The facts do not matter. By Amit Varma
The most surprising
thing about these Gujarat elections is that people are so surprised at the
Prime Minister’s rhetoric. Narendra Modi has eschewed all talk of development,
and has played to the worst impulses of the Gujarati people. His main tool is
Hindu-Muslim polarisation, which is reflected in the language he uses for his
opponents. The Congress has a “Mughlai” mentality, they are ushering in an
“Aurangzeb Raj”, and their top leaders are conspiring with Pakistan to make
sure Mr. Modi loses. A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson has also
launched a scathing attack on Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi. None of
this is new.
Mr. Modi’s rhetoric in
the heat of campaigning has always come from below. From his references to
“Mian Musharraf” over a decade ago to the “kabristan-shamshaan” comments of the
recent elections in Uttar Pradesh, it has been clear that the otherness of
Muslims is central to the BJP playbook. Hate drives more people to the polling
booth than warm, fuzzy feelings of pluralism. But, the question is, are the
Congress leaders really conspiring with Pakistan to make sure the BJP lose?
Answer: It doesn’t
matter.
No care for truth: In 1986, the
philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt wrote an essay named “On Bullshit”, which was
published as a book in 2005 and became a surprise bestseller. The book attempts
to arrive at “a theoretical understanding of bullshit”. The key difference
between a liar and a , ‘bullshitter’, Frankfurt tells us, is that the liar
knows the truth and aims to deceive. The ‘bullshitter’, on the other hand,
doesn’t care about the truth. He is “neither on the side of the true nor on the
side of the false,” in Frankfurt’s words. “His eye is not on the facts at all,
as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may
be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says.”
The ‘bullshitter’ is
wise, for he has cottoned on to an important truth that has become more and
more glaring in these modern times: that facts don’t matter. And to understand
why, I ask you to go back with me in time to another seminal book, this one published
in 1922... read more:
