Waiting....

Yes, the title is in reference to the movie with Ryan Reynolds about a typical restaurant.  Todays discussion struck a chord with me, as a former bus boy at a popular local restaurant I can proudly say that Sartres first example of bad faith, a  depiction of waiter trying too hard to be a waiter, is completely accurate.  The waiters seem eager to take orders, smile a little more than they have too, and try a little too hard to please the customer all in the name of attaining more money. While every moment of rest they have they go out to smoke a cigarette and complain about how needy their customers are.  Dr. J’s example of the second categorical imperative was a waiter being treated as a means to an end instead of just as an end in itself.  S/he’s being what s/he is in the mode of not being it.  They are allowing themselves to be treated as a non-human objects as a means to an end, and they accept acting like that for their desired end (money). 

This is what BAD FAITH is!  The waiter is acting as the essence of the waiter to justify their actions of being subservient to others.  Normally one would not will themselves to serve someone else but they do it with a huge smile on their face because that is the essence they have to be to achieve their end, more tips.  In my experience it’s as if right when a waiter leaves the kitchen they transform from being the angry chain smoking people they are in existence (pour-soi) into an eager to please servant to the valued consumer they become in essence (en-soi).  At the end of the night it is the person who was embodied the essence of the waiter most that night who collects the most tips; the one who laughs at the most jokes, who stops by the table to “see how everything is going” more than once, or talks about how “FANTASTIC” the food is. 

Kant might like the waiter because their motive is justified and they have to actively deal with people who constantly defy the second categorical imperative, treating the waiters as just a means to an end.  Mill might respect the actions that a waiter has to go through to achieve their desired consequence.  However, Sartre and other existentialists would be a harsh judge of morality for those fine workers of “Merced’s on the Causeway”.

Is it really bad faith if you have to act a certain way in your job? Would you agree that acting differently to customers in a business setting is wrong?  Or do you believe that my example of Bad Faith doesn’t do respect to Sartre’s teachings of ethics?