Happy ideas for sale. Mediums and palm readers have always known what
western politicians only recently grasped - that people don't care
about truth, they care about feeling good about what they believe.
"Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail, blue skies from
pain" [1]
Did you exchange cold comfort for change? You can believe anything
you like for a price.
Williams proffers that bullshit, and believing crazy things is a
mutual stroking behaviour of a mass huddled together in the comfort of
collective ignorance, and that within that group there are rewards for
dreaming up the most soothing stories. He extends this beyond Harry
Frankfurt's position to say that an entire "economy of bullshit"
exists. and that its trade could be "an economic good".
This is why in Plato, Shakespeare, Cicero and so many luminaries, it
is always the _mad_ (the fool) who deliver the truth. Only despised
outsiders who have no skin in the collective self-delusion game are
able to break the norms and deliver the unwelcome message. Further,
(Foucault, Cassandra etc) there's a market in silencing truth speakers
who rock the boat of profitable rationalisation.
[1] Pink Floyd
[2] On Bullshit: Harry Frankfurt
"Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail, blue skies from pain" [1]
Did you exchange cold comfort for change? You can believe anything you like for a price.
Williams proffers that bullshit, and believing crazy things is a mutual stroking behaviour of a mass huddled together in the comfort of collective ignorance, and that within that group there are rewards for dreaming up the most soothing stories. He extends this beyond Harry Frankfurt's position to say that an entire "economy of bullshit" exists. and that its trade could be "an economic good".
This is why in Plato, Shakespeare, Cicero and so many luminaries, it is always the _mad_ (the fool) who deliver the truth. Only despised outsiders who have no skin in the collective self-delusion game are able to break the norms and deliver the unwelcome message. Further, (Foucault, Cassandra etc) there's a market in silencing truth speakers who rock the boat of profitable rationalisation.
[1] Pink Floyd [2] On Bullshit: Harry Frankfurt