ON BULLSHIT ACTING CLASSES. AND BULLSHIT ACTING TEACHERS
by Kimon Fioretos
The article was inspired by the book “believing bullshit” by Steven Law and it is dedicated to all students that have to go through all kinds of bullshit in their learning journey.
Excerpts are taken from. the book “on bullshit” by professor Harry G. Frankfurt Princeton University And “believing bullshit, how not to get sucked into an intellectual black hole” by professor Stephen law Heythrop college university of London
Enjoy
There is a lot of bullshit out there:
astrology
crystal divination
healing powers of magnets
pyramids built by aliens…
Sometimes these are harmless, but other times they can be very very dangerous. Bullshit is also prevalent in acting classes where every unqualified teacher comes up with bullshit practices from his or her bullshit brains.
Often times these practices can be harmless, in the best case scenario just time-consuming and confusing, but other times they can really mess with both body and mind!
How can one tell a piece of genuine valuable information from bullshit?
It's hard, especially when the bullshit comes from the authoritarian mouth of a teacher. Well, one can start by educating themselves.
READ READ READ
READ the great teachers of acting and compare information AT ALL TIMES keeping an open but critical mind.
Alas, it is not easy, not one bit.
[…Any suggestion about what conditions are logically both necessary and sufficient for the constitution of bullshit is bound to be somewhat arbitrary. For one thing, the expression bullshit is often employed quite loosely-simply as a generic term of abuse, with no very specific literal meaning…]
Harry G. Frankfurt
I will try to armour you against bullshit by identifying some of the strategies that bullshitters use, this way you can immunize yourself.
Steven law named 8 strategies but I will only talk about the ones that I’ve seen more prevalent in acting classes.
Playing the mystery card
pseudoprofunity (very popular and my favorite)
pressing your buttons
According to Harry Frankfurt bullshit involves a kind of fakery. A bullshitter, says Frankfurt is not the same thing as a liar. The bullshitter does not knowingly tell a fib. Rather he just says things to suit his purposes — to get away with something — without any care as to whether what he says is true! Victims of bullshit in this case students of acting need be neither dim nor foolish. The sophistication of some of the strategies demonstrates that those who use them are often smart. The position a student is in, especially in an acting class, is very vulnerable because he has been cautioned to stay open to new ideas and experiences, a perfect victim of bullshit! So let's start :
PLAYING THE MYSTERY CARD
Suppose a critic points out that not only do you have little in the way of argument to support your particular belief but there is also powerful evidence against it. If you want nevertheless, to convince both yourself and others you can always pull out strategy number one “the mystery card”
“Its beyond science or reason to decide”
This one is popular with ghosts, angels, psychic powers, and. “Shakespeare’s air molecules.” (yes this has been taught by a teacher in an acting class) Molecules that help you while you are on stage playing Shakespeare! So acting classes are not immune.
In part, there is a legitimate argument behind the phrase “it's beyond reason to decide” that’s why it is so attractive. The view that science can ultimately explain everything, every legitimate question is called “scientism” and very few scientists embrace it!
There is a known unknown (a PSEUDOPROFUNDITY more about that below) . Things we can’t explain but even though science cannot explain everything, reason and hammered by time practices can! As the great acting teacher Peter Frisch says
“Always Demand critical precision and specific criteria from teachers. Why are you doing this exercise? What are you trying to achieve? How is the achievement measured?”
Since you are into an acting class if you question someone, exposing their strategy you most likely are going to get hit by what Mr Law calls a “character assassination”, the accused will try to assassinate your character and maybe even use quotes and molecules by the great Bard like :
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done, either leave the class running or sit in patience, my advice is when you identify the bullshit don’t debate!
I recently came across a site advertising an acting seminar where the teacher claims she has created her own method.
Nothing wrong with that.
Especially when she claims she did 13 years of research, wow!
But after close examination, I saw that in her teaching curriculum she included pseudoscientific practices like EFT (emotional freedom tapping) , NLP and the word universe more than 25 times! well…good luck with that!
PSEUDOPROFUNDITY (go on, say that quickly 5 times)
Some acting teachers or acting gurus have profound insights to offer. But others sprout little more than pseudoprofunity .
This is the art form of sounding profound while talking nonsense. Unlike the art of actually being profound, sounding profound by talking bullshit is not that difficult to master.
First of all, being of age helps, the older you are the wiser right? Well not if you are just an old bullshitter!
Maybe some props can help like a scarf, a vest or prescription glasses for nearsightedness, but even if you don’t like props anyone can sound profound if they follow simple steps!
1)STATE THE OBVIOUS
Try pointing out the blindingly obvious only do it incredibly s-l-o-w and with an air of Superior wisdom! The technique works best if your pronouncements focus on big themes like love, power and death!
Ex. Money can’s buy you love
Death is unavoidable
We were all children once
2)CONTRADICT YOURSELF
In this technique, you must select words with opposite or incompatible meanings and cryptically combine them in what appears to be a straightforward contradiction
Ex.
Life is a form of pain
Pain is love
Love is pain
The ordinary is extraordinary
3)DEEPITIES
This technique was identified by philosopher Daniel Dennett and it involves saying something with two meanings one trivially true and the other profound sounding but false or nonsensical
Ex
Love is just a word
To be in pain is to be human
4)TRITE-ANALOGIES
In this one take some fairly trite observations about the human condition like :
-life is often surprising
-we should appreciate things while we can.
And then wrap them up in an analogy
“Life is like…”
Ex.
life is like a swimming pool. You dive into the water, but you can’t see how deep it is.
By Dennis Rodman (deep right?)
Pseudoprofundity’s greatest enemy is clarity. One of the most effective methods of disarming it is to translate what is said into plain English.
Say, “Right, so you are saying …” and proceed to jot down in clear, unambiguous prose on back of an envelope precisely what they do mean. Such a translation will typically reveal that what was said is one of three things: (1) an obvious falsehood, (2) nonsense, or (3) a truism.
However, combating Pseudoprofundity is rarely quite as easy as that. Those who spout it are often aware, at some level, that clarity is likely to unmask them, and they will probably resist your attempts to rephrase what they mean in clear and unambiguous terms. They will almost certainly accuse you of a crude misunderstanding. Of course, they still won’t explain clearly what they mean. They’ll just keep giving you the runaround by changing the subject, erecting smokescreens, accusing you of further misunderstandings, or getting nuclear on your ass. For this reason, the unmasking of Pseudoprofundity typically requires both time and patience.
PRESSING YOUR BUTTONS
Pressing your Buttons involves reliance on non-truth sensitive techniques for shaping belief.
Isolation
Control
Uncertainty
Repetition
Emotional manipulation
These techniques sound like something a cult would use but trust me when i say an acting class is a perfect place for such practices!
I would like to finish this article with a quote by Harry G. Frankfurt
“Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus the production of bullshit is stimulated. whenever a person’s obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic are more excessive than his knowledge of the facts that are relevant to that topic.”
Just because someone is an actor doesn’t mean he can also teach acting! This is a profession that requires a different set of knowledge and skills.
Copyright 2022 Kimon Fioretos, All Rights Reserved.
