Monday, March 06, 2006

On Bullshit


It is nothing short of astonishing how much utter Bullshit inundates our society. Often people attempt to make me feel guilty for not turning a blind eye to the sheer Bullshit that interlaces the most fundamental aspects of our daily societal interactions, but try as I might I can't let it go. I notice it. I see it constantly. It's overwhelming to me. It is almost incapacitating.

I don't know why I am so sensitive to Bullshit. I think it's likely some genetic disorder. See, I think people are hard-wired by evolution to be comfortable using Bullshit as currency to vie for sex, power and status.

I'm flat broke. I'm deficient. Non-human. I just don't GET Bullshit! And I think this offends people.

Bullshit is good business. Bullshit is good friendship. Bullshit is good advertising. Bullshit is the difference between employment and Top Ramen, acceptance and dismissal, an inert vile of nothing and a powerful placebo effect.

Bullshit is so well accepted now that we consider outright lies to simply be "clever marketing". If you're not lying or exaggerating on your resume, throw it away and start over. We don't even think twice when we see Ron Popeil on T.V. hawking his latest piece of garbage in front of his paid-off Bullshit audience of fake experts who aren't even aware of exactly what the fuck he's trying to sell. Or how about all the healing herbs, Bullshit remedies and medicines too cool not to work, too foreign to be inert, too expensive to be useless?

Why oh why doesn't anyone care about how much utter fucking Bullshit there is!

It makes me think about the Tourettes guy, Danny, from my previous journal entry. He's nuts, but he speaks his mind. Between impulse and spoken word there is no hint of a super-ego or a chooser or a soul in Danny. He is the epitome of no-nonsense. A world full of Dannys wouldn't last long. But there wouldn't be so much Bullshit in such a world either. In a world full of Dannys, advertisers would be physically throttled when their claims didn't live up to their products. The pictures above the McDonald's counters would be deflated, colorless, and asymmetrical with a special category called "grab-bag" for mixed up orders. The service centers you call would have actual people standing by and none of them would hit you with that Bullshit line "your call is very important to us" ever again, as they attempt to deflect you away from pestering them with your concerns. What would Danny do about this profound societal Bullshit? The elephant in the room.


Danny Gets
Upset about Colgate's
Tartar Control
Toothpaste


http://www.cheesies.net/videos/colgate.wmv

2 comments:

Dreamy said...

Could you be an overgrown Holden Caulfield? Or it could just be that you're surrounded by Americans. Either way you must develop a penchant for presenting these bullshitters with a particularly obtuse facial expression, kind of like you are shitting a bull, before you turn tail and walk away quick march.

Have fun with it.

Aaron said...

If I didn't lie to myself on a daily basis, I would go stark raving mad.