I had coffee with my friend Matthis this afternoon in a “Altweiber” café close to Hottingerpatz in Zurich. Matthis is writing his doctoral thesis in law (don’t ask me what about exactly. I think doing a PhD sounds good enough, you should never have to explain what you are actually doing). I would now like to add the part where I describe the intense discussion we had about the end of big law firms, the new financial crisis, the old stupidity of everybody, the feeling that today was the new yesterday. However, we didn’t have this kind of discussion. We had this one: He told me about his recent trip to Israel (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Dead Sea, etc.) which he really enjoyed. I asked him if the dog of my girlfriend he met in Tel Aviv was a nice dog. Then I told him he has to come to Basel on Thursday because the Agora Bar was closing soon. And he said, yes, maybe. And I said, very good. He paid the coffee (actually he had already paid it before, but the dramaturgy of this text doesn’t allow it to be at the beginning). Then we left.
If you like thin books (we will have them here soon, especially Georg Diez’s Alexanderplatz), you should buy On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt.
“One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, nor attracted much sustained inquiry.”You can learn nice words as humbug or the German Kokolores, both synonyms for bullshit. They are of good use, particularly in Altweiber cafés at Hottingerplatz on a rainy Tuesday afternoon.