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Jewish World Review Nov. 14, 2005 / 12 Mar-Cheshvan, 5766 Needed: Better BS By Tom Purcell
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
It's everywhere, and I can't take it anymore.
It's all over television, in magazines and in newspapers — particularly the serious papers, such as the New York Times. It is spouted at us by politicians and pitched at us by product spokesmen.
It is B.S., also known as bull (expletive), and modern life is manufacturing an unprecedented amount of it.
B.S. "is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about," writes Harry Frankfurt, philosopher emeritus at Princeton University, who authored "On Bull (expletive)."
And thanks to cable television there are numerous opportunities for people to yap about all kinds of things they know nothing about.
Nowadays, our news folks are just as bad. It used to be that the press existed to catch folks in the act of B.S.ing. But our press has been shoveling out plenty of its own.
The run-up to the last presidential election showed a fair number of "journalists" tripping over themselves to make Bush look bad. Dan Rather based one story on documents that were quickly shown to be fakes.
We're seeing more B.S. in politics, too. Many of the same Democrats in the Senate who voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq are now criticizing Bush for using force in Iraq. They slammed Saddam Hussein when the war was popular, but now that it's unpopular they're slamming Bush while portraying Hussein as a Quaker.
Republicans are producing a lot of B.S. these days, too. They use words such as "fiscal responsibility" and "limited government" while they are wasting more dough and expanding government faster than Democrats ever dreamed.
Maybe it's not the B.S. that bothers me, but that the B.S. is being so practiced so badly.
The truth is B.S. has a long, proud history in America. During our early years, the "tall tale" was practiced broadly. Exaggeration gave more credence and color to stories, and yarn-spinning became a celebrated part of American culture.
From our beginning we've had our share of snake-oil salesmen and flimflam artists. These scoundrels weren't judged on the rightness or wrongness of their scams so much as the skill with which they practiced their craft.
The sorry truth is that we want to be lied to in America. Whereas the truth can be painful, costly and time consuming, a skillfully told yarn puts us at ease and helps us sleep better at night.
In America we want our tax cuts AND increased spending. We want our Republicans to limit spending AND build a new bridge in our backyard. We want prescription drugs and fatter Social Security checks, AND we want somebody else to pay for them.
But our politicians and the press are doing a horrible job these days spinning their mistruths. I think it is because they are lazy.
I remember the good old days when "news" shows, such as Dateline, went to elaborate lengths to pull one over on us. They didn't rely on a couple of lousy forged documents. They rigged up a truck with explosives, and then blew it up on screen.
Some time ago, cigarette companies said smoking wasn't bad for you and we believed them. Lyndon Baines Johnson said he was going to end poverty, and we believed that, too.
I never thought I'd say this, but I'm really beginning to miss Bill Clinton. He could twist and contort any mistruth into the prettiest and most convincing words. We knew he wasn't telling the truth but we didn't care. We loved the way he didn't tell it.
But Bush? When Bush doesn't believe what he's saying — that he's going to get spending under control, for instance - the truth is written all over his face. What's worse is that these days it's likely to be spelled wrong.
I don't know who or what to believe anymore, and I sense millions of others feel just as I do. If our press and political leaders have any hope of restoring their credibility, there is but one thing for them to do.
Come up with a better line of B.S.
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© 2005, Tom Purcell |
Mitch Albom | |||||||||||
