Chapter 4 "On Nonsense"

Sun Di / text A dear friend came to Beijing to give lectures in early 2005. When he was parting, he handed me this small book. The small format is like a pocket edition of quotations from back then. It is less than 70 pages, at most 10,000 words, very inconspicuous.The old friend said: read this book carefully, refer to the extension, and you will definitely gain something. The title of the small book (On Bullshit) is a lecture written 25 years ago by the emeritus professor of Princeton University, the former head of the Department of Philosophy, and the famous moral philosopher Harry Frankfurt. Published in booklet.Unexpectedly, the response it caused was surprisingly enthusiastic, and it has been ranked among the top ten best-selling books in the non-fiction category in the United States for dozens of weeks.The small book is not so much a thesis as it is just an essay. There are no quotations from the essays, almost no bibliography of citations, and no rigorous structure. Even as an essay, the wit is not enough.However, it is convincing for its precise choice of words and sentences, and its exquisite analysis of concepts.

I love the little book so much that I thought of translating it into Chinese, but I gave up in the end, fearing that I might not be able to do it.The first is the translation of the title. The word "bullshit" is so inelegant that it often makes people want to speak.British and American ladies pretend to be elegant and often pronounce "shit" as "shute".In formal texts, two unsuitable four-letter words are often printed "s**t" and "f**k". "shit" may be translated as shit, and "bull" in the English dictionary means "big and fat", corresponding to our bragging, so "bullshit" seems to be literally translated as "bad fake big empty" .According to the gist of Frankfurt's discussion, it has a deeper meaning and is more evil. It is similar to the northern dialect "bullshit", and the current popular word in Shanghai dialect "淘油肉" is the most expressive.

In Frankfurt, he begins with a conclusion: bullshit is pervasive in our culture; he goes on to admit that although bullshit is everywhere, there is no doctrine, no theory, or even a decent treatise to dissect it. Describe it, but say that you are powerless to come up with a theoretical model to resolve the bullshit. An essay written twenty-five years ago was not published until last year at the invitation of insiders, but it became an instant hit and shook the society quite a bit.According to the ranking of best-selling books in the United States, it has squeezed into the top 100 best-selling books of the year in the United States, and the ranking is still higher than that of hardcover books. People must be interested to ask, why?

Frankfurt emphasized that the same thing between lies and nonsense is that both are intended to deceive and mislead, but the key to lies is "falsity", while the key to nonsense is "fakery".Rather than saying that the fault of nonsense is "false", it is better to say that it is faulted in "phony".A person who expresses nonsense with the intention of misleading others, may be called a bullshit, intends to mislead people about the relationship between him and the things he states.Unlike the liar, the bullshit may or may not be true, but that's not his concern.In other words, he doesn't care at all whether what he says is true or not, all he wants is for his listeners to believe that the connection between him and what he says is true.

Here is an example.One of your friends saw your daughter learning the piano, so he said sincerely: This child is very talented, and with hard work, he can become Li Yundi's second.This friend probably doesn't know anything about piano, and he has only seen your daughter. As for who Li Yundi is, he just heard a little while reading newspapers in his free time.In fact, he doesn't care about the piano, Li Yundi, or your little daughter at all, but he can tell you his thoughts without hesitation, and he is quite sincere.Isn't genius born of diligence?Now who can prove that your daughter will not surpass Li Yundi?So the friend's heart is full, and he is indeed encouraging your daughter's piano skills to soar.At the very least, he has the confidence to expect you to appreciate such encouragement.

Frankfurt further argues that the psychological burden of a bullshit is far lighter than that of a liar.A liar wants to lie, he should know something about the truth or the facts, and just say the opposite in order to achieve his goal; Therefore, a lot of facts are needed to act as green leaves and help out red flowers-the lie at the critical point.In addition to such costs, the liar has a risk: embarrassment and punishment if the lie is caught.Because it is opposed to the truth, a lie can be falsified. Bullshit, however, has no such costs and risks.He is not afraid of being falsified, because he has no intention of fabricating lies, and he even uses a lot of common sense, various popular rhetoric, quotations from great men and philosophers, the "Bible", stories from Buddhist scriptures, etc. Who is capable and capable? Interest and courage to challenge those "truths that everyone agrees with"?His confession is designed to drive you to believe that he is consistent with what he states.If you can be credulous, his goal has been achieved; if you are doubtful, he has partially achieved his goal, and he still needs to work hard to continue talking nonsense.Even if you think it's ridiculous in your heart, or even secretly scolding "it's another set of nonsense", it doesn't hurt the elegance, after all, he didn't lie.Although he may have "scraped the mud", but more or less, isn't everyone doing foolish things?!

Frankfurt believes that just because nonsense people don't care about the truth of things, and they don't care whether to confirm or falsify what they express, nonsense is actually farther from the truth, and it is a bigger enemy of the pursuit of truth.I can't remember which sage once said that the mortal enemy of love is not hatred, but indifference.From this point of view, although the opposite of truth is false, its great enemy is false. It's a bit odd that the professor doesn't offer a moral condemnation of bullshit and bullshitters.He only briefly quotes St. Augustine in "Lying" to classify the bullshit.St. Augustine divides lies into eight categories, and believes that except for one category that enjoys lying itself, the so-called pure lies and liars, the remaining seven categories are passive, and they must use all kinds of misleading to achieve deception. purpose other than deception.

The highlight passages of ’ appear in the concluding pages.Frankfort pointed out that bullshit is pervasive in our society, and people are becoming more and more accustomed to it. In addition to the classical reasons proposed by St. Augustine in the twelfth century, various distortions in democratic societies and market economies have also contributed to the expansion of bullshit, especially in politics. In the key areas of distribution of rights and interests, such as morality, religion, etc., it is difficult to distinguish authenticity, and the pursuit of authenticity is risky and troublesome.Prevaricating, perfunctory, distorting, and misleading by relying on nonsense has become an expedient measure, and it has become a mainstream trend.The United States is quite mature and developed in terms of democracy and the operation of the market. However, all kinds of so-called "politically correct" (politically correct) rhetoric, in the name of human rights and justice, in the name of eliminating differential treatment and correcting racial discrimination, in order to develop and efficiency reasons, in the name of fighting terrorism and eradicating evil, and adhering to God’s will to act on behalf of the heavens... are often just various variations of nonsense, filling themselves with a sense of mission, and making others believe that they are upholding justice and advocating progress , is in accordance with God's will, advocating the truth.For the rampant spread of nonsense, the American people are getting more and more bored and resentful, feeling helpless and powerless, like being smothered by a fist with a cotton glove, but unable to groan with a cotton ball stuffed into their mouth.Therefore, after publication of an old manuscript twenty-five years ago, it actually made the angry American public breathe a little bit of cowardice.

Frankfurt's criticism of nonsense touches on a topic of far-reaching significance, and has resonated with many people of insight.The Chinese version translated by Mr. Nanfang Shuo, a famous political commentator and media person, was recently published in Taiwan.In his and many sages’ book recommendation comments, it is pointed out that the people of Taiwan, regardless of politicians and voters, are poisoned by nonsense and harm others with nonsense. It is extremely necessary for the people to face up to and correct this extremely harmful trend. . "Bullshit" has flooded the United States and caused serious dissatisfaction. What about its situation in our country?There was a period of history when Chinese people's right to speak was firmly bound to a hard ideology, the criterion of right and wrong was extremely rigid, and the judgment of supremacy was extremely rigid.Until these plates collided violently, after being dizzy like an earthquake, people suddenly realized that at least one of the colliding plates, more often several, were just nonsense.However, what is replaced may not necessarily be a persistent effort to identify and pursue the truth. What people have to face today is nonsense that has been changed in a new way. of illusion.

Inspired by the little book, people can at least examine nonsense: If someone is recommending how to lose weight and how to strengthen the male, no matter whether he is sure whether the method will work or not, the purpose is to ask you to pay for it; Talking about stocks, economics, real estate, the market, people's livelihood and national timing is full of righteous indignation for the people, the purpose is just to convince you that he is an expert, and then start selling his own private goods; if someone claims that he firmly believes that the west wind overwhelms the east wind or advocates that Xifeng (paraphrasing Wang Xifeng's words), but you don't want to incur the suspicion of whether you are playing the rudder, then you can show your acceptance with a smile, just like Xiaona's encouragement to your daughter to surpass Li Yundi in the future, but you should also secretly accept it. Think about it, is this bullshit?

So can we, as members of all walks of life in society, avoid bullshit?According to the book, this is almost impossible.Due to the fickleness, trickery, and speculation of human nature, even if we sincerely believe that "I can", it is not very reliable.So what to do?The professor avoided it, he did have difficulties, just like Mr. Lu Xun's tutor.Lu Xun asked his teacher in his private school how to speak honestly and not nonsense in his famous novel "The Samadhi of the World". When the old master was asked, he could only "hehehe..." An experience of the author's own may help to understand the nonsense.My late mother was a great respecter, and her boundless love for me was the mainstay of my ability to walk the path of life.My mother is also an excellent middle school chemistry teacher. When she celebrated her 80th birthday, nearly a hundred students came from all over to congratulate her.When seeing those students in their 60s and 70s who already have grandchildren gather together to organize a banquet in several batches and roll out huge cakes to congratulate her, people must be sure that the mother has done a lot of good deeds.You know, this kind of teacher-student friendship has to survive all kinds of calamities such as the anti-rightist struggle, the cultural revolution purge, and the scorching market.I remember that in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, my mother had to write a thought summary at the beginning and end of each semester, and she also asked me to help transcribe it. Her report always had some clichés at the beginning.I was naive at the time and thought it was pretty boring.After a long time, I gradually realized that these typical nonsense were used to show her stand for progress, her acceptance of intellectual transformation, her loyalty to the cause of education, and so on.No matter what Mother thought in her heart, bullshit was necessary: ​​it gave her some space to do the things she was doing and wanted to do, the things that the students had remembered Teacher Bao all their lives. Professor Frankfurt has a deep experience in the world, so he naturally understands that the disadvantages of nonsense in human society are hard to eliminate.The two sources of nonsense mentioned above: 1. In order to lubricate interpersonal relationships, especially the communication of people who are full of hometown wishes, like a friend praising your daughter will become Li Yundi's second.It is the so-called "white lie" by Westerners; 2. It has to be conceived in order to cope with the restraint and forcible indoctrination of the powerful.But none of them are enough to explain why bullshit is so pervasive in today's society.The main reason why bullshit is rampant in modern society is the market.Under the strong pressure of all kinds of "market violence" (such as fashion), people are more and more accustomed to using nonsense to perfuse, confuse, and kitsch, and even act cheaply on some topics that have major discrepancies and must distinguish between true and false.Frankfurt's critique of such "postmodernist malpractices" was not carried out in the book, but in his other pamphlet "On Truth".He bitterly pointed out that: postmodern thinking believes that there is no objective basis for authenticity, and the so-called difference between authenticity and falsehood is just a perceived variation, which leads to the emptiness of "responsibility shifting". The harm of modern society is both deep and huge. In modern society, the division of labor is becoming more and more detailed, and there are more and more links in the supply chain. The requirements for collaboration, especially the dependence on the authenticity of information in each link, are increasing.In a word, the requirements for the integrity of social cooperation are getting higher and higher.Therefore, the confusion, perfunctory, and prevarication caused by nonsense, the distortion of risks, responsibilities, and regulations, and the harm caused by fake medicines, fake projects, fake commodities, fake contracts, fake academics, and fake promises are even more terrible.Therefore, we have to think that Professor Frankfurt is extremely insightful in his judgment that nonsense is worse than "true lies".