On Bullshit
In his recent book, On Bullshit, Princeton Professor Harry Frankfurt comments on the different shades of 'untruth'. It is generally recognized that all civilizations depend on a solid foundation of 'truth' and 'truth recognition', without which they would ultimately collapse. Yet Frankurt makes an interesting contrast between the "liar" and the "bullshitter". The liar tends to distort the truth all the time, while the bullshitter will use only truth and falsity in the degree to which they will propel his aims. Ironically, people tend to show greater hatred of 'lying' than of 'bullshitting', despite the fact that the liar tends to be consistent while the bullshitter erratically so (depending on the circumstance). The PNP party in Puerto Rico--Jose Aponte, Pedro Rossello, and many others--have been clearly demonstrating Frankfurt's ideas before the general public. Despite the fact that Anibal Acevedo Vila is confronting the issues at hand, which if unresolved would gravely affect the island's bond credit rating, Aponte keeps a number of rhetorical excuses to avoid doing so--acting as if he were a country hick who is totally clueless as to what is actually going on around him. At one point he disputed the numbers, and now he is claiming the executive inflated the budget; Santini on the other hand alleges workers "constitutional rights are being waived" and hence will be taking the governor to court. What a sheer mockery of the responsibilities they have been awarded. It is too bad that the generation who lived through the Great Depression and World War II is no longer with us; they would not have allowed this chicanery to have gone on as long as it has.