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This brings us back to our original discussion of the traditional definition of the bourgeois. Remember that Marx originally understood the term as a way of talking about that group of people who own and control the means of production. Of course, this is only part of the story. Controlling the means of production isn’t all there is to being a good member of the economic elite: The good capitalist will reinvest, expand, and produce more wealth. By increasing production, reinvesting capital, keeping wages and overhead low, expanding into other markets, and further penetrating existing markets, the owners of the means of production can secure their position for years to come.

The Bluths, of course, don’t do any of this. Despite Michael’s best efforts, not only do they fail to grow or produce more wealth (I mean, they celebrate being upgraded to a “don’t buy” company with a huge party!), they’re constantly under threat of losing control of the company: either by being bought out by the likes of Lucille Ostero and Stan Sitwell or by being shut down by the courts. Mismanagement—financial and familial—is at the heart of the Bluths’ crises. Unable to control their wealth, their anxieties, or each other, the Bluths represent a family beset by the complications and anxieties of being bourgeois.

PART THREE

SOME HUGE MISTAKES

Chapter 8

WHAT WHITEY ISN’T READY TO HEAR

Social Identity in Arrested Development

J. Jeremy Wisnewski

You There, Reading This Book . . .

So you’re a reader—and a fan of Arrested Development. A TV-watcher and a reader. I know your kind. You probably think you’re some kind of intellectual, too? I mean philosophy . . . that’s some highfalutin stuff. I’m getting a sense of what I might expect from you. You’ll finish reading this sentence, you’ll talk about Arrested Development, and you probably harbor warm feelings for Ron Howard (and who could blame you?).

I bet you’ve got some siblings you annoy, and who annoy you, and I bet you lost a hand to a seal a couple years ago. I also bet you’ve got a weird romance thing going on with your mother and that you have dabbled in cartography. You’re probably even wearing cutoff jean-shorts under your pants.

Sorry. I got a little carried away there. What I’m doing is interpreting you. I’m taking some small fact about your actions and I’m using that small fact to figure out who you are. In this case, the only fact I’ve got is that you’re reading these sentences—but that gives me a lot to go on. I can take that one little thing and construct a world around it—a world full of boxes to check and labels to place—a world where I know exactly what it means to be someone like you.

So, book reader, I’ve got you figured out. But you’ve got me figured out as well. I’m that snarky philosophy professor who thinks he’s so cool because he likes Arrested Development, and who thinks he’s so hip because he writes snotty little essays that directly address his readers. And right you are!

But identity isn’t all fun and games. If there’s anything I’ve learned from Arrested Development, it’s that identities are things we can be forced into—that can blind others to who we are, or that might even blind us to who we are. Whether in the O.C. (don’t call it that) or elsewhere, we aren’t just who we want to be. We’re also what others determine us to be. And here’s the scary thing, book reader. That’s how all identity works. We aren’t simply born whole from the heads of Zeus or George Sr. We’re social animals, as Aristotle (384–322 BCE) reminds us. We are the product not just of who we think we are, but of who, and what, others think we are. Identity is thus fundamentally a social enterprise. It isn’t simply something one can choose. In lots of ways, our identities are things that are constantly negotiated with those around us. Because identities are negotiated—because they can be forced on us by others—they have an inherently ethical dimension.

Whatever I Do, I Won’t Quote Hegel

The Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor argues that a “crucial feature