Thursday, November 13, 2014

We Act in Bad Faith?

The concept of “Bad Faith” shows how one lies to oneself. In Sartre’s examples, he shows a too-happy waiter, a passive woman on a date, and a guy trying to get his friend to come out of the closet. My question about this is: do we all act the same way as all of three of these examples do every day?

The Peppy Waiter
Okay, now most days I am not that happy. I’m usually sleep-deprived, hungry, thirsty, and/or just not in a good mood. And those words basically describe every college student. We’re worn out. However, whenever I go to the counter to order my grande white chocolate mocha at Starbucks, I plaster a huge smile on my face and pretend that I’m a morning person. Am I acting in bad faith just like the way-too-happy waiter? I believe that I am. I make myself seem happier than I am without even realizing it. (Except for now of course.) This shows me that I’ve been basically trained into lying to myself and others about being happy and smiley.

The Passive Woman
The passive woman is a hard one. All of us would like to say that we would let someone know that we’re not interested in him. However, this passiveness can be expressed in different forms. We put up with a lot of different people a day – like professors, classmates, and others. People can do pretty annoying things, so therefore, we probably let a lot of things go that we probably shouldn’t.

The Pressuring Man
I don’t know about you, but when I was little and found out a secret about my friend, I would pressure said friend into telling everyone. That’s what kids do. We can’t keep secrets. So I have a little of that pressuring man inside of me, and most of us probably do.

I just think it’s kind of weird how we all somehow act a little in bad faith daily.

1 comment:

  1. I agree that we all do act in bad faith and we all have done it. Sometimes, we shield ourselves from the truth because we find it to be easier to deal without it. Some of us don't know how to handle the truth, so we put it off and shield ourselves from it. We may not act like them every single day, but we have acted this way a few times in our lives.

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