Arrested Development and Philosophy (7 page)

The terms
good faith
and
bad faith
already imply which we ought to prefer. Sartre is an advocate of life lived in good faith. But what do we gain by good faith? Self-respect, dignity, maybe—not much, really. We do, however, lose quite a bit. We lose our roles, our guidelines—indeed, even our identities. What we get in return is little compensation. We get something we already had: freedom, freedom without limits. Sartre openly acknowledges that this isn’t a great deal. We’re taught to value freedom, but absolute freedom like this is paralyzing at best. As Sartre puts it, “Man is condemned to be free.”
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The only difference good faith makes is that we acknowledge it.

Gob Makes Huge Mistakes in Good Faith

According to Sartre, good faith is a struggle. On one hand, we easily fall prey to bad faith because it’s comforting to have roles to play. Good faith, on the other hand, is frightening and difficult for most people. In some ways, Gob seems to be an exception to this rule. He often goes from bad faith to good, and back again—sometimes in the course of a single scene. Gob seems to slip easily into good faith, but has trouble maintaining it. The siren call of bad faith is just too strong. Nonetheless, let’s take a closer look at some instances of Gob’s good faith, and see what the outcome is.

Our first example of Gob’s good faith is, appropriately, a parody of Sartre’s most famous example of bad faith. When Gob becomes a waiter in “S.O.B.s” he does so in good faith. At first, he is not mistaking himself for a waiter—he is play-acting, in an ironic way, at being a waiter. He’s making a joke. Because of the distance that he acknowledges between himself and the role of “waiter,” it’s obvious that Gob took on the mannerisms freely. He didn’t initially deny his freedom in playing this role. It’s only later, when Gob starts believing that he really
is
a waiter that he acts in bad faith. When he flirts with his wealthy customers and gets angry with Lindsay for messing up the dinner, Gob has slipped back into bad faith.

Such is the temptation and danger of roles. They lead us very easily to identify ourselves with them and deny that we have chosen to occupy them. There is one role, however, that Gob occupies often, but that rarely leads him to bad faith. This is the role of the bum or the mooch. Many bums and mooches like to make excuses for their status, thereby denying the element of choice that led them to be bums. Gob, to his credit, does not. He is quite honest with himself at least, about why he’s a bum: he doesn’t like to work. Again, in “S.O.B.s,” the whole point of Gob’s little joke is the laughable idea that Gob should get a job. One may not respect the lifestyle, but there’s something to be said for the honesty. That honesty is limited however. Gob’s choice to be a bum often leads to dishonesty toward others, as when he seduces his father’s secretary, Kitty, so that Michael will keep supporting him (“Visiting Ours”), or any of the many times he lies to Michael.

The most common and poignant temptation that leads Gob to bad faith is his need for acceptance and approval. This may be the case for most of us, but it is especially true for Gob. His mother is distant, his father is disappointed, his siblings don’t take him seriously—you get the idea. But occasionally it is Gob’s striving for acceptance that leads to good faith—mainly when that striving fails and Gob realizes he is unloved for a reason. It sounds cruel, but there is a reason Gob remains unloved: he’s a narcissistic boob. As he tells Buster, “I’m the pathetic one, Buster, not you. I totally freaked out in front of that prosecutor today. Like a little girl. In a little dress. Little saddle shoes. Little pigtails” (“Sad Sack”). Realizing that he’s chosen to be a narcissistic boob is Gob’s ultimate act of good faith.

So, should we strive to live in good faith? That’s too general. Some of us surely should. But should Gob? Look at what he gets from good faith: bad faith, deceiving others, and soul-crushing revelations. That doesn’t sound like a great deal.

The Wisdom of Bad Faith

The intuition we have about the wrongness of bad faith is actually, according to Sartre, based on a faulty ontology. We believe that people shouldn’t have to pretend, shouldn’t have to deny who they truly are. People should accept themselves as they are and be happy with that. The trouble is that, according to Sartre, who we “truly are” is nothing more than freedom. For Gob to be who he truly is at each moment means nothing more than to choose at each moment. One moment he may choose good faith, and accept that each of his actions and all of their outcomes are the result of his choices, and the next moment he may choose bad faith, and believe that his actions are dictated by the role he plays or the social position he occupies. So, why choose one over the other?

We often choose one thing over the other because one will make us happier than the other. This explains a number of the choices we make, from chocolate instead of vanilla to going to college instead of going to jail. It may also point us in the right direction for Gob. When is Gob happiest? If we’re honest, we’ll have to say that he seems happiest when he’s living in bad faith. It’s easy to see why: Playing a role provides a degree of security and reassurance. For someone as fundamentally directionless as Gob, good faith must be a paralyzing experience. Gob has been called many things, most of them unflattering, but never responsible. Good faith must be a nightmare for Gob. Bad faith, on the other hand, is a fluffy down comforter. It keeps Gob safe and warm. It’s debatable whether the happiness involved in bad faith is genuine happiness, but the fact is that it seems to satisfy Gob.

Sometimes, though, we forgo our own happiness in favor of the happiness of others. Admittedly, Gob rarely does this (in his defense, though, nor do any of the other Bluths except for Michael and George Michael). Nonetheless, his actions do make other people happy or unhappy, even if he doesn’t intend them to. So, when are the people in Gob’s life happy? When Gob lives in bad faith, Steve Holt (!) gets a good father, Michael gets a caring brother, Buster gets a protector, and the whole world gets a clown. This shouldn’t be surprising. After all, what most often leads Gob into bad faith is his desire for approval, so it’s only natural that he is more likable when he plays a role. When he lives in good faith, on the other hand, Gob tends to be a selfish mooch and a loser. He brings people down.

If what I’ve said so far is true, that Gob and the people around him are all better off when he lives in bad faith, why shouldn’t he just go ahead and live in bad faith? For Sartre, he’s denying his freedom. I have two responses to Sartre. First, so what? What’s so important about embracing radical freedom, especially if it makes Gob miserable? Second, isn’t it possible to freely choose bad faith?

Socrates advised us to know ourselves, because the unexamined life is not worth living. Gob shows us the danger of knowing ourselves and examining our lives. Gob is the sage of bad faith. He has shown us the way. Reject authenticity! Embrace a role or two! Twenty! As many as you want! As many as you can! That way lies security and happiness; the other way, insecurity and madness!

NOTES

1.
Plato,
Apology,
trans. Harold North Fowler (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971), p. 133.

2.
Jean-Paul Sartre,
Being and Nothingness
, trans. Hazel E. Barnes (New York: Washington Square Press, 1984), p. 101.

3.
Ibid., 87.

4.
This distinction is further explored and elaborated in Herbert Fingarette,
Self-Deception
(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972). What follows is an unorthodox interpretation of Sartre.

5.
Sartre, 102.

6.
Ibid., 116.

7.
Ibid., 109.

8.
Jean-Paul Sartre, “The Humanism of Existentialism,”
Essays in Existentialism
, ed. Wade Baskin (New York: Citadel Press, 1993) 41.

PART TWO

A BUSINESS MODEL

Chapter 5

DR. FÜNKE’S 100 PERCENT NATURAL GOOD-TIME ALIENATION SOLUTION

Jeff Ewing

The Bluths are just like your family, at least if your father, the former president of a company, went to prison due to a number of shady activities. And if all your family members are crazy (in the therapy-or-felony way, not in the normal cute-dysfunctional family way). And if there is some strange, semi-incestuous dynamic going on between . . . most of you. On second thought, the Bluths are nothing like most American families, but still, like most American families, the Bluths are alienated by the capitalist system. Uncle Karl (Marx) will help us sort this out.

Happy Bluthday to You! The Bluth Family History

George Bluth Sr. was the CEO of the Bluth Company, which builds mini-mansions, among other activities (including owning and operating a frozen banana stand). The Bluth children, wealthy and accustomed to getting whatever they want, don’t really work for a living. They coast on Daddy’s money. As George Bluth Sr. says, “There’s always money in the banana stand” (and he means it literally).

Things take a turn for the worse, though, when George Sr. is arrested by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission, for those of you who want to know) for defrauding investors and spending company money as though it were the Bluth’s personal bank account. This is where
Arrested Development
begins, with the Bluth Company, fortune, and family in shambles. Michael, the normal one, takes on the responsibility of keeping the family together, getting his dad out of jail, and saving the Bluth Company. Unfortunately, standing in the way of these goals are the rest of the Bluths. As we’ll see, the personal flaws of the Bluths are manifestations of
alienation,
which results from the capitalist system they perpetuate.

Marx and Alienation—Or, How to Never Succeed in Life While Really, Really Trying

According to Karl Marx (1818–1883), the main problem with capitalism, and the reason we need to move from capitalism to socialism (and later, to philosophical communism) is not that capitalism makes people poor. To be sure, Marx did believe that capitalism makes people poor. In fact, it makes people rich
through making other people poor
. The way to become rich is to get people to work for you (as a capitalist) for as little as possible, while making you as much money as possible—a process that can only result in the increased relative and absolute poverty of workers. The primary Marxian problem with capitalism is that capitalism involves some individuals controlling others, and the control is always for the benefit of the powerful capitalist rather than the good of the powerless laborer.

Marx argued that as surely as economic systems had inherent guiding laws and defining characteristics, so do species have distinct traits and forms of activity. These traits and forms of activity constitute a species’ essence. And, Marx says, “Free conscious activity constitutes the species character of man.”
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No other species chooses its activity. On one hand, the activity of animals is automatic, a product of instinct. Humans, on the other hand, including Buster Bluth, are capable of choosing their own activity, and thus have control over their own lives. The human essence (or, as Marx frequently calls it, “species-being”) is the ability to choose freely one’s own life activity. This activity is expressed through production, through people (even Gob) creating in a way that manifests their vision of how the world should be, and in response to the true needs of others.

The bad news, as Uncle Karl (Marx) sees it, is that capitalism alienates people from their ability for free conscious activity. By definition, one thing is alienated from another thing when the two belong together, but something else separates them. Capitalism, Marx argues, alienates workers in four primary ways. First, the workers are alienated from the actual goods that are produced by their labor, taken by the capitalist and sold in the market. The workers cannot choose or keep the objects they produce, and so they do not reflect their vision.

Just think of George Michael—“frozen banana salesman/child.” He doesn’t keep the bananas. He dips them, freezes them, and sells them. Second, the workers are alienated from control of their own labor altogether, as the capitalist determines what is to be produced, how and why it is produced, and so on. Thus taking away the workers’ ability to have free and conscious activity. You don’t imagine the working conditions in the Cornballer factory are pleasant, do you?

Third, since capitalism alienates the workers from control over their activity, and free and conscious control over that activity is the human essence, capitalism alienates the workers from their essence. Lupe probably wouldn’t choose to clean Lucille Bluth’s home if she didn’t have to. Finally, the workers are alienated from others, and from community.

Because a worker is alienated from who he really is, his true essence, he is incapable of seeing the true essence of any other person. Just think of the office and family politics at the Bluth Company. All individuals have a creative potential, a vision, a capability of changing the world to meet this vision and the needs of others (even Lindsay). But if someone cannot see that in himself, he cannot see it as a universal property in other people.

The Bluths are a classy bunch, but instead of being “classy” in the way that means “having good taste.” They’re “classy” in that they’re “of a class”—they’re capitalists. Briefly, a class is a group of people sharing a particular relationship to the “means of production” (meaning tools and raw materials, i.e., the stuff we use when we make more stuff) in society. The two main classes in capitalism are the capitalists (also called the bourgeoise, who own the means of production and control labor) and the workers (also called the proletariat, who don’t own the means of production, and are controlled as labor). Classes cause individuals of one class to see those of the other class as either resources to be used and controlled or oppressors to be feared, revered, or hated. Thus, class-based societies divide people from each other and further alienate them from community.

Perhaps surprisingly, the system of capitalism doesn’t just alienate workers; it alienates capitalists, too. Marx notes that “the propertied class and the class of the proletariat represent the same human self-alienation,” the difference being that “the former feels comfortable and confirmed in this self-alienation, knowing that this alienation is
its own power
and possessing it in the
semblance
of a human existence.”
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Capitalists must follow profits, rather than follow whatever goals, dreams, or passions they might otherwise have, or else other profit-motivated capitalists (like Sitwell) would quickly surpass them, and they would cease to remain capitalists.

Although capitalists do have control over the products and processes of labor, if they want to remain capitalists and not be surpassed by their competitors, then they must use their control over products to distribute goods only where profits can be made, and try to minimize labor costs while maximizing the goods laborers produce—which sounds exactly like the Bluths. The capitalist system forces capitalists to control laborers as resources and aim their own activities towards those that ultimately (even if indirectly) increase profitability.

A Case of “Light Treason”: A Man Who Would Do Anything to Make a Buck

The Bluths have so many flaws it would take a TV series, a movie, and an entire book (much like the one you’re holding now—thanks, by the way) to show them all. So I’ll be selective (those capitalist editors are only giving me so many pages, after all). If I don’t mention your favorite Bluth family secret, blame capitalism.

George Sr. has two roles within the show. First, he is a capitalist, CEO of a publicly traded company he founded (before his arrest, that is), and second, he is a father. Since opening his frozen banana stand in the 1960s, George has been used to having control in all facets of his life. And his position in capitalism, having control over the labor of others, has accustomed him to having power. It’s not surprising, then, that after legally losing control, George still attempts to run the family and the company from wherever he is, be it jail or the attic of the model home. After his time as CEO (which had either created his control tendencies or amplified them), he is habitually unable to release this control, a trait that causes a lot of tension between himself and his family, most notably Michael.

As a capitalist, George Sr. sees things in terms of success (measured by profitability) and failure. George Sr.’s highly competitive and hard-to-please nature shows itself in how little approval he gives his family, especially his sons Gob, Michael, and Buster. Just think of how he manipulated his children to fight each other and then sold it as the video series
Boyfights
along with “Baby Buster” clips. A typical capitalist, George Sr. defended
Boyfights
by saying he thought it would foster a competitive spirit in his sons. George’s capitalist habit of seeing things in terms of their profitability even results in commodifying himself—that is, he makes himself into an object to be sold in the capitalist marketplace. We see this in his incarceration and first religious conversion, sold as the video series
Caged Wisdom.
George Sr.’s obsession with profitability also leads him to create things simply to be sold, despite the fact that these things are basically worthless, such as his fall-apart mini-mansions and the Cornballer. Lastly, consider that George Sr. cheats on his wife, and for the sex alone (as the incarcerated George Sr. says to his son, “Daddy horny, Michael”). This attitude, too, can be seen as a result of class society. George Sr. sees women as potential objects, things-to-be-had, and he lives to consume them.

George’s socioeconomic role as a capitalist manifests itself in (1) his pathological inability to give up control (even when it strains his relationship with his children, such as his manipulation of his sons to fight each other for
Boyfights
), (2) his highly competitive nature (which also damages their relationships, again revealed by the
Boyfights
fiasco), (3) his commodification of all aspects of himself and his family (showing that he views himself as only a tool for his own profit making and not as an objectively valuable person), (4) his creating things to be profitable rather than to have pride in creating things well, and (5) his persistent womanizing, revealed by his sleeping with Kitty
despite
thinking of her as crazy. In fact, even George Sr.’s troubles with the law (and not just in Judge Reinhold’s courtroom) stem from his violation of other capitalist’s privileges. The Bluth Company is publicly traded, and thus when he uses company money as personal money, he is stealing the money of the other owners, other capitalists. Additionally, he gets in trouble with the U.S. government for selling mini-mansions to Saddam Hussein, violating the international-relations policies of his country (where his country’s duty is to secure the privileges of its domestic capitalists). As Marx would predict, George Sr. does not actively experience his alienation from his family or himself because such separation brings him power and money. Nonetheless, he manifests alienation from both his true self (which could act in a way not dictated by profitability and competition) and in his interpersonal relationships.

Lucille and Gob

Lucille Bluth is George Sr.’s wife and co-chair of the Bluth Company, always holding at least as much power in the family and company as George Sr. Like George Sr., Lucille’s relationships are defined in terms of power and control. She manipulates her children, plays them against each other, and gets pleasure from withholding love and benefits from them. Her need to dominate also causes her to compete with and hate perhaps her only possible friend, Lucille 2.

Lucille is more concerned with her appearance to others than her actual character and personal development. Her superficial materialism manifests itself in lavish spending and an extravagant lifestyle.
Conspicuous consumption
(a term from the American non-Marxist economist Veblen, not Marx) as a sign of luxury is a sign in any class-based society of being among the ruling class, those who are not only wealthy but who can afford to live impractically. Lucille’s negative traits, resulting from or supported by capitalism and her class position, alienate her from her relationships with family and potential friends. In short, Lucille’s negative traits reveal alienation from an independent and free, conscious self, caused or supported by the capitalist system. It’s no wonder she drinks.

George Oscar Bluth (Gob, for short) is a Segway-riding former professional magician, co-founder of the Magician’s Alliance, a group blackballing any magicians who reveal the secrets of tricks (although Gob would correct me for saying “tricks” rather than “illusions,” because, to him, “a trick is something a whore does for money”). Of course, he was blackballed himself after a news reporter revealed how a trick of his was performed. Since then, Gob has tried to get back into the Magicians’ Alliance while sometimes finding other work. Though his occupation as an entertainer would make him, in essence, a human commodity, Gob has benefited from the wealth of his family. Having an entertainment job that requires no expertise in
anything
practical (and the same can be said for his other early job, a stripper with Hot Cops), Gob is good at nothing at all. He messes things up so frequently that his tagline has become, “I’ve made a huge mistake.” Gob is absolutely impotent in practical affairs, a direct result of the division of labor in the capitalist system, keeping individuals like Gob to one fine-tuned and specific job rather than letting them gain experience in all walks of life.

Throughout Season 2, Gob is given name-only presidency of the company from his brother Michael (who has no problem with that) while Michael is being investigated for connections to the company’s illegal activities. While Gob’s power is in name only, he becomes immediately power hungry and demeaning to his employees. As president, Gob wears his father’s suits and does whatever he wants, at anyone’s expense. Gob instantly sees employees as resources rather than people when he wears the president’s suit and finds himself in the shoes of the ruling class. When asked if he wants help taking alcohol to an office party, Gob responds “No, Al, I want to spill booze all over my f**king $6,300 suit. C’mon!!” The division of labor alienates Gob from his potential and from other people.