What’s Wrong With Our Society, 2.6: Snooki and Aristotle on Friendship

It’s taken more than a week to figure out how to deal with the sixth episode of the second season of MTV’s “Jersey Shore.”

But here it is:

When drama about the anonymous note really begins to heat up, Snooki demonstrates her understanding of Aristotle, while J-WOWW fails miserably.

Yes, that’s right. Aristotle.

As the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy rightly points out, Aristotle believed that

a genuine friend is someone who loves or likes another person for the sake of that other person. Wanting what is good for the sake of another he calls “good will” (eunoia), and friendship is reciprocal good will, provided that each recognizes the presence of this attitude in the other.

When push comes to shove, Snooki wants the best for Sammi; this desire permeates her decision to write the anonymous note about Ronnie’s bad behavior and her decision to tell Sammi that she was one of the authors (though she insists that J-WOWW, who also wrote the note, and Angelina, who did not, should also come forward as co-authors).

J-WOWW, instead, wants to punch Sammi in the face for failing to unequivocally reject Ronnie. She has insisted, for the past several episodes, that she co-authored the anonymous note because she is Sammi’s friend and wants the best for her … but her failure to say that she wrote it and her failure to accept Sammi’s decisions — whether or not she agrees with them — highlights her inability to truly understand both Aristotelian philosophy and friendship more generally.

By the end of the episode — once Sammi finds out what everyone already knows, that Snooki and J-WOWW wrote the note — Sammi and J-WOWW are literally at each other’s throats.

As Snooki notes, “If you really love somebody, you’ve gotta say it.”

In related news, “The Situation” brings a woman home from the club. He explains that he is like a Ferrari and that he isn’t ready to perform. So, he puts her in “the smush room,” makes himself something to eat, returns to ask if she’d like anything to eat (she demurs), goes outside to smoke a cigarette, chats with the gang, and then finally makes his way back to “the smush room” so they can “smush” (which, according to Ronnie, they do … rather briefly).

As opposed to Snooki, above, “The Situation” does not love this woman or care about her good. So, instead of telling her how he feels about her, what he says — when he wakes her up — is, ”I got a taxi for you, baby.”

As the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy reminds us:

When one benefits someone not because of the kind of person he is, but only because of the advantages to oneself, then, Aristotle says, one is not a friend towards the other person, but only towards the profit that comes one’s way (1157a15-16).

And, of course, “The Situation” soon suffers for failing to care about the good of others, as he spends a lot of time getting to know a young woman at the club who, well, turns out to be a good deal more than she appears.

As the gang explains, their mantra in Miami has become, “If you have to think about it, it is.”

Read the Ethics, friends. It’s all in there.

Previous posts are here, if you need to catch up.