Local vagrant, Johnny "Appleweed" Grant, 153, was arrested at Devil's Den in Gettysburg for allegedly planting marijuana seeds across the battlefield. Grant claims he has photographic proof that the plant, made illegal in the United States in 1937, grew in the woods surrounding the battlefield in 1863.
Though his ancestor was not present at the battle, Grant said he planted the "historical herb" to honor veterans of the conflict. Over a period of three days, he crossed the hallowed ground tossing seeds from a Civil War ammunition cartridge box in full uniform. Park visitors complained that Grant was disturbing the peace, singing Bob Marley songs and reeking of patchouli.
Park rangers found Grant sleeping at the famous Confederate sharpshooter’s barricade after pretending to fire his guitar towards Little Round Top, where Confederate general Stephen H. Weed was shot during the second day of the battle. As Grant was arrested, he saluted the park rangers and said he would report to General George Meade, the commanding General of Union forces at Gettysburg, "im-Meade-iately." He giggled raucously as he was handcuffed and taken to Adams County Prison.
The National Park Service has dealt with delusions caused by the illegal drug before. In the 1980s, park ranger Godfrey Spooks found hash-smoking historians growing the plant near the Eternal Peace Light. The historians argued that Franklin D. Roosevelt had smoked a marijuana cigarette lit from the monument's flame when he dedicated it in 1938, a year after the plant was made illegal.
Spooks agreed to let the historians off with a warning, admitting, "he dedicated a monument to eternal peace while Hitler rose to power--he had to be high!"
While burning the evidence, one of the historians, a Grateful Dead fan named Peter Gastley, breathed in too much campfire smoke and had a vivid hallucination of Abraham Lincoln urging him to "start telling ghost stories around town to trick tourists out of their money."
Grant also cited the beloved martyr President in his defense. He said he was fulfilling Lincoln's hope in the Gettysburg Address "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain." When asked for further comment, Grant sang, "this land is my land, now get off my lawn!"
Throughout its four years in Germantown, the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts has always encouraged participation on the part of the community. For the first time, the school offered a special doubles class with a focus on couples for the Valentine's Day season, entitled "Double The Love."
The event featured both regular students and newcomers, and couples participating in the workshop do not have to be dating.
Before the event, instructor Jackie Zalewski said, "We may meet some of these people for the first time tonight. I would imagine there's some committed couples, there might just be some friends."
Participants Will Dampier and Jen Jahowski have been dating for three months. Though they met online, they found out quickly that both of them attended the school. Dampier is a student at Drexel University. Jahowski is an emergency room resident.
Dampier estimated he has been learning circus arts at the school for six months to twelve months. Dampier mentioned that although the couples' activities brought people closer than usual, there were "just as many double entendres as usual in regular classes."
Jahowski has been attending the school for about two and a half years. When asked how the event improved their chemistry Jahowski said the event gave the couple "lots of things to laugh about later."
While some of the participants have previously attended classes at the school, other students were completely new to circus arts.
Jen Palanteo, a 27-year-old social worker and current student at PSCA, took the opportunity to bring her boyfriend, Chris Lynch, a 26-year-old senior art director at a pharmaceutical company who had never tried circus arts, to the event Friday evening.
"It was my first time technically but I've been here for a few performances to see her before," Lynch said. "It was definitely not what I'm used to. I do a lot of strength training. Shows what muscles I need to work on."
Led by instructors Jackie Zalewski, Eric Michaels and Niff Nicholls, couples learned beginner doubles techniques for tight wire, trapeze and acrobatics. The school held three sessions over two evenings. Zalewski and Nicholls directed the Friday lesson with four couples of varying experience.
In the school's building at 5900A Greene St., Zalewski and Michaels introduced themselves a few hours before the workshop began. They performed examples not only of what would be taught at the event that evening but also what the school's more advanced classes teach. Zalewski, who taught the Friday class with Nicholls, has been teaching for a couple of years and has been performing aerials for about four years. Michaels, who taught at the Saturday classes said he has been doing assistant teaching and training for about a year and a half. He has also been teaching aerials class for almost half a year.
Michaels explained that the Valentine's Day theme presented an opportunity to introduce new students to the school. "We have current students who maybe have a spouse that has been curious about what they've been doing here," Zalewski added, "it's a chance for them to bring that spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend with them and get to try this stuff out."
The instructors insisted that there was no pressure for anyone attending the event to be a couple however. Zalewski said that the staff was not "privy to anyone's relationship status when they signed up." She and Michaels agreed that these doubles activities were fun with both a significant other or someone who was just a friend. Michaels joked, "We're not going to screen them at the door and say 'You have to make out for 30 seconds or we won't let you in.'"
After the event, instructor Niff Nicholls said that she liked the new event especially because it gave regulars and beginners a chance to "loosen up" and "have some fun." Nicholls has taught at PSCA for five years and now holds the title of adult aerial coordinator at the school. She noted that she is currently the longest employed instructor at the school. She began teaching there when the school "started down the street in a little studio." At the time, the school was called Airplay until the school moved to its current location about four years ago.
Nicholls cracked jokes throughout the night as she encouraged her students through the night's activities. She also said it was interesting to see a newcomer "to appreciate the strength and coordination it takes" to perform circus arts "especially when the partner's a guy and they had no idea how hard it was and they notice that their female partner is a little stronger than they thought."
The school offers a curriculum featuring "aerials (static trapeze, corde lisse, aerial silks, and lyra), juggling, unicycling, tight wire, tumbling and physical conditioning." The school also offers "corporate and institutional team-building and leadership workshops, social events, birthday and other parties, summer camp and special guest performances and presentations."
The school's programs are for all ages and introductory workshops are offered for $25. If you are interested in signing up for a class, email classes@phillycircus.com or call the office at (215) 849-1991.
Pianist Jeff Knoetter (left), bassist Jonathan Michel (back right) and drummer/bandleader Robert Henderson (front right) close out the Sunday Session at LaRose Jazz Club.
Steve Moliene, a busboy at LaRose's Catering and Ballroom, an aspiring sportscaster studying at Community College of Philadelphia and an avid Patriots fan since 1998, just wanted to watch the Super Bowl like the other 111.3 million people who tuned into Sunday's game.
However, as Kelly Clarkson began to sing "The Star Spangled Banner," drummer Robert "Rappin' Rob" Henderson had to ask the busboy to turn down the television he was watched enthusiastically the entire evening near the bar. Nothing was going to stop the bandleader of the club's weekly Sunday Sessions. He was thinking downbeats, not touchdowns.
Turning back to the band in the ballroom, Henderson exclaimed, "They ain't gonna cancel the Super Bowl because of us!"
Henderson has been hosting the weekly jam session at the venue, better known as LaRose Jazz Club, for nearly three years. Henderson has been playing drums in Philadelphia since 1970. After Ortlieb's Jazzhaus shut down in April 2010, he was inspired to find a new location to feed his appetite for improvised jazz.
"Historically, Germantown has been a breeding ground of great musicians," Henderson said. "We're simply carrying on a tradition of Philadelphia jazz that's been happening for decades and decades." The shows typically feature two experienced musicians to get things started. This week, Henderson recruited bassist Jonathan Michel and pianist Jeff Knoetter.
Dr. Chenet LaRose was Henderson's dentist when he found out that "he had a place that had music." Henderson gained an interest in the club by going to the Monday night jam sessions hosted by Tony Williams, which have been happening for the last six years at the venue. Henderson had found a the "place where the young cats could come out and play and network and have fun" like they used to do at Ortlieb's.
Henderson pays out of pocket for the band and the use of the venue with the money he earns as an owner of an automobile inspection station and a drummer. He considers both to be his full-time jobs.
Other "early birds" at the venue assist Henderson in the endeavor of running a quality show each week. With the help of jazz promoter, Kim Tucker, and photographer Lester "Les" Hinton, Henderson has developed a forum for learning and networking that JazzTimes writer Suzanne Cloud described as "an incubator for jazz babies who hunger to learn about playing music for a living."
Tucker, a former professor of music business at Temple University, arrived early with homemade brownies to set at the table where she collects the $5 cover for the band. She has been keeping a log that lists performers, songs, instruments and any other important details about the show. Though she documents the event for her own enjoyment, she shares the information on Facebook as soon as she gets home from the evening performance. Along with Hinton, who currently works at Temple, their contributions have made each show memorable as a distinctive experience. The team's extensive documentation has kept the event fresh, even when filled familiar faces, ensuring that no set is ever the same. Tucker recalled, "I was calling out songs last week and eventually, Rob yelled, 'no more!'"
Bassist Jonathan Michel performed
with a bow on his string bass
at one moment of the concert.
Frequent audience members have taken notice to each show's uniqueness. Lola Crooks, a resident of West Oak Lane, said, "I've been attending these shows usually two times a month. I started coming about a year ago. I'm a big jazz fan and what I like the most about the event is the versatility that is brought to the show. It's always different and that keeps it exciting."
Proactive promotion brings a wide variety of performers to the shows. Legendary musicians like Leon Mitchell, who once led the house band at North Philadelphia's Uptown Theater, tenor saxophonist Sir Charles Cunningham and drummer Edward "Eddie" Jones represented previous generations of the city's jazz performers in the audience and in the performance.
Mitchell's wife for 33 years, Ella Gahnt, was one of the first audience members to join the initial trio, singing the popular standard, "It Could Happen To You." The event functioned as a direct way for her to network and to promote future gigs in the city. Gahnt noted that she was booked heavily this month as a result of many "Afro-American history events throughout the city."
Many more audiences members spontaneously joined the show as it progressed, showing off their vocal and instrumental chops in an atmosphere free of the pressures of some of the city's more structured and competitive jazz venues. The welcoming, relaxed spirit of the event has created an environment comfortable enough for anyone to participate. Henderson, as band leader has certainly become a crowd favorite, but he noted that the true success of the event stems from an interactive between participants and an audience he reminds that without them there would be no show.
"We're bringing people from the community together," Henderson said. "It's different than downtown and we allow for a lot easier access as a place to play."
Pianist Jeff Knoetter performed by reading from digital sheet music.
Not only do participants feel welcome to experiment and improve their chops, they feel at home enough to express themselves with a group of people they consider to be like family. Monti Keino dedicated a version of "Autumn Leaves" to her mother, who is currently in the hospital. She explained how her feelings about the event extend to anyone who walks through the door at LaRose, saying, "I don't just share with my people, I share with everybody."
Seventeen-year-old Dustin Hill, who lives in Cheltenham and attends Abington Friends School, said he had only been playing tenor saxophone for a year. Nevertheless, he was able to keep up with the changes in songs he had never played before as bassist Jonathan Michel told him and guitarist Noah Gershwin the root notes to his bass line.
"These guys have like 300 songs memorized," Hill said. "I'm usually learning new songs on the spot but they give you a lot of help along the way."
Henderson has been happy to use the event to continue the jazz tradition of on the spot learning. College and high school performers, like bassist Bruce Ketterer, pianist Karl Reiders, drummers Anthony Chieffo and Ben Singer, received rides from parents, audience members, and public transit from all around the city in pursuit of learning a little more about performing for a live audience.
"I've been fortunate enough as a jazz musician to travel the world with my music. This is my small way of giving back," he continued. "Venues have started to decline. Our success is our consistency. We offer a chance for younger players to learn with seasoned performers. That's what the greats like Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington where known best for doing, sharing their knowledge with others."
At the end of the show, Henderson thanked the audience for understanding that "it takes a special kind of person to play jazz music and when they do it, it's great."
Sunday Sessions are held at LaRose Jazz Club at 5531 Germantown Ave. from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m every Sunday.
Correction: At the time of publishing, this essay mistakenly said that Leon Mitchell and Ella Gahnt had been married for over 50 years, they have actually been married for 33 years.
Miles Davis once said, "It's not the note you play that's the wrong note - it's the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong."
I had my fair share of "wrong notes" in my efforts of newsgathering for this first individual assignment for PhiladelphiaNeighborhoods.com. I forgot batteries for my still camera and lighting equipment for filming a dimly lit jazz club. I even hit the worst note possible in the coverage: forgetting to turn on my microphone to record the sound.
Robert Henderson, the bandleader at LaRose Jazz Club in Germantown, admitted that if I were in his classroom I would probably failed the assignment of getting the full story of what happened in the ballroom Sunday night. When Davis assessed how to play to jazz, he did not mean that a jazz musician could never make mistake, he just meant that there was no point in dwelling upon them. His career exemplified never looking back, always look forward to how he could improve. Jazz emerged in America under restrictive conditions that could have hindered its growth yet the genre managed to overcome the adversity of opposition.
So instead suffering from my failures of footage, I did what any jazz musician would do. I improvised. My iPhone took over for my camera that lacked batteries. I bought a flashlight at the local dollar store to make my footage visible. I called Robert Henderson for help the moment I got home and realized my greatest error. After feeling so accomplished from a successful event, I learned firsthand what Ella Gahnt said on Sunday about how life is like the knobs on a PA mixer, filled with "highs and lows." Henderson's delivery of his audio represents the best example of what a musician and journalist should be: a communicator with concern for even the strangest of strangers.
Part of what my struggles helped me remember was an appreciation for the abilities we have as journalists and musicians today. Before the invention of audio and visual recording, we had to be in exactly the right place at the right time. A band arriving into town was considered such a magical experience because one knew that it could never happen again, LaRose Jazz Club captures that feeling almost every weekend. I feel as though the audio I lost helps exemplify how so many events like the Sunday Session can feel like such a flash in the pan and how the permanence of recording has perhaps made us forget that joy of the temporary.
My efforts in constructing my story worked like a long, rambling jazz piece. My mistakes as a journalistic soloist made playing the right notes more difficult but through communication with my journalistic band of sources and editor,s I managed to pull through to complete a project that did not look or sound anything like what I expected it to be. Despite my regrets about losing performances by the many talented musicians I saw, I think my coverage captures the magic the participants feel every week in LaRose as the music comes and goes.
U.S. Energy said it was notified by the DEC's complaints filed on January 21 seeking $187,500 in fines after "it had already issued a press release, giving the company no chance to respond."
Apparently the "drill" is to not respond to public criticism
until you've weaseled your way out of paying your fines or taxes.
Though the company came to an agreement in December 2010 with the DEC in response to original allegations about Yeager Brook, opting to pay a penalty up to $10,00 and prevent erosion and runoff from their operations near the Allegheny State Park, its official statement claims the regulations are the responsibility of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection.
The company said in its statement that "the wells are in Pennsylvania, and the company’s operations are regulated there by the Department of Environmental Protection...We were told that DEC alerted Pennsylvania’s DEP of its concerns. DEP asked DEC for a meeting to discuss DEC’s concerns for validation, but DEC never responded back to DEP."
New York Notices U.S. Energy's Problematic Pennsylvania Past
While the legal battle has yet to pan out between the New York's DEC and U.S. Energy, which is based in Getzville, N.Y., Pennsylvania's DEP's past litigations and negotiations shed light on the relationship between the natural gas company and state government regulations across the state border.
Over a period of two years, beginning in August 2007, U.S. Energy had committed 302 violations of the Clean Streams Law, the Dam Safety and Encroachments Act, the Oil and Gas Act, and the Solid Waste Management Act in Pennsylvania. Some of the violations stem from complaints about the companies participation along with other natural gas companies in the state in the controversial practice of hydro-fracturing or "fracking" for natural gas, especially in Marcellus Shale.
Before litigation against the company ended in Pennsylvania with DEP, protesters picketed outside U.S. Energy's New York headquarters in April 2010 as the company attempted to extend its operations into New York's Allegheny State Park. An editorial in the Buffalo News warned against a proposal by the company to drill in Allegheny State Park as a result of Pennsylvania's problems with the company.
In 2010, Aaron Besecker got U.S. Energy's President to bend the truth like a horizontal hydraulic fracturer.
But he didn't fracking transcribe his interview or spell "Allegheny" right, so I did it for him.
Aaron Besecker of the Buffalo News interviewed U.S. Energy President Douglas K. Walch. Walch explained how the company "acquired a large lease holding in the Bradford area, about 10,000 acres that stradded New York and Pennsylvania line a few years ago." He noted how they had been developing mostly in the Allegheny National Forest. He said, "about 3,000 acres runs into the Allegheny State Park. The park has seen about 400 wells. There is actually a natural gas storage in the park as well as a big pipeline through the park. So the park has seen oil development over the years."
Douglas Walch lies to himself for a living.
Walch said, "With this lease holding we just started the process, Aaron, and planned about five wells at this point in time just to see if the trends that we're experiencing in Pennsylvania run up north into the park area."
Although the company dropped the issue a year ago in the courts, Walch continued by telling Besecker U.S. Energy's argument that "the part of land that we're drilling on was primarily owned by oil/gas companies and was bought by the park back in the '20s. For like, you know, anywhere from ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five dollars an acre and you know, they didn't pay a lot of money for it. And the oil and gas companies who sold it fully intended to retain the mineral rights and develop laws down the road in the years to come. So when you're buying land as cheaply as they bought it, they only bought the surface, they didn't buy any minerals, and it was always understood to be something that down the road it would be developed."
In July 2009, Pennsylvania's DEP ordered a cease-and-desist letter against U.S. Energy drilling in the national forest "for persistent and repeated violations of environmental laws and regulations." The company was prohibited from all "earth disturbance, drilling, and hydro-fracturing" in the state. The regional director of Pennsylvania's DEP, Kelly Burch, said, "U.S. Energy has demonstrated a pattern of behavior that displays disregard for the environmental laws and regulations, the consequences being the contamination of water and soil in Warren and McKean."
The severance of minerals and the surface is not black and white. Generally, it's being litigated in some states. I know in Pennsylvania it's a little bit of a hot topic but generally when you're severed it you're basically the oil and gas rights, which in this area here are maybe five-, six-, seven-hundred feet down, all the way down to the center of the earth--not that there'd be oil and gas down that deep. So what happens is the minerals were reserved intentionally to be developed in the future. If the state park in their expansion plans wanted to buy minerals rights at that time, they would have paid a lot more money for the acreage than they ended up paying."
The company paid a lot less money for their violations that what they would have ended up paying. Pennsylvania allowed for the company to resume operations in October 2010 after it corrected one-third of its violations. DEP executed a consent order and agreement allowing the company to resume drilling activities in northwestern Pennsylvania though limiting the number of active well sites. U.S. Energy paid a $200,000 civil penalty to DEP. Burch said “The agreement is structured to ensure both immediate and continuing environmental compliance and allows U.S. Energy the opportunity to resume operations under a structured format. As part of the agreement, U.S. Energy will operate under an environmental management plan that will serve as a blueprint for future compliance and development.”
Walch finished his interview with Besecker by explaining the company's success while excusing its violations. He said, "last year in 2009, we were pretty active in Pennsylvania on the national forests as well as off forest properties near as well. We had a contractor out there who just did a very poor job--we're really mad at the guy too-- we fired him right off the bat and in fact we have a lawsuit against the guy right now. The violations that we had in Pennsylvania were in large part caused by his actions. It's something we don't take lightly and we know we can develop these resources in an environmentally-friendly manner. In his case, he just did a very poor job and ended up damaging our company. For a period of time we were unable to develop any more wells but then we entered an agreement with the Department of Environmental Protection which is the Pennsylvania equivalent of the Department of Environmental Conservation. We've been working very closely with them. They inspect our sites frequently and we've passed all the inspections without any issue whatsoever."
The company maintained in its statement that in the current fight with New York's Department of Environmental Conservation, "U.S. Energy intends to vigorously defend itself."
New York meanwhile has seen companies spend more than $3.2 million lobbying for "fracking" and other controversial policies.
Is Natural Gas Now A National Nuisance?
Is Barack Obama beholden to the natural gas lobby?
State of the Union 2012
"This country needs an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy - a strategy that's cleaner, cheaper, and full of new jobs.
We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly one hundred years, and my Administration will take every possible action to safely develop this energy. Experts believe this will support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade. And I'm requiring all companies that drill for gas on public lands to disclose the chemicals they use. America will develop this resource without putting the health and safety of our citizens at risk.
The development of natural gas will create jobs and power trucks and factories that are cleaner and cheaper, proving that we don't have to choose between our environment and our economy. And by the way, it was public research dollars, over the course of thirty years, that helped develop the technologies to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock - reminding us that Government support is critical in helping businesses get new energy ideas off the ground.
What's true for natural gas is true for clean energy. In three years, our partnership with the private sector has already positioned America to be the world's leading manufacturer of high-tech batteries. Because of federal investments, renewable energy use has nearly doubled. And thousands of Americans have jobs because of it.
When Bryan Ritterby was laid off from his job making furniture, he said he worried that at 55, no one would give him a second chance. But he found work at Energetx, a wind turbine manufacturer in Michigan. Before the recession, the factory only made luxury yachts. Today, it's hiring workers like Bryan, who said, "I'm proud to be working in the industry of the future."
Our experience with shale gas shows us that the payoffs on these public investments don't always come right away. Some technologies don't pan out; some companies fail. But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy. I will not walk away from workers like Bryan. I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany because we refuse to make the same commitment here. We have subsidized oil companies for a century. That's long enough. It's time to end the taxpayer giveaways to an industry that's rarely been more profitable, and double-down on a clean energy industry that's never been more promising. Pass clean energy tax credits and create these jobs."
CEO of U.S. Energy Development Corporation, "Job Creator"
...yeah, thinking that U.S. Energy Development's Corporation has done a great job creating 73 jobs is one firing away from being just as delusional as believing in 72 virgins... maybe we should fire this guy when I find out who his company's campaign contributions are going to other than Pat Buchanan's failed presidential bids.
Jean-Paul Sartre's essay “Existentialism” from Existentialism and Human Emotions explains the problem that stems from Sartre's assertion that “consciousness brings nothingness into being by questioning being.” Sartre's atheistic existentialism argues that God's existence is not relevant to discussing human values, using subjectivity as the starting point for evaluating how we find meaning in existence. For atheist existentialists “existence precedes essence.” Instead of a definable human nature predetermined by God, existentialists acknowledge the absence and nothingness in living with freedom and possibility that his absence highlights. Finding meaning in freedom requires individuals to continue define their essence in response to the conditions of their existence. A tension arises between defining one's essence in relation to one's existence which is already an unstable concept due to the nature of self reflection and subsequently defining one's essence in relation to the existence of others. Subjectivity becomes a dilemma for an individual because ultimately “man is nothing else but what he makes of himself” (Sartre 345).
Jean-Paul Sartre said to Charlie Parker once: "Jazz is like a banana - it has to be consumed on the spot.
Consciousness: Nothingness Into Being
When Sartre argues that “existence precedes essence” he means “that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards. If man as the existentialist sees him is not definable, it is because to begin with he is nothing. He will not be anything until later, and then he will be what he makes of himself.” Sartre argues that because “consciousness brings nothingness into being by questioning being,” man's subjectivity in reaction to his existence must be the starting point of creating meaning and value in life. Sartre says “there is no human nature, because there is no God to have a conception of it. Man simply is”(345).
"If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company."
Existentialism: Dialectic Subjectivity
Sartre argues, “The word subjectivism has two meanings, and our opponents play on the two. Subjectivism means, on the one hand, that an individual chooses and makes himself; and, on the other that it is impossible for man to transcend human subjectivity. The second of these is essential to the meaning of existentialism”(346). Subjectivity arises from the perceptions people have of existence as defined by the individuality of Descartes' cogito. The problem becomes that self reflection becomes the only certainty individuals have in defining their meaning and existence. “I think; therefore, I exist” becomes the philosophical starting point for Sartre because private subjectivity shows a person what is possible within themselves (357). Sartre affirms that all existentialists, both atheistic and Christian, share the belief "that existence precedes essence, or, if you prefer, that subjectivity must be the starting point" (Existentialism and Human Emotions).
David Banach notes in his lecture “Ethics of Absolute Freedom” that Sartre's argument Existentialism and Human Emotions criticizes the old view of “essence precedes existence” because it reduces people to artifacts with preceding essence and a predetermined nature tied to a project outside themselves. He quotes Sartre's example of a paper-cutter to explain how we came to believe that man had been created with specific function determined by an essence:
Let us consider some object that is manufactured, for example, a book or a paper-cutter: here is an object which has been made by an artisan whose inspiration came from a concept. He referred to the concept of what a paper-cutter is... Thus, the paper-cutter is at once an object produced in a certain way and, on the other hand, one having a specific use… Therefore, let us say that, for the paper-cutter, essence ... precedes existence (344).
Sartre says “When we conceive of God as the Creator, He is generally thought of as a superior sort of artisan... Thus the concept of man in the mind of God is comparable to the concept of the paper-cutter in the mind of the manufacturer...Thus, the individual man is the realization of a certain concept in the divine intelligence” (Existentialism and Human Emotions 14). It is because God's essence can no longer be used to define man's existence in the absolute that existentialism's critics find the idea that “existence precedes essence” so difficult to overcome.
The tension between those that believe in God and atheist existentialists described in “Existentialism” stems from the ambiguity of God's existence combined with a need for absolute morality. This disagreement arises because “The freedom which Descartes ascribes to God, Sartre reserves for man”(Kadir 52).
"You must be afraid, my son.
That is how one becomes an honest citizen."
Absence of God: A prioriEthics, Private Subjectivity, and Freedom's Responsibility
The existentialist “thinks it very distressing that God does not exist” (Sartre 349). Without a god there can no longer be an a priori Good. Existentialists argue against the framework of God as a concept to transcend human subjectivity in creating “secular ethics” around the concept of God. Without god, atheist existentialists argue that there is no essence to compare to for the meaning of existence, existence finds its essence in private subjectivity.
Sartre argues that the loss of God is why anguish occurs when the existentialist is posed by the impossibility of transcending human subjectivity through private subjectivity. We understand that our reflection through private subjectivity could be flawed in a way that makes us blind to or otherwise unable to accept our actions' consequences. Taking responsibility for freedom requires acknowledging that one's actions can be wrong despite our belief that “we can never choose evil” (346). We act in “bad faith” and lie to ourselves about the consequences or we accept our subjective reality acting with “anguish, forlornness, despair” like Abraham (347).
Soren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling exemplifies how this anguish transforms Abraham's action from a question of ethics to a transcendent religious belief. Sartre argues that following Abraham's example “every man ought to say to himself, 'Am I really the kind of man who has the right to act in such a way that humanity might guide itself by my actions?' And if he does not say that to himself, he is masking his anguish”(349).
"Man is condemned to be free;
because once thrown into the world,
he is responsible for everything he does."
Three Objections to “Essence Precedes Existence”
Sartre objects to essence preceding existence because it masks his anguish. A person faced with absolute freedom wishes to abdicate responsibility through some form of “bad faith” to deny this inescapable freedom. Facticity allows people to claim that their life's essence has been predetermined by outside forces therefore they do not control their life because they do not choose. Anxiety emerges when faced with the responsibility of free choice while having a lack of external value. Despair occurs when absolute freedom restricts us to what is under our control. Existentialists need to recognize these possible deceptions and self-denials in order to understand the condition of freedom they have been placed in. Sartre argue that although existentialist recognize the difficulty of losing God as an external predetermined value, “it is plain dishonesty for Christians to make no distinction between their own despair and ours and then to call us despairing” (367). “Existence precedes essence” does not suffer from this loss of external value because happiness within ourselves and our existence which cannot be taken away by external force if we embrace absolute freedom.
Sartre argues that existentialism is criticized not for “pessimism” but for “optimistic toughness” (356). The coward is responsible for being a coward just as much as a hero is responsible for being a hero. Although man's “private subjectivity” is the “point of departure,” existentialism is not a “philosophy of quietism, since it defines man in terms of action;”(357). Sartre's existentialism meets criticism for its “radical position on the totality of human freedom” (King 19).
For Sartre, American jazz music was an expression of freedom, imperfection, and authenticity.
He wrote in Nausea: "For the moment, the jazz is playing; there is no melody, just notes, a myriad of tiny tremors. The notes know no rest, an inflexible order gives birth to them then destroys them, without ever leaving them the chance to recuperate and exist for themselves.... I would like to hold them back, but I know that, if I succeeded in stopping one, there would only remain in my hand a corrupt and languishing sound. I must accept their death; I must even want that death: I know of few more bitter or intense impressions."
Absolute Freedom: The Impossibility of Transcending Human Subjectivity
Sartre says that existentialism does not outline a philosophy that allows subjectivity and absolute freedom to exonerate man from his actions. He argues that man's subjectivity means that man is “not that he is simply what he conceives himself to be, but he is what he wills, and as he conceives himself after already existing – as he wills to be after that leap towards existence.” Man's will defines his essence and in light of subjectivity and the absence of God, man is all the more responsible for his actions. It is because of the responsibility that comes with absolute freedom that Sartre's argument that “Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself” is so dramatically consequential, Sartre proposes that “such is the first principle of existentialism”(347).
Whether distrusting a belief in God, deceiving private subjectivity, or denying the destiny of mankind, the burden of freedom becomes that man is “condemned every moment to invent man” (Sartre 350). Sartre argues that accepting the responsibility inherent in defining one's freedom with the pressures of creating meaning in life. To act is to assert a universal value or to negate universal values in a way that attempts to transcend human subjectivity. For Sartre “freedom is absolute, or it is not at all. Man is deeply influenced by his family and environment, but he freely chooses how he will relate to this influence” (King 19). Kant's universal values gave individuals escape from their subjectivity the same way God did by asserting predetermined principles. Sartre argues transcending human subjectivity is impossible and makes the existentialist realize that “our responsibility is much greater than we might have supposed, because it involves all mankind”(Sartre 346).
Existentialism's Three Objections to “Existence precedes Essence”
“So you're able to do anything, no matter what!"
Sartre addresses three objections to existentialism directly in an attempt to explain how humanism transcends human subjectivity. Critics argue that existentialism makes constructing moral values impossible given the arbitrary nature of subjective perspective. Sartre mocks the idea that acknowledging freedom of choice means “So you're able to do anything, no matter what!” (Sartre 360). Sartre compares making moral choices to “making a work of art” in that it is clear there is no definite painting to be made. There is no a priori rule to art but “we never say that a work of art is arbitrary” (361). This is why Sartre rejects the first definition of Humanism as honoring man as a higher value. He rejects the idea that we can think of man as an end because he is always in the making. Man's good creations are not evidence for the good nature of his a priori essence but rather a reflection upon what he has made of his freedom and choices in his existence.
“You're unable to pass judgment on others,
because there's no reason to prefer on configuration to another.”
The second objection Sartre imitates is that with existentialism “You're unable to pass judgment on others, because there's no reason to prefer on configuration to another” (360). Sartre's definition of Humanism makes clear that reflection on others is necessary to construct subjective value in a society. By choosing who we associate with we are making choices about what we do with our freedom. There is choice with consequence, though subjective reality might make us blame circumstance. Sartre says by recognizing that “existence precedes essence,” a free human being realizes that he is obliged to want freedom for others (363).
“Everything is arbitrary in this choosing of yours.
You take something from one pocket and pretend you're putting it into the other”
Sartre's atheist existentialism laments the loss of God as an absolute authority on right and wrong who can grant an individual absolution from the responsibility of freedom and choice. Sartre addresses a third criticism that in existentialism that “Everything is arbitrary in this choosing of yours. You take something from one pocket and pretend you're putting it into the other” (360). Existentialism simply points out the arbitrary nature of any choice of how we use our freedom. Even with the arbitrary decision to choose to discard God “there has to be someone to invent values.” Existentialists reject the belief that if there is no a priori purpose to life that somehow “fundamentally, values aren't serious, since you choose them”(365).
"I have no need for good souls: an accomplice is what I wanted."
Existentialism as Dialectic Humanism:
The Doctrine of Action and the Acknowledgment of the Other
Sartre argues that even though there are no a priori values in life, he does not mean that values are just arbitrary. Sartre outlines existentialism as a constructive philosophy to define Humanism. His second definition of Humanism reflects the idea of how to transcend human subjectivity by arguing that being a humanist requires “acknowledging that man is constantly outside himself.” Sartre's philosophy acknowledges the difficulty in defining our relationship to the Other but ultimately finds Humanism as a hopeful promise for cooperation. The concept of “passing-beyond” individual subjectivity and transcending into the human universe allows for the “particular fulfillment” of “liberation”(366). A man who can make freedom for himself can make freedom for others. Existentialism is an optimistic “doctrine of action” which should not be seen as in despair over how the existence of God affects human essence. Man's existence provides the possibility of defining an individual's essence on his own and through his efforts with others. In this way, Sartre's philosophy breaks from the trappings of both Descartes' cogito and Kant's universal values.
"Commitment is an act, not a word."
Freedom and Responsibility: Creative Freedom and Conformative Freedom
Sartre's writings Creative Conformity: Descartes and Being and Nothingness outline “Cartesian Freedom” as two kinds of freedom “(i) creative or productive freedom and (ii) conformative 'freedom'”(Kadir 51). These perspectives of the kinds of freedom exemplify Sartre's existentialism's use of Descartes and Kant. Descartes' philosophy exhibits how consciousness requires a dialectic relationship making “being” and “nothing” as distinct definitions. Descartes argues that “man is free to assent to, conform to, given truths” willing “being” out of “nothingness” for the self (54). Subjectivity gives man the freedom to act with “creative or productive freedom.” This freedom recognizes consciousness as “being-in-itself.”
Cartesian freedom also means “withholding positive judgment regarding the uncertain, the unclear, the untrue, and the false”(54). Kant's universal values also play a role in this conformative freedom. Sartre rejects the “world of seriousness” and “quietism” caused by this feeling of negative freedom. He instead outlines in Being and Nothingness the idea that without God, conformative freedom is best shaped through a humanism that acknowledges the look of the Other to judge actions instead of through Descartes' cogito's perspective of the “indifference” of God or the individual's despair of Kant's universal values (56). Sartre's Being and Nothingness emphasizes how consciousness “reflects back to us a significant part of who we are to which we have no other access, namely, our 'being-for-others.'”
"For an occurrence to become an adventure,
it is necessary and sufficient for one to recount it."
Acting and Action: Vulgarity and Authenticity
Existentialism's doctrine of action makes it a humanism that is neither indifferent or in despair over the Other. Man is free to create value by choosing their relationship and responsibility to the Other. However, as the sense of self's relation to others is mediated through others actions become a question of how “being-in-itself” and “being-for-others” create the tension between vulgarity and civility as well as the tension between authenticity and hypocrisy (Charmé 6). These tensions exemplifies how neither “being-in-itself” nor “being-for-others” can transcend subjectivity.
Sartre's “Existentialism” addresses “a lady who, when she let slip a vulgar word in a moment of irritation, excused herself by saying, 'I guess I'm becoming an existentialist'” (Sartre 342). Sartre's existential humanism requires the subversive powers of vulgarity and authenticity which is why its critics object to his contention that “existence precedes essence.” Vulgarity means to subvert the security that the a priori value structure created through God or that civility found the “essence” of Good. It is a direct confrontation with the “bad faith” of the Other. It recognizes that in constructing personal identity, individuals are “acting” for the Other (Charmé 7).
Action becomes the way to define the authenticity of the acting existentialist. Authenticity judges a person for their experience, not knowledge. Sartre “says more about what authenticity is not than he does about what it is” but actions are more clear method of assessing value towards the Other (8). Humanism attempts to transcend human subjectivity by reaching this point of honesty in acting and action for an existentialist. Though this “desire to be God” and transcend subjectivity is impossible, Sartre argues that this assessment of action is the only way for individuals to construct value in relation to themselves and the Other. Action is the only way to prove that we are not simply “acting” authentic but that our created essence is the result of our experience within our existence, both within and without.
"Laughter is proper to man
because man is the only animal
who takes himself seriously."
Stuart Zane Charmé's Vulgarity and Authenticity outlines these relationships to the Other as reflecting “Sartre's own response to the issue of civility” as “expressed in two major ideological directions” in his life. Sartre's “early philosophy of existentialism rejected civility in favor of the isolated individual who withdraws into a somewhat narcissistic dream of hermeutical omnipotence and self-apotheosis”(11). Later in life, “his Marxist turn, on the other hand, represented the quest for a revolutionary community in which authenticity would arise with the death of etiquette, manners, and the values which marginalize certain groups as Other” (12). Sartre attempted to “describe a future for humanity that might include both existential authenticity and a new form of communal existence” (13).
Conclusion
Jean-Paul Sartre's atheistic existentialism reconciles man's lack of meaning without God by determining value through one's actions. These actions define an individual's “essence” in relation to the “existence” that preceded it, embracing absolute and creative freedom. Though the look of the Other may lead one to question turning “nothingness into being,” an individual's adjustment to this responsibility of choice and the conformative freedom of relating to the Other. The impossibility of transcending private subjectivity makes Humanism the means Sartre suggests through which the individual can reconcile the problems of Descartes' cogito and Kant's universal values without the a priori ethics of God. Existentialism's “existence precedes essence” means that an individual can embrace absolute freedom to create one's essence through action while acknowledging how existence of the Other determines how we act. This reflection through the self and through the Other exhibits the freedom of his choices by making “being out of nothingness” because “Man is nothing but what he makes of himself.”
Works Cited
Charmé, Stuart Zane. Vulgarity and Authenticity: Dimensions of Otherness in the World of Jean-Paul Sartre. Amherst: The University of Massachussetts Press, 1991. Print.
Kadir, Kazi A. Sartre & God. Karachi, Pakistan. Al-Ilm Agencies, 1975. Print.
King, Thomas M. Sartre and the Sacred. Chicago, 1974. The University of Chicago Press. Print.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. “Existentialism. ”Basic Writings of Existentialism. New York: The Modern Library, 2004. Print.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism and Human Emotions. New York: Philosophical Library, 1957. Print.
