Bullshit in political communication

Definition of “humbug” and “bullshit” Indifference to truth – the essence of bullshit Replacing “correctness” with “sincerity” Narrowing the concept

Bullshit and sophism Bullshit and spin

Endemic prevalence of bullshit in political speech Intrinsic necessity to bullshit in politics

Irrationality of political leadership Political communication as enchantment

Humbug

Max Black “The Prevalence of Humbug” (1983)

F.G. Baily “Humbuggery and Manipulation. The Art of Leadership” (1988)

“HUMBUG: deceptive misrepresentation, short of lying, especially by pretentious word or deed, of somebody’s own thoughts, feelings, or attitudes” (Black 1983: 143)

Conscious deception: “when humbuggers say what they themselves disbelieve, evading the risks of lying while reaping its benefits, the gross discrepancy between utterance and actual belief (the speaker’s stance) […] I shall call such conscious deception first-order humbug” (137-8)

Self-deception: “a self-humbugged humbugger producing what I shall call second-order humbug” (138)

Humbuggery vs. lying

Criteria of lying Truth Falsifiability of a claim Knowledge about factual untruth Deliberate intent to deceive about the truth

Criteria of humbuggery Belief Impossibility to realize (or to define) a claim Disbelief of the speaker in his claim Deliberate intent to deceive (to generate an impression) about

oneself

Bullshit and humbug

Harry G. Frankfurt “On Bullshit” (2005)

“It is more polite, as well as less intense to say “Humbug!” than to say “Bullshit!”. For the sake of this discussion, I shall assume that there is no other important difference between the two.” (5)

“Consider a Fourth of July orator who goes on bombastically about ‘our great and blessed country, whose Founding Fathers under divine guidance created a new beginning for mankind.’ This is surely humbug. (16)

“It is clear that what makes Fourth of July oration humbug is not fundamentally that the speaker regards his statements as false. Rather, just as Black’s account suggests, the orator intends these statements to convey a certain impression of himself. He is not trying to deceive anyone concerning American history. What he cares about is what people think of him. He wants them to think of him as a patriot, as someone who has deep thoughts and feelings about the origins and mission of our country, who appreciates the importance of religion, who is sensitive to the greatness of our history, whose pride in that history is combined with humility before God, and so on.” (17-8)

Defining bullshit

“It is just this lack of connection to a concern with truth – this indifference to how things really are that I regard as of the essence of bullshit.” (34-5)

Hot air: “Speech that has been emptied of all informative content” (43) Bluff: “bullshitting […] is closer to bluffing, surely, than to telling a lie.

[…] Unlike plain lying, it is more especially a matter not of falsity but of fakery” (46-7)

Lying is craft; particular, sporadic, designed “under guidance of truth” (52)

Bullshitting is art; panoramic, a program, serial, expansive “What he [the bullshitter] does necessarily attempt to deceive us about is

his enterprise. His only indispensably distinctive characteristic is that in a certain way he misrepresents what he is up to” (54)

The worst enemy of truth

What combines the bullshitter with the liar is That both “represent themselves falsely as endeavoring to

communicate the truth. The success of each depends upon deceiving us about that” (54)

What divides them is “A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and he is to that

extent respectful of it” (55-6) The bullshitter “does not care whether the things he says describe

reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose” (56)

Bullshitting is relativistic with regard to truth Through habitual and deliberative ignorance towards

truth, the bullshitter undermines the foundations of reasoned debate

Proliferation of bullshit

No systematic evidence about relative or absolute amount of bullshit in public communication, or about the rise or decline of it over time

Reasons to believe that bullshit is on the rise Bullshit unavoidable when speaker required to talk about matters

he has no knowledge/expertise about Rise of punditry in journalism (especially in US), requires

opinionated debate without required expertise Complexity of economic, social, political world requires

(a) Simplification for public presentation

(b) Breadth of party political programmes superseding expertise of staff

(c) Appointments to office are political, not based on policy expertise

(d) Recruitment of celebrities for political causes

Sincerity

Deeper source of current proliferation of bullshit Skepticism, “anti-realism”; questioning whether the reality has

any inherent nature

Retreat from “discipline required by dedication to the ideal of correctness” To “discipline, which is imposed by pursuit of an alternative ideal

of sincerity” (65)

Being true to oneself Assumes that our human nature is more determinate than the

object world Pretending that truth about ourselves easier to know than truth

about anything else

“Sincerity itself is bullshit” (67)

Bullshit and the art of crap-detection

Neil Postman (1969)

Taxonomy of bullshit Pomposity Bigotry Eichmannism ‘that form of bullshit which accepts as its starting and ending point official definitions, rules

and categories without regard for the realities of particular situations’

Inanity ‘ignorance presented in the cloak of sincerity’

Superstition ‘ignorance presented in the cloak of authority’

Bullshit in political speech “The realms of advertising and of public relations, and the nowadays closely

related realm of politics, are replete with instances of bullshit so unmitigated that they can serve among the most indisputable and classic paradigms of the concept. And in these realms there are exquisitely sophisticated craftsmen who – with the help of advanced and demanding techniques of market research, of public opinion polling, of psychological testing, and so forth – dedicate themselves tirelessly to getting every word and image they produce exactly right” (Frankfurt, On Bullshit, p.23)

The nation's hopes are in our hands. People's hopes. Your hopes. My hopes. In eight days' time I will be forty years old. I have so much to look forward to. My young family. They have so much to look forward to. The world I want for them is the world I want for every family and every community. If you want to know what I'm all about, I can explain it one word. That word is optimism. I am optimistic about human nature. That's why I will trust people to do the right thing. Labour are pessimists. They think that without their guidance, people will do the wrong thing. That's why they want to regulate and control. So let us show clearly which side we are on. Let optimism beat pessimism. Let sunshine win the day. (David Cameron, Conservative Party Conference (1/10/2006)

Bullshit in political speech (cont.) Our rising investment in every school, every pupil, every teacher, so that all our children get the

best start in life. (Tony Blair, 5 April 2005)

I believe that Britain has a great future within our reach. We are poised to embrace that future if we have the confidence and self belief to do it. (Tony Blair, 5 April 2005)

I am deeply proud of being British – so I suspect are all of you here today. We’re proud of our history, our traditions. We’re proud of the contribution our country has made to the world. And we’re proud of that essential British value: fair play. Fair play is at the heart of what it means to be British.(Michael Howard, 15 April 2005)

So the Liberal Democrats will fight this campaign based on real solutions to the real problems people face everyday. We're going to address people's hopes, not play on their fears. We're going to be the positive force for good in this general election. (Charles Kennedy, 5 April 2005)

“Our values are strong. Our mission is clear. Our vision is compelling. Civic pride based on a new age of civic power, not for some of the people, but for all of the people, all of the time.” (David Miliband, Labour Party Centenary conference, 12 February 2006)

“New Labour is a party of ideas and ideals but not of outdated ideology. What counts is what works. The objectives are radical. The means will be modern.” (Labour Election Manifesto, 1997)

“So let's build together a new generation of Conservatives. Let's switch a new generation on to Conservative ideas. Let's dream a new generation of Conservative dreams.” (David Cameron, Conservative Party Conference 2005)

Bullshit and spin

Putting a positive “spin” on some political event, process, outcome

Show it in a desirable light Neglecting disadvantages/costs; emphasizing advantages/benefits

Spin (doctoring) is a defensive form of bullshit Aim is to create a perception, irrespective of reality Secondary task, after the fact of policy making But policy making is instrumental activity for office seeking

politicians; hence the emphasis lies on creating a beneficial perception of the policies made, rather than on generating beneficial policies

Spin-doctoring mainly serves to hide potentially negative aspects or consequences of policy-making; it is hence engaged in to avoid lying (implying truth-awareness of the bullshitter)

Leadership requires humbuggery

Bullshit/humbuggery is not just endemic in politics, but intrinsic to politics

Politics is about providing leadership Essentially compromising enlightenment Admitting the unassailability of rational self-government

Enlightenment project was originally about Freeing individuals from superstition and oppression Disenchantment of the world

Leadership and political competition is enchantment Remedy amidst complexity of modern world Artificial differentiation of converging political platforms

Complexity, convergence and leadership

Normative idea of legal/rational authority Reducing leadership to management function Representation assumed to be responsible, responsive, reflective of public

demands and needs Complexity requires guidance and/or simplification

The end of ideologies does not result in professionalization of politics as a quasi-bureaucratic function

Political campaigns are not about disenchantment Not purely informational Not presenting with policy positions Need for enchantment, enthusing supporters, providing leadership, vision,

direction Emphasising candidate qualities over product qualities (sincerity over

correctness)

Leadership strategy and morality

Strategies of leadership Numenical

Emphasizing the exceptional (the divine) of the leader; that which sets him apart from followers, and other leadership contenders

Familial Emphasizing familiarity with followers; either fraternising with or

patronising followers Required strategy in the face of abject failure

Leadership and deception Leader is by definition beyond conventions (morals, values,

rationality) of society Leader is the main authority in restating/upholding morals, values Charisma is a display; it cannot be established as an objective

occurrence; it is mediated; perceived charisma

Impression management and relativism

IdentityNot a material property of the individual

But socially realized

Impression management in job interviewsManipulation, deception

‘forms of impression management may be authentic, that is, the applicant presents an identity that closely matches his or her self-image’ (Rosenfeld 1997)

Political impression managementRealizing party identities

Tony Blair (Labour Party conference, 2005) “New Labour was never just a clever way to win; it was a fundamental recasting of

progressive politics so that the values we believed in became relevant to the time we lived in. In the late 20th century, the world had changed, the aspirations of the people had changed; we had to change. We did. We won. And Britain is stronger, fairer, better than on 1st May 1997.”

David Cameron (Conservative Party conference, 2005)“We have to change and modernise our culture and attitudes and identity. When I

say change, I'm not talking about some slick rebranding exercise: what I'm talking about is fundamental change, so that when we fight the next election, street by street, house by house, flat by flat, we have a message that is relevant to people's lives today, that shows we're comfortable with modern Britain and that we believe our best days lie ahead.”

Sophism and marketingSophism

Rejection of objective truth

Purpose of debate not to find truth, but to win argument

Not to prove truth of a cause, but its superiority

MarketingTendency towards oligopolistic markets in late 19th/early 20th century

Marketing is a strategy of demand generation in the absence of self-regulating, perfect markets

Models of buying behaviour and consumer psychology

Dispensing with homo economicus

Political marketing “theory”

Clinging to Downsian voterAssuming exogenous preferences Assuming that market research reveals rational

preferencesAdaptive and responsive party model suggestive

of democracy-enhancing potential, towards more citizen input

Prescriptive: recommending move from product-oriented through sales-oriented to market-oriented party

Simulating legitimacyPost-representative politics

Decline of ideology

Decline of partisanship

Replacing representation of sectional interest which are organized into politics with CHOICE

Politics of choiceChoice requires information

In absence of political information, use of cues (like ideology and partisanship)

Disappearance of cues to substitute for information

Simulation of cues: BRAND LOYALTY and PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION

The bullshit of choiceRepresentative politics functions through belief in

ideology which creates legitimacy of political projects, manifesting in the form of (partisan) loyalty

Choice politics simulates belief in the form of perceived policy matches (product differentiation) that is aimed to create potentially long-term, but conditional commitment (brand loyalty)

Model of choice hides the fact that political system remains representative, only organizing narrower and fewer interests into politics, through lobbying and party funding