On Bullshit is Anything But

Philosophy is often regard as bullshit. So, it is only natural that a philosophy professor will write and publish an essay appropriately titled On Bullshit.
Princeton University Press has reported records sales this year on the work of Professor Emeritus Harry G. Frankfurt. The books is only 67 pages. It is both small in length and book form. It will take you anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour to read.
Frankfurt wrote the essay in 1986 and recently, it has been published as an entire work. However, the most amazing thing about it, is the dedication.
Frankfurt writes in his dedication, "To Joan, truly."
In Stephen King's Misery, there was a passage in the book where dedications at the beginning or books are, well, bullshit.
Either Joan is someone very close and dear to Frankfurt and this is to make her feel that she really matters. Or Joan is someone who is full of it. Truly full of it. While me thinks that the dedication is sincere, it would be interesting if it was a subtle middle finger.
Frankfurt describes how people bullshit through lies, bluffing, and deception in his essays and proposes several scenarios that I wouldn't be able to paraphrase without sounding like bullshit.
In his opening line, "One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit" Frankfurt states that we are so use to being lied to and untruthful that we expect it more often than we should.
Why else do we use phrases like "You're kidding?!" We can't even believe things when there are true.
At the same time, we also feel the need to bullshit ourselves. Former FEMA director Mike Brown got in trouble for making his resume seem more than it was. It was bullshit. We bullshit on our resumes to get better jobs. All bureaucrats bullshit. All journalists, at one time or the other, bullshit. Guilty as charged right here. Parents bullshit. Their kids bullshit.
My twelfth grade government teacher would write "Moo!" on a section of an essay answer if the response was fluff. Getting a "Moo!" was almost a right of passage for the government class. She knew we were bullshitting the answer. And some of the students and their parents would conclude that she was nothing but a bullshitter herself.
Frankfurt wrote that opening line nearly twenty years ago. Some people can say that it's gotten worse since,
Some of the critics of Frankfurt's essay probably expecting a little more. However, this work is short and sweet. Frankfurt presents a few scenario, makes a few references, and gets out before the work turns into, well, bullshit.