Bullshit

 

Question 2

Please explain the difference between rationalisation and 'bullshit'.

 

'Bullshit' is a far better word than 'rationalisation', but they mean the same. 'Rationalisation' is a clinical word -- a word to be used by the professor, 'bullshit' is more alive. 'Rationalisation' is bloodless, 'bullshit' is very young, alive and kicking. But the meaning is the same, they are not different things.

The henpecked husband and his wordy wife were walking down the country road having one of their arguments in the usual way. She was winning. Suddenly she turned and saw a bull charging down the road. There was no time to warn her husband so she jumped into a hedge. The bull caught the man on its horns and sent him spinning fifty feet into the air. He came down in a ditch. When he finally managed to crawl out, he saw his wife standing on the road.

'Maria' he said 'if you hit me like that again you'll really make me lose my temper.'

Now this is bullshit. If you ask a psychoanalyst, he will call it a rationalisation.

The culture society was organising a group to be comprised strictly of virgins, when a young lady carrying a baby appeared.

'But, madam' protested the president 'that is evidence that you are not eligible for this society. Why do you think you will be able to join?'

'I was only foolin' around when this happened' she explained. 'So I thought I could get in as one of those foolish virgins.'

This is bullshit. 'Rationalisation' is a philosophical term. 'Bullshit' comes from the ordinary man, from the masses, people who live on the earth, with the earth, whose hands are muddy. The word 'bullshit' is also muddy as it is being used by people who are working, living the ordinary life. It does not come from the ivory towers of a university. But remember, it is more authentic, it says much more than 'rationalisation'. And always remember this, that words that are coined by professors are always anaemic. They are dead words -- clinical, but do not say much; rather than saying, they hide. Let me say it in this way, the very word 'rationalisation' is a rationalisation: it is being used to avoid the word bullshit'.

 

-Osho, “Tao: The Pathless Path, Vol 1, #10, Q2“