A Philosopher, I'm Not Obliged To Explore Every Unknown Wilderness.