The inspiration for the exegesis that follows comes directly from Harry G. Frankfurt, distinguished emeritus professor of philosophy at Princeton University, who recently published an enormously successful essay on the subject of bullshit (Frankfurt, 2005). In the author’s view,

“One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situa- tion for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliber- ate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves.” (Frankfurt, 2005, p. 1)

A fine philosophical insight into bullshit is provided by Bernie Laplante, played by Dustin Hoffman in the movie “Hero.” Laplante is a thief and con artist and explains to his son his take on life as follows:1

“You remember when I said how I was gonna explain about life, buddy? Well, the thing about life is, it gets weird. People are always talking ya about truth. Everybody always knows what the truth is, like it was toilet paper or somethin’, and they got a supply in the closet. But what you learn, as you get older, is there ain’t no truth. All there is is bullshit, pardon my vulgarity here. Layers of it. One layer of bullshit on top of another. And what you do in life when you get older is, you pick the layer of bullshit that you prefer and that’s your bullshit, so to speak.”