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  • From: "Sorren Thule" <sorren23 AT nc.rr.com>
  • To: "RTP-area local music and culture" <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: I think this guy...
  • Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2005 15:27:06 -0500

(((((((((hugs)))))))))) to you Chris

----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Calloway" <ifoufo AT yahoo.com>
To: "RTP-area local music and culture" <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 3:22 PM
Subject: Re: I think this guy...


--- Never call me Phil <philipayers AT yahoo.com> wrote:
I love the resume, back from the root page (moreBS)
were he lists

That "he" to whom you refer is the website owner,
Jelks H. Cabaniss, just another web dweeb like us
(although he does provide us the service of
republishing this nice essay and seems to be aware of
the limitations of the format by also providing a
mirror for the beloved "Postmodern Thesis Generator,"
Haiku Writer, Poetry Creat0r2, and other fun stuff),
not the OBS author, Harry Frankfurt, who is the
Romanell-Phi Beta Kappa Professor of Philosophy at
Princeton after having been a lecturer in the Law
School and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Yale
for a number of years (he "went" to Johns Hopkins) and
was past President of the American Philosophical
Association. But then, you knew that, you shit
slinger, you. :)

Wittgenstein he ain't, thank dog. Wittgenstein wrote
in riddles and threw tantrums about jargon.

Frankfurt is, however, an acadmic and writes in
jargon-packed academese, yes, for a reason (because he
went to Princeton?). But don't think twice, it's
alright. The essay predates Fox News (although
recently republished in book length form), but
describes it well enough. You could have written this
yourself, no problem, with one million monkeys
clicking submit on the Postmodern Thesis Generator.
That's kind of the point of his saying, "One of the
most salient features of our culture is that there is
so much bullshit. Everyone knows this." You know this
already, too, but don't think twice about it often,
because it's annoying and erodes your misplaced
confidence is your ability to locate truth, and would
be an energy drain if you did, so it is more
entertaining to complain about this or that most
adjacent manifestation of bullshit than try to pick it
apart, which might make more sense to do *before*
applying your arguments to, say, the constant bombardment of bullshit from the media, especially
advertising:

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2005/01/24/PM200501244.html

if it wouldn't be a waste of precious time.

And you are OK to question horseshit vs bullshit. Such
questions are suggested by the essay in when he goes
to the OED for a definition of bullshit. I think you
should write an essay and expound upon your sentences.
At what point is bullshit conflated into horseshit?
Are there justifications for that? Are there bullshit
justifications for that? Just why would that be
important? You could make it more entertaining by
tying into the Social Security "debate." At what point
did pension reform become perjorative and was that
necessary? All in the spirit of discussion, of course,
unless slinging shit at backwoods bands is preferable.

And he did expand on one sentence from Max Black, who
didn't have much to say about Fox News, either, because after saying, "Everyone knows this," Frankfurt
goes on to say, "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,"
which is kind of like saying, "the constant
bombardment of bullshit from the media, especially
advertising, is infectious like a virus, and that the need to filter
everything you say, read and hear, even from your
friends, through a bullshit detector, is wearing, it's
an energy drain, it's annoying and it actually _erodes

the location of truth_ over time, making non-bullshit
as an object/entity harder and harder to locate *or
generate*, which is one of the tragedies of having to suffer through life in current American
anti-culture," in a less obtuse and less narrow
fashion without giving it over to this or that
particular cultural intention (if though that's what
Frankfurt is known for, being the daddy of the "if
could not have done otherwise" school of free will.)

So many options. Not enough choices. I'm sincere!

3






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