Bullshit doesn't make the mare go

The real challenge in human affairs now and always is cutting through the bullshit. It's the biggest challenge for kids, too, as they're growing up.

We lie. A lot. To ourselves. To one another. We're constantly lying. It helps us save face. It helps us look better to ourselves and to one another. It keeps us out of trouble. It defends us when we're in trouble. It helps us preserve one anothers' feelings. It helps us get along.

We lie. A lot.

And the biggest challenge for people is cutting through their own bullshit and the bullshit of other people. To be able to see the truth through the lies.

It is the single biggest challenge in politics, because the lies are so fast and furious and so dominate substantive discussion as long as people pretend in the biggest lie of all: that substantive understanding and working in good faith to share it and use it for good doesn't matter.

And then we tell our chidlren: don't worry kids, we've got it all under control.

It's kind of stupid and funny, all at once.

The single biggest challenge in human affairs is telling the difference between lies and truth, stuff that matters from stuff that doesn't, honest and dishonest, good and bad.

It's not just in politics. What Benjamin Graham does really well in Intelligent Investor, the book that Warren Buffet credits with his wealth, is to distinguish foolish notions of the market and more honest and substantial notions of the market and investing in it. It's the biggest problem for people in the money world. Keeping themselves and one another honest. And it is the single biggest problem in the political world, too.

And, in both worlds, you have these major assholes going through and lying their asses off to themselves and to one another about how honest or not they are or how much or not they should be trusted.

And the hard part is recognizing, "When this guy or gal says that he or she should be trusted, should he or she really be trusted?"

Often, the answer is no, in both worlds.

And, hence, the heart of why human affairs are so complicated to understand.

And, also, hence, why people need some understanding and compassion as they try to navigate all of our and their own lies and truthes and make some sense of the world.

The brilliance of someone like Mark Twain is helping us to see that better.

But the truth is that our challenge is seeing that better for ourselves with or without Mark Twain at our side. That is the essence of integrity. And we can only do it with some genuine understanding and forgiveness for what lying assholes we often are in the meantime.

If there is a fundamental fact of humanity that might center all of our theological, ideological, philosophical, and other outlooks on the world, this is the one, I think.

We're kind of shitheads, much of the time. But without us being better, that's all we got. Until we learn how to be better, that is.

And we're gonna need some space and some understanding to make that happen. In fact, it is the only thing that makes that happen.

Everything else is so much more bullshit.

And, at some point, bullshit just doesn't make the mare go. It doesn't get the job done. It never does. No matter how much we indulge in it.