Bad faith: let us recall our prior definition of bad faith…
Bad faith is a philosophical concept utilized by existentialist
de Beauvoir and Sartre to describe the phenomenon in which human
being under pressure from social forces, adapt false values and disown
their innate freedom hence acting inauthentically.
This description revolves around the idea of “adapt false values”.
Now how would we understand this idea of “false values”?
What are the “false values” that we shouldn’t be adapting to avoid
being in “bad faith”?
As you might recall, I suggested that we are, all of us, are indoctrinated
with values, imposed upon us by the family, state, church, media,
culture…If one continues to hold these values without any examination
of their usefullness which is really just their ability to increase the
amount of energy in a system or improve the system in some fashion.
It is in a systems understanding that values have any use or value.
To hold a value indoctrinated into you without any examination of
that values use to one who has engaged in the process of knowing thyself means
if you have engaged in knowing thyself and if because of social forces, you
still hold to those values indocrtrinated into you even if you own values
have changed because of this process of knowing thyself, then you are
guilty of holding bad faith. The values we hold must, must be values we
have engaged with in our understanding in the process of knowing thyself,
overcoming and becoming who you are. An example of this might be the
young man who after engaging in his process of knowing thyself and discovers
himself to be holding values of love, peace, charity and his family has raised that
young man to follow the family business which is being a soldier, the military.
What if the young decides in his conflict of values between his personal values
of love and peace and the family values of war and violence, what if he decides
under social forces to hold “false values” of war and violence even though his
real values are of peace and love… that young man is engage in “bad faith”.
The false values in this case are the values of his family which is violence
and militaristic and not his personal values of love and peace. That is an example
of “false values” values held by others who with the use of social engagement
force one to adapt their values instead of a person engaging with their own
values. to hold any values that haven’t been “approved” of by the person during
their process of knowing thyself, is false values. Only values we act upon and
approve of are “true values”. I say I believe in god because the group or society
or the nation hold these values and I hold these values to gain their approval
is me practicing bad faith. Anytime I approve of values that are held by others
is me engaging in bad faith…… so in dating a women, and she asks,
do you believe in…… and I say yes to get her to bed or to gain her hand in
marriage is me engaging in bad faith. If I don’t believe in those values
and I still give my approval to gain something, that is acting in bad faith.
So this idea of bad faith is all around us… the Politician who says one thing
to get elected but act upon other values is acting in bad faith because
he is not engaged in his values, acting upon his values and he is not being honest
with what his real values are, that is bad faith. We see this all the time.
We see people saying and acting in a homophobic manner and yet engages
in homosexual activities is acting in bad faith.
We now see that we engage in bad faith with ourselves and others
all the time. Part of the challenge of becoming human is to overcome
our bad faith and become who we are by becoming the values we
believe in and engage with. Becoming who you are simply means you
are in synch with your values and you know your values and you act upon
and say those values without any interference from any social forces like
family, church, state, culture, media…………
But all of this is predicated upon one simple thing, that we engage in
the act of knowing thyself…… We must engage in the process of understanding
who we are and what are our real values are. That is the beginning of this process
of finally becoming who you are…….
Kropotkin