On Bullshit

Given the title, maybe surprisingly (or predictably?) non-factual. Not nearly as concise as the physical book would make you expect.

What begins as superbly written tongue-in-cheek joke about the nature of bullshit rapidly transforms into a philosophical inquiry into lying, deception, and human nature.

This felt like a single long university lecture. First, the author discussed the linguistic differential of bullshit and its commonly used synonyms. Then it gravitated towards the psychological aspect of bullshitting and how it differs from the psychology and philosophy of lying. The book wasn't something that I expected it to be, sometimes the repeating concept seemed to be a little annoying but overall I got a good idea of detecting the general basic level of bullshit, which is one of the most prevalent problems of our society today.

3.75 stars out of 5

“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, nor 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.”

This book serves to pull apart what bullshit is, from its etymology, to its relationship to truth and its difference from lying, to the purpose it serves us. It's philosophical, but not dense, and interesting in that I hadn't though much about what bullshit is prior to this reading (which, I guess, bullshitters rarely do), despite the fact that I readily dole it out (...) and often feel like I'm on the receiving end of it. Generally speaking, we throw around words a lot without considering the nuance of their function and meaning, so this was a fun exercise in diving into a word. Plus, isn't it a bit meta to write a whole damn essay on the meaning of bullshit?

২৮ পেজের বইয়ের পেজদুয়েক রিভিউ দিলে ব্যাপারটা হবে প্যাথেটিক। ছোট বই, পড়ে ফেললেই হয়। বুলশিটের স্বরূপ ও ব্যাখ্যা নিয়ে বেশ ভালো আলোচনা আছে।

কী জানি! বইটা বস্তুত আমেরিকান ও বাংলাদেশি উভয় নাগরিকের জন্য মনে হয় অবশ্যপাঠ্য। ডোনাল্ড ট্রাম্প তো সর্বকালের শ্রেষ্ঠ বুলশিটার, আর আমাদের দেশে বুলশিট কে করে না? 😂😂😂

Short review: This is a short book. I read it in about an hour. But it is a real look at what Bullshit is and why we tend to exaggerate, bend the truth, etc. It thought it was very good, but I would have liked more psychology to help us understand why we feel like we need to bullshit instead of just what bullshit is all about.

My full review at my blog http://bookwi.se/on-bullshit-by-harry-g-frankfurt/