A New Kind of Bullshit

Before beginning to read the article, "A Kind Word for Bullshit: The Problem of Academic Writing", I knew it would intrigue me. The reason for this is because I have experience in the past at being somewhat of a good bullshitter in academics. Not to say that this is something I have done many times in my life, but when the time comes where I need to fill a page with political or historical jargin and I have interest in expending much energy, this skill comes in handy.

The article, written by Philip Eubanks, brings forth the idea of "academic bullshit," (375). He describes this as being a "reckless disregard for the truth," (375). He goes on further to not simply look at academic bullshitting as a form of lying but rather as a form of prototypical bullshitting. It is essentially the process of creating a persona, or "ethos", that is separate from the individual writing the work. The author does this in order to deceive the reader into believing what he or she is writing. A question that Eubanks brings forth which stuck out to me was how do we differ someone who bullshits to aspire to be an intellectual from someone who bullshits for the sake of bullshitting? This question is something all professors must come across in assessing students' work because in a way aren't we all bullshitting our way through college anyways? Some of us are trying to be smarter and well-educated well the rest of us are just trying to find a way to pass.

The point I find most interesting in this article is when Eubanks hones in on academic bullshit among professors. He refers specifically to the humanities and social sciences and their tendencies to create ethos' in order to boost one's standings in the academic world (383). These professors create thesis' so abstract and complicated that they successfully mislead the reader and enhances "the reputation, the ethos of the writer," (383). Eubanks concludes his article with the plea that we as students and as professors acquire the skills to spot the real bullshit from the fake, the prototypical from the nonprototypical, and all strive for the kind of bullshit that turns us into better writers.