"BS makes the Flowers Grow, and that is Beautiful"
(Principia Discordia)
Through out the History of Human Kind, aesthetically and scientifically, justified BS inspired humanity to new levels of understanding of physical and mythical, imaginary, conditions of human existence. Bullshit (BS) is a belief system that humans base their life upon. If one were to look at sciences, like mathematics and physics, one can realize that these disciplines are based on basic assumptions (axioms) that lay down foundations of the future realizations and progress. Same idea of BS permeates personal understanding of aartistic endeavor, as well as mythical and religious belief that propel human kind to new levels of individual and social perception. Therefore, the idea of bullshit can be correlated with the alchemical metaphor of the Philosopher's stone, thus making this metaphysical concept a part of physical reality by manifesting it through science, art, myth and religion.
First, to understand the beauty of human history we need to define bullshit, and how it differs from the common life's lie. As it is been defined, bullshit is a structural part of the human psyche called the belief system, or in Freudian terms, the ego. It is an interface between physical reality and the collective unconsciousness. The reader must understand the difference between the lie and bullshit. The lie is conditioned by a social construct of truth. That is to say that the lie is an intentional deception set for the certain outcome. Meanwhile, bullshit is a natural, unconscious, archetypal process by which a human being structures his/her thoughts and feelings. Thus, the reader can perceive bullshit as a meaning for personal existence, and the lie as one of the ways of fulfilling an egocentric desire within the constraints of society.
If one were to look at science as a practical application of human abstraction (Belief System/ BS), one can understand more about the beauty of scientific innovation and creativity. For example, Einstein, who came up with this theory of relativity, had very little support of the scientific circles of that time. However, after some years of experimentation his theory of relativity proved applicable and was accepted by the mainstream scientific community. If we were to mention Heisenberg's principle of indeterminacy (where if distance is evident the time is uncertain or if the time is evident the distance is questionable) the absolute by itself does not exist; meaning that absolute has a dual nature which correlates with uncertainty, so, the science too is questionable. Going back to the roots of philosophy and logic one can not help but mention the ideas of Aristotle. Aristotelian logic embed the foundation of mathematics, were there is only true and false. For example, such Aristotelian proposition that "Not Not A = A", that is to say metaphorically: any color which is not white and not any other color is probably white - basically, depicting a simplified version of reality. Math is simple and it works; yet, when it gets complicated and A does not equal to A and things like genocide become real, we suddenly realize that mathematics do not reflect reality.
Nevertheless, computers, digital cameras, MP3 player and cellular phone work, despite the fact that they were created by simple mathematics. Even Modern Math, which is calculated strictly by computers, without human involvement, discovers Super String Theory that introduces a Multiple Dimension Theory, which justifies the existence of more then 3 dimensions. However, humans are three dimensional creatures and, they can not test the theory; thus - it is a BS theory. Despite the fact that there are thousands of bullshit theories and laws which are correlated and conditioned to be interdependent, the science is used as the application that justifies the realization of ideas, and technological progress and new levels of human understanding of imaginary conditions are evident.
BS is a foundational inspiration for Art, Theatre and Literature. In fact, it is a fuel for the alchemical engine which propels through time and space, creating more and more BS for the future generation to ponder. Orson Welles who is an incredible actor, broadcaster, screen writer and producer, in 1974 filmed a "documentary" called "F is for Fake". In this "documentary", Welles, revealed a "biography" of Elmyr De Hory who was an artist that forged over a thousand paintings. His paintings were purchased by many influential people and museums that even right now believe that those paintings are the originals. What is symbolic about the movie and the topic of this essay is that the "documentary" was actually a fake documentary with a fake biography of an artist who painted fake art. Nevertheless, it was brilliant Bullshit which made Elmyr De Hory famous. Even today when a tourist goes through an art gallery and sees a painting of "Picasso or Matisse", thinking that this is a genius creation of the painter, he/she can never be certain whether it is the original work by those artists or if it is just a forgery by Elmyr De Hory. After his death in 1976 his forged art became in high demand by collectors, and some of his art was even forged by other artists. "F is for Fake" is a great example of how bullshit is considered to be wonderful.
Without even stepping further from Orson Welles, another vivid example of the same phenomenon is the panic of October 30, 1938. On this day a national radio station (CBS) was broadcasting a Halloween special by Orson Wells and by Mercury Theater on Air , the novel by H.G.Wells, The War of the Worlds. It frightened many listeners into believing that an actual Martian invasion was in progress. Considering that in those days the majority of people had no access to the telephones, many people were in panic fleeing from the cities or running around the neighborhood while asking if the invasion was real. Thousands of people were reporting sights of UFO, Aliens and poisons gas. For example, some people who brought their firearm mistook a local farmer's water tower for an alien spaceship and shot at it. People were rushing to New Jersey where the fictional event was taking place and police had to be dispatched to control panicking crowds. U.S. Air Force Captain, Edward J. Ruppelt, wrote in 1956 UFO report, "The (government's) UFO files are full of references to the near mass panic of October 30, 1938, when Orson Welles presented his now famous The War of the Worlds (radio) broadcast." The War of The World practically gave birth to the legend of UFO, and movies on alien abduction, space travel, and time travel were highly influenced by this incident. For example, this phenomenon was vividly depicted in a TV series, Star Trek. Apart from creating a definite sub culture Star Trek, also introduced the idea for such technological innovations as cellular phones, time travel, and quantum deportations, that later were proven through practical application in the fields of mathematics, quantum physics and electronics. The reader can find numerous examples of Sci-Fi ideas like that in reality. Alas, the topic is too big for an Essay and it is up to the reader to pursue the quest for further understanding.
The field of Psychology was originally created by Plato, who was one of the first influential figures that challenged the definition of the soul. Even though Psychology considers to be linked with science, it is based on the ignorance of a subjective experience of a human. Thus considering that human being isolated from his/her environment and treating an individual as a social element. This way, psychology views any subjective experience as either "invalid" or "pathological". Another criticism for psychology is a fuzziness of scientific studies. Therefore, psychology is a theoretical doctrine since it can not be properly tested and applied. Despite, the critical nature of psychology, it inspired the invention of the tremendous amount of theories for understanding of the psyche (soul) and the drugs to normalize any socially "deviant" conditions of personal behavior. For example, this phenomenon gave rise to such disciplines as Jungian psychology and trans personal psychology, and planted seeds for new development in psychiatry, fueling new trends in the field of holistic medicine and pharmacology. The most obvious examples would be Prozac, which used to treat depression, or MDMA which applied in post traumatic syndrome treatment, or LSD which practically catalyzed Science, Art, Music, and Literature after the 1960s. Theories that explained the patterns of human behavior opened doors for the vast ground of exploration, from Sigmund Freud who opened the doors of dream analysis to Timothy Leary who further expanded our perception of human belief systems tied down to neurology and technological advancements. If the reader wants to explore this topic in depth it is up to the reader to continue with the personal research in psychology, psychiatry, anatomy and chemistry.
Advertising, which is primarily a BS, and a brain washing idea, where the purpose is to convince the customers to spend their money, was actually influenced by Karl Marx. Karl Marx was one of the first people that convincingly recognized the idea of a necessity to control mass consciousness. His ideas were adopted by capitalist and socialist. And this is when advertising began to be taken seriously. Advertising influenced many psychological, sociological, and statistical research studies. As a result, Consumer Behavior and Organizational Behavior are some of the fields which were just recently developed and adopted by major universities and business schools.
Besides advertising, linguistics, also, was influence by development in the fields of psychology and philosophy. Alfred Korzybski, a polish linguist, propelled the understanding of language and humanity with a study of a Meme idea. He recognized our non-absolute nature of reality, where for example the slogan, "All the workers Unite!" will have a different meaning throughout the history of humankind. In the 1920s it would be perceived as a drive for liberation from exploitation, where as now we look at it as some old communist slogan which is not applicable to our reality. "A map is not the territory it represents, but if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness." (Korzybski) Therefore, the description of reality is not a reality; language is an instrument for creating a sense of reality, but it is not the reality it's only the representation of it (it is the "map").
Creativity and imagination create cultures. Therefore, cultures are inspired by Bullshit. Religion is the greatest example of such inspiration. Despite the BS nature of its ideology, religion gives hope to millions of people. There are more then 3000 religions on this planet which are the greatest, and the most effective, "drugs", which can be placed in category of social survival mechanisms. It influences morality, family values, philosophy, law, and art. For example, taboos on eating pork in some Middle Eastern, Muslim cultures, are primary necessity for survival. Considering that tribes were nomadic and technology did not allow the opportunity to store meats, the fresh meat would be easy to get if those tribes would be herding sheep, therefore pork was banned by Religion. The same situation occurs in India where vegetarian cuisine is more popular then the idea of eating something previously living. What is great about vegetarian cuisine is the philosophy of preserving the living things, which inspired a creation of many environmental organizations. Without the creation of the Bible it is possible that the human race would not have the opportunity to drink beer.
Homer, who was a Geek poet, who created such amazing epic poems as the Odyssey and the Iliad, described the nature of the human journey and the city of Troy. For thousands of years Troy was a mythical city since it was only known from the poems of Homer. German businessman Heinrich Schliemann was inspired by Homer throughout his life. His childhood dream was to find the City of Troy. Schliemann ran away from the family, and was wandering around the world, working on different cruise ships. When Schliemann became a successful businessman, he decided to set an expedition to find the City of Troy. His friends considered him to be insane, his wife divorced him, and he was humiliated in front of the whole world. Nevertheless, Schliemann proceeded with expedition, and the city which was non existent for thousands of years in 1870s became real.
On the other side, Homer Simpson, who is the character in the famous American cartoon, was practically inspired by the Greek Homer. They both (Simpson/ Greek Homer) depict the wonders and horrors of human existence, personal and social. With analogy of Homer and Sirens, Homer and donuts symbolize the seductive nature of humankind. If we are to summarize the main idea - the Greek Homer inspired the creation of Homer Simpson that ingeniously parodies human reality and that is beautiful.
As we have revealed in the essay, human belief system (BS) is not a social survival mechanism of deception but rather a personal faith that permeates and structures human consciousness, thus forming an "ego" that interacts and creates within the constrain of physical reality. Humanity implemented the use of Bullshit in many of its endeavors. Bullshit is initially a metaphysical idea that is materialized through science, art and religion, correlating to the idea of the philosopher's stone.
The Golden Apple
The myth begins with the exclusion of Eris, the goddess of Discord, from the marriage feast of Peleus and Thetis. In revenge, Eris throws a golden apple labeled "For the Fairest" among the wedding guests, and three goddesses, Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, fight for its possession. They submit their dispute to Paris of Troy for Judgement, and Each Goddesses offers a bride to win this favor. Paris awards the golden apple and his judgment of superior beauty to Aphrodite, who promised him in return the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, wife of Menelaus. The Trial of Paris problematized both the notion of Platonic or intrinsic beauty and the possibility of its independent and objective judgment by inserting desire and relativity (the "Fairest" as always a possible another) into its determination. By subordinating beauty to the meditations and manipulations of desire, the trial of Paris dramatized the irony of adulation of the classical myth in the exemplary parable of truth and beauty.
The Drama was translated on the other language and broadcasted in 1944 Chile,(governor dispatched troops), and 1949Ecuador ( Radio station was set on Fire)