ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at Harry Frankfurt's classic definition of bullshit as speaking without care or regard for the truth. The kind of bullshit that upsets us the most is the Machiavellian variety. The Machiavellian bullshitters are skilled in the dark arts of politics. During the recruitment process, final year university students were routinely presented with images of the fun and exciting lives that they will have in one of these professional service firms. Many firms showed pictures of recruits clutching surfboards, playing cellos or helping malnourished children. During the training session, new recruits were constantly reminded that when they arrive at a client site, they would become the firm. A core aspect of the training course was inculcating the recruits into the firm's ideas about leadership. Bullshit statements, according to G. A. Cohen, have one signature feature: They are unclarifiable. The big problem, for Cohen, comes when a statement is neither clarifiable nor suggestive.
