Bullshit

I have a friend who is a master at bullshit.  He can know absolutely nothing about a subject and still convince you he knows it inside out.  In many ways I hate this because it feels dishonest to me.  It almost feels like cheating.  It plays into the mantra "fake it until you make it" - which I think is quite weak as the more pressure and importance or reliance is placed on their knowledge the greater the consequences of the truth surfacing that they actually don't have a clue.

I will openly admit there are a lot of things I haven't got a clue about.  When I was a kid my aspiration was to know everything there is to know about everything; as I grew I came to realise that wasn't possible so I settled for knowing a lot about the things that really interested me and a little about everything else where I could.  It's that aspiration which has stayed with me that leads me to be inquisitive.  I ask a lot of questions, some people would say too many - but I will stop if people ask me to, so I don't really consider that.  I ask questions because I seek to understand as much as I can not just about random things but about people too.

To pretend you know everything I think is the mark of a dishonest person.  If you portray the image of someone who knows everything and is incapable of admitting there is something they don't know, then by virtue of the fact it is not possible to know everything you are therefore a liar and ergo you are dishonest.  Admitting you don't know something, in my eyes, is not a weakness. 

The only time you ever distinguish between people who pretend and people who are genuine, is when they falter.  Someone who is a master of bullshit can be quite convincing.  Even when they trip up they will continue to twist and manoeuvre until they put themselves back in a light where they still hold the upper hand.  Someone who is genuine however once met with an error in their logic will stop and think about it and question their understanding.  They won't brush off what you pointed out, they will attempt to understand the fault you found and see if they can find a reason for it - in other words they allow you to see their thought process - that in itself is an act of openness and honesty.

This post was inspired by an article I read - nothing to do with my friend I might add, but something random that made me think of him - where someone said something they clearly did not understand.  The language they used meant nothing even close to the message they were trying to convey.  The point here is that language is not a great enigma, a dictionary is never far from reach, it takes all of 10 seconds to find out what a word actually means.  I knew what they meant so I did not confront them on this, however a writer should really know better.  I would dismiss it as a simple mistake but a quick glance at their other work left me with the conclusion that they were quite pretentious. 

There are times when it is right to point out a mistake and there are others when you don't say anything because there is no need - doing so would only make you out to be condescending or patronising.  There are others when you realise the person writing is a master of bullshit and there's nothing to be achieved by pointing it out.