Laura Penny is outraged. In the face of a constant barrage of commerical messages, most of us just tune out the ones we don’t want to hear. Some of us might change the channel or even talk to our spouse. Penny, a teaching fellow in the Foundation Year Program at King’s College in Halifax, writes a book.
Her thesis is simple: we are surrounded by, and immersed in, bullshit. Bullshit is more than just lying: it is deception through a blend of sugar-coating the facts or possibly scaring the wits out of the audience. Bullshit is insidious, and it’s everywhere. In fact, Penny tells us, you are soaking in it.
The reference comes from a famous, or perhaps infamous, advertising campaign by Palmolive Dishwashing Liquid in the 1960s, in which Madge the Manicurist tells a client “you’re soaking in it [Palmolive],” because it’s so mild and good for your skin.
Now, the very idea that any self-respecting manicurist would soak your fingers in dishwashing liquid...
David Dunne is an Irish Canadian author whose titles include Design Thinking at Work. He is currently writing a book about the Irish border region.
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