Heidegger, Plato, and Being_In_The_World by Ryan Bradfield: Givemeliberty.50megs.com

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Heidegger, Plato, and Being-in-the-World

"The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth."
Jean de la Bruyre

History has it that we enjoy living in a fool's paradise, never questioning the motives of those that we deem "authority figures", while following the whims of society where ever they may lead us. We are very much a pack animal that follows everyone else, so as to evade the "angst" that this "inauthenticity of existence" causes our "authentic" (true) selves. Some might say, "but I am my own person, and I do what I please". Really? Much like those youths who champion themselves as being part of a Goth movement that, of course, champions itself as being iconoclastically different from the rest, while maintaining their own conventions and thus becoming what they are supposedly against: social norms and conventions... You are in the world with "them". A group of kids with mohawks is no different in practice than a group of preppies, who wear the latest fashions. By rebelling against the world, you are never more a part of the world! That is one of the central tenets of Martin Heidegger's (German philosopher) philosophy, concerning the true nature of "being". We fall into the world of the "they" in order to avoid being ourselves. Those that understand this have used this knowledge against us, thus shaping the world that we all live in. Now, I don't want to bore you with a tortured treatise on existentialism or phenomenology, but I feel that it is necessary to understanding the totality of living in this propagandized society of ours'-- this "World" that has increasingly become our intellectual and physical prison.

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.James Madison

"The invisible Money Power is working to control and enslave mankind. It financed Communism, Fascism, Marxism, Zionism, Socialism. All of these are directed to making the United States a member of a World Government ..." -- AMERICAN MERCURY MAGAZINE, December 1957, pg. 92.

What prison? America today, contrary to popular belief, has become one of the most regulated societies in history. Though our anthem states that we are in the "land of the free", the reality of that statement has been put to great test over the past hundred years. A giant money power has brought to themselves control of our media outlets, our educational facilities, our economy, our laws, and our governments, creating a power vacuum and a propaganda matrix that has shaped all of our worldviews. They have taken advantage of the nature of man, and used this nature against him, making it easy to manipulate him into being their unwitting slave. In reality, Americans today cannot do anything without the express permission of Big Brother. From mowing their own lawn, adding a room to their own house, driving their own car, to disciplining their own children, starting their own business, Big Brother must be consulted. You must have several different forms of identification (social security, drivers license, birth certificate, passport), creating a "mark of the beast" by which you can take part in Big Brother's controlled society. "Privacy" is a forgotten word, as 4th amendment rights have been eroded to nothing, and our every move is now surveilled by a satellite and closed circuit television matrix. Through the manufacture of menacing hobgoblins (terrorism, racism, etc.,), we are increasingly willing to part with our liberties, taking advantage of our primal nature. What is this "nature" that the government has taken advantage of? That is what I seek to investigate in this essay, and perhaps by understanding this nature we can prevent and even reverse our current predicament, after all, "knowledge is power", as they say. We are born headlong in to a world that we don't quite understand or have control of. Perhaps this essay will help you in this endeavor to free yourself from this oppressive "World."

Human nature exhibits many fascinating and unique characteristics apart from the rest of the animal kingdom, including consciousness, which is an understanding of our peculiar station in the world. We use words like "today" and "tomorrow", planning our days and our nights. We can ask questions of ourselves (what does it mean to be a self?) and of our place in the world, exhibiting a fair amount of intelligence and ingenuity that is far above the rest of our animal neighbors. This basic understanding of the world allows us to form and mold it to a certain extent. Though this power of ours is great, we also exhibit a sort of lost hopelessness. We often run from our true selves back into the prison that is the very nature and essence of our existence: the prison that is our "World".

"For manifestly you have long been aware of what you mean when you use the expression 'being.' We, however, who used to think we understood it, have now become perplexed." from Plato's dialogue The Sophist

What does it mean to be in the "World"? To answer that question we must first understand the totality of Heidegger's thought, which lies in the question of "Being". What does it mean to "be"? That is the question, and according to Heidegger's thought, we must first understand that entity whose "being" is an issue for itself... That entity that he refers to as "Dasein". This German term can signify almost any entity, but it is almost always used for human beings. Literally the term means "being there." ("Da" means "there" or sometimes "here"; "sein" is "being.") Heidegger chooses this term to highlight the very nature of human beings that he finds to be the most central to the discussion of "Being", and that is their special understanding of their particular place in this world. A place signified by a seeming contradiction of being and becoming. We are seemingly in two places at once. At one moment I am sitting in my chair writing this essay, and at the same moment I am working toward my future and setting goals for myself. I am a man, who is 5 foot 8 and I fully intend to play golf tomorrow morning. At any one moment I am a totality of facts, yet these facts are constantly molded by the future possibilities that I have for myself. Across the globe there are individuals going to school, studying for this and that, yet their future possibilities change the fact of their schooling to that of individual goals and aspirations. Some may be studying to be a doctor, a lawyer, to just get a degree, or to be a cop, so in reality the totality of our "Being" is determined by both our past, present, and future selves, and all of these potentialities of our being are us at any given moment. As such, Dasein has a very special relationship with Time, and it is this relationship that represents the crux of Heideggar's thought and separates Dasein from the rest of what is.

It is a loop of existence that none of us can escape. At any given moment we are, yet we aren't. And all of this is made possible because we are there, i.e., we exist in time. We are Being in Time, which incidentally is close to the name of Heidegger's early book on the subject: Being and Time. We have a peculiar relationship with Time that the rest of the animal kingdom does not have, and that relationship is our ability to seemingly traverse time and meet with our potentialities. We see our current predicament and can plan from there. We can seemingly stretch ourselves across the sea of time, and traverse our own loop of existence, which is Being thrown into the "World" of Time. So Being for Dasein is that state of being that is manifestly concerned with its place in Time, e.g., Dasein is concerned about its own place in the "World," which is a "World" that has Time. Concernfullness is a characteristic that only Dasein has, and this basic characteristic of Dasein is due to his own understanding of his place in Time.

Time is not a thing anymore than Dasein is a thing. You can't say, "look over there is time, grab it for yourself." Confused yet? Don't worry, Heidegger is one tough nut to crack, but you'll make sense of this mess eventually. We have yet to answer the question: what is it to be in the "World"? But we do have a broader understanding of the nature of "Dasein," which is Heideggerese for human. Think of it like quantum mechanics, where certain subatomic particles exhibit the strange ability of being in more than one place at the same time. A photon moves at the speed of light, and thus, according to the theory of relativity, at the speed of light a particle exists in zero time and space, giving it the theoretical ability of being everywhere at once (it is difficult for the finitude of Dasein to grasp). Dasein by its very nature exists within time, i.e., he moves slower than the speed of light, and thus he exists there in a particular place and time, yet he sees the potentialities of his future Being, stretching himself across the horizon of time like a rubber band. Unlike other things that are he can see his place in the matrix of Time.

Dasein is in authentic existence when he falls away from the "World" of the "they," and confronts the finitude of his particular existence, i.e., he realizes that he must die alone. Only when he is away from the "they" can he realize his own finitude. The "they" constantly whitewashes the facts of death, and tells each of us that we will not die and that we will live in perpetuity. We plan for our futures as if we will never die, only when we are confronted with disaster do we realize our own mortality. In other words, the "World" of the "they" seeks to delude Dasein's understanding of his particular time and place in the "World", thus deluding, not only his understanding of the "World", but of himself.

Dasein stands apart from other things in the world in that he alone is concerned with his own existence. Now, what does all of this have to do with Being-in-the-World? Well, to understand the "World" you must first understand the entity whose own being is an understanding of Being-in-the-World. In a way, Dasein is the "World" in the same sense that he is a part of the "World". What does this mean? Well, let's look at a very common thing we call a hammer. What does it mean to be a hammer? That is probably not a question that you have ever asked yourself. We, by nature, automatically assume the answer without giving any conscious thought to it, but the answer is a bit more complicated than you might realize. You might say that a hammer is a piece of iron with a wooden or metal handle that has a particular shape, which we affiliate with hammers, but this answer is not totally adequate. Why does it have that particular shape? Why not some other shape? It is clear that there is more to being a hammer than its shape, or the content of the materials that make it up (steel or wood). After all, not all hammers are made of steel, some are wooden, and others are plastic. My young nephew has many toy hammers, but what in particular distinguishes a toy plastic hammer from a real hammer? The basic answer is that it is a tool. A tool for what? Hammering. A hammer is defined by its place in the world, which is to hammer things, and those things that it hammers are likewise defined by the hammer. A hammer hammers nails, which are hammered into boards, which are used for building houses, which are used by Dasein for shelter, which keeps Dasein out of the rain, which gets Dasein wet, which can lead toward sickness etc.. Thus, the true definition of a hammer lies in its functionality as a tool within the matrix of the world of things, which are defined by their own functionality in relation to the world of things. It's not as hard as I make it seem. So in reality things are things in that they are related to other things. This is what it means to Be-in-the-World of things, i.e., to be a thing. All of these things are in essence defined in their "everydayness" by Dasein. It is Dasein who finds functionality in a hammer. A bird sees a hammer for other things, like a perch or a predator, but only Dasein can define the true nature of a hammer as something that hammers. What happens when a hammer is broken? It is still a hammer, but its place in the world has changed to that of a broken hammer. We don't really notice a thing until it is broken. It is this brokenness that discloses itself to us its true nature. Before we had always taken the hammer for granted as that thing, which was "ready-to-hand" for hammering, but now it stands in opposition to itself as that thing which once hammered and is now broken. We don't notice the hammer until it is no longer functional in the world of things, i.e., it has changed its place in our world and now it sticks out to us and seemingly has no home.

"Dasein is an entity which does not just occur among other entities. Rather it is ontically distinguished by the fact that, in its very Being, that Being is an issue for it. But in that case, this is a constitutive state of Dasein's Being, and this implies that Dasein, in its Being, has a relationship towards that Being-- that relationship which itself is one of Being."--Martin Heidegger in Being and Time

We now know a little more about what it means for a hammer (thing) to be in the "World," but what does it mean for Dasein to be in the world? Dasein, by nature is not a thing anymore than time is a thing, or a hammer is really a thing, since both Dasein and a hammer are defined by the "World" and not by themselves. Both, in a sense, are thrown into the "World". A hammer does not decide its place in the "World" as a hammer, since its very being is defined by what its functionality is in relation to other things, such as nails, boards, and even Dasein. In a way, though Heidegger would hate my saying this: Dasein defines the "World" of things. Does this give Dasein a supremacy of Being-in-the-World? Not at all... As you will see, Dasein is very much defined, not by himself, but by others.

"Everyone is the other, and no one is himself."-- Martin Heidegger

This thought did not originate with Heidegger, though he did expound on it like no one else, but it probably germinated with George Hegel, incidentally another German philosopher. He was the first philosopher that I know of to notice that we humans are nothing but mirrors. We mimic and parrot our way through this world, and can hardly define ourselves apart from the world of others. We've all seen the Tom Hanks movie Castaway, where he finds himself stranded on a disserted Island with no other human contact to speak of for years. Eventually, he made himself a little friend out of a volley ball, and conversed with it as if it were another human being. You see, he was losing himself, which was not himself at all, but was the "World" of the "they". Without another human to interact with and mirror he had forgotten himself. We would all go crazy under such a circumstance because, technically we are not ourselves, but the "they" of the "World." Hegel documented cases, much like Tarzan, where humans had been disserted without any human contact to speak of and took on the characteristics of the animals that they did have contact with. There have been documented cases where human beings were raised by apes, and even dogs, and have exhibited the characteristics of these animal role models. Without the regular contact of other human beings, humans will take on the characteristics of whatever is available, whether it be an ape, a dog, or a cat, proving that for Dasein Being-in-the-World involves being with others and is defined by these "others." Much like the hammer, Dasein is defined by the "World" around him, and his "concernfullness" (awareness of his place and time in this "World").

Have you ever stopped to consider why you do the things that you do? Don't be embarrassed because most haven't. For instance, why do you eat with a fork as opposed to eating with chopsticks? Why do you speak at a certain audible level in some places, and at a different audible level in others, e.g., church as opposed to a bar? Why do you stand at a certain distance, while conversing with another person? Why do you shake hands with a male friend as opposed to kissing his cheek, which is customary in some cultures? Why do you wear shoes as opposed to going barefoot? The only logical answer that can be put forth is that we do these things because that is what everyone else does. We eat with forks because that is what most Americans eat with. If we lived in Japan or China, then we would probably eat with chopsticks because that is what "they" do over there. Men don't kiss their male friends on the cheek like the Italians do, because that is not something that Americans customarily do. Everything that we do, from going to work to going to church, we do because "they" do it. We are products of the society that we live in. You may take these things for granted, but if you've ever had experience with an autistic child, you would know that these social nuances do not come naturally for everyone. We (those of us who are deemed normal?) naturally fall prey to the social influences that make up our "World," but an autistic child has great difficulty adjusting to this illogical world of social norms. Their extremely logical minds must learn to grasp the illogical world of societal conventions, such as speaking at proper distances to one another, wearing cloths, behaving a certain way at church, and learning the social graces of everyday life. Trapped in their own little world apart from others they must reach out to the "World" in order to function in it. Autism represents an excellent study of living in the world over and against the "World" of the "they".

"By 'Others' we do not mean everyone else but me-- those over against whom the "I" stands out. They are rather those from whom, for the most part, one does not distinguish oneself-- those among whom one is too.... The world of Dasein is a with-world. Being-in is Being-with Others. Their Being-in-themselves within-the-world is Dasein-with."-- Martin Heidegger in Being and Time

So Being-in-the-World for Dasein is Being-with Others, thus the world of Dasein is defined by Others, or as Heidegger called it, the "They". You are no more in control of your world than the hammer is, and it is this reality that causes Dasein so much anxiety. The paradox of Being rears its ugly little head at this point. Authentically, Dasein is himself, who inauthentically falls back into the world of the "they". When Dasein is comfortably nestled within the "World" of the "they", then he is content to just follow the pack, and shirk the responsibility of his own existence onto the "they". We love to make statements such as, "this is just the way 'we' do it," or "this is how 'One' does it," or "I think that I'll try this; 'they' say that's good." Who is this "we," "One," and "they" that "we" are always referring to? "They" are the "world". The "ones" whom we are Being-in-the-World-With. Kierkegaard would tell us that it is when we come to grips with this business of Being-in-the-World-With-the-They that humans feel the angst of existing in opposition to the others... what he calls "despair." We are constantly gauging where we are with the "they," never wanting to lag behind. We've all heard the term "peer pressure," but what does that term really signify? Not that we just want to be one of them, but that we are constantly dealing with this business of Being-in-the-World-With them. Though we are the "they," we are also the "One"; the "One" who reflects the "they," yet is still "One." When we stand apart from the "they," we feel anxiety and become depressed, thus we flee back into the world of the "they" in order to escape any responsibility we have for Being. When we are in the "World" with the "they," then our anxieties are released by the understanding that that is the way that "we" do it. This is why so few exhibit enough real courage to go against the group. Those who do, usually change our world for the better, such as Copernicus, Galileo, and Sir Isaac Newton. A few brave the wiles of authentically existing as themselves apart from the World of the "they," only to invent new technologies and to unearth new ways of thinking and doing. Their inspiration usually only lasts a short time, and then, as is their nature, they flee back into the opiate that is the World of the "they"; some have permanently altered this "World" unto a new understanding and mode of being for the "they." We take constant care to not deviate from any social norms or conventions, to retain what is considered some degree of normalcy.

"In one's concern with what one has taken hold of, whether with, for, or against, the Others, there is constant care as to the way one differs from them, whether that difference is merely one that is to be evened out, whether one's own Dasein has lagged behind the Others and wants to catch up in relation to them, or whether one's Dasein already has some priority over them and sets out to keep them suppressed. The care about the distance between them is disturbing to Being-with-one-another, though this disturbance is one that is hidden from it."-- Martin Heidegger

It is not so easy to escape the world of the "they," as Heidegger has shown. We are constantly drawn to it, and most of us are oblivious to its very existence. We live out our lives in the solace of the ignorance of living in the world of the "they." In Plato's Republic there is a reference to an allegory of a cave. In this allegory Plato shows what it is like to break the chains of conventional society, in Heideggerese, to escape the world of the "they," and to seek the light of the Sun unto a new world and way of Being:

And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened : -- "Behold ! , human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den. Here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets."

"I see".

"And do you see", I said, "men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall ? Some of them are talking, others silent."

"You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners".

"Like ourselves", I replied. "And they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave ?"

"True", he said. "How could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads ?"

"And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows ?"

"Yes", he said.

"And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them ?"

"Very true."

"And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow ?"

"No question", he replied.

"To them", I said, "the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images".

"That is certain."

"And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive someone saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, -- what will be his reply ? And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, -- will he not be perplexed ? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him ?"

"Far truer".

"And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him ?"

"True", he said.

"And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he's forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated ? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called 'realities'."

"Not all in a moment", he said.

"He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven. And he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day ?"

"Certainly".

"Last of he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another, and he will contemplate him as he is".

"Certainly".

"He will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season and the years, and is the guardian of all that is in the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things which he and his fellows have been accustomed to behold ?"

"Clearly", he said, "he would first see the sun and then reason about him".

"And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them ?"

"Certainly, he would".

"And if they were in the habit of conferring honors among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such honors and glories, or envy the possessors of them ? Would he not say with Homer :"

"Better to be the poor servant of a poor master, and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner ?".

"Yes", he said, "I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner".

"Imagine once more", I said, "such an one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness ?"

"To be sure", he said.

"And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable) would he not be ridiculous ? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death ".

"No question", he said.

"This entire allegory", I said, "you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed -- whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed".

"I agree", he said, "as far as I am able to understand you".

"Moreover", I said, "you must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell; which desire of theirs is very natural, if our allegory may be trusted".

"Yes, very natural".

"And is there anything surprising in one who passes from divine contemplations to the evil state of man, misbehaving himself in a ridiculous manner; if, while his eyes are blinking and before he has become accustomed to the surrounding darkness, he is compelled to fight in courts of law, or in other places, about the images or the shadows of images of justice, and is endeavoring to meet the conceptions of those who have never yet seen absolute justice ?"

"Anything but surprising", he replied.

"Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if he has a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the den".

"That", he said, "is a very just distinction".

"But then, if I am right, certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put a knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes".

"They undoubtedly say this", he replied.

"Whereas, our argument shows that the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, or in other words, of the good".

Those who do escape the cave find that they cannot take the anxiety of authentic existence for long, and will flee back into the ignorant safety of the "they". A few go on to forge a new "World," but often live out their lives in stark opposition to the "World" of the "they," and are either murdered or ostracized. This is the human nature that is so presently taken advantage of by our so called "authority figures" of today. The Nazis, were one of the most prominent to apply this basic knowledge of the "World" in their massive propaganda campaigns, whose intent was the whole-scale dumbing down of the populace for their control. Heidegger, for a small period, was a member of the Nazi party, but I think that he influenced the Nazis as much as they influenced him. Today all of the same propaganda tactics are utilized by our governments in a veiled attempt to influence the public for the sake of a few megalomaniacal charlatans, who seek to control the "they," thus controlling the "World"; but as Heidegger would surely point out, Dasein is Being-in-the-World-with-the-they, and thus the propaganda ministers fall prey to their own lies. You can change the "World," but by changing the world you are changing yourself, thus "he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword." (Dasein cannot stop "Being" in the "World" anymore than the Goth children can.)

Hegel appears to have another influence upon the thought of Heidegger, given that Hegel also wrote about a mass consciousness, which he termed "Spirit," and the influence that the finitude of human beings has on this mass "Spirit" of the age. He too saw the trends and movements of mass "Spirit" over time, and just as Heidegger, he saw art as a true disclosure of the "spirit of the age" ("Zeitgeist"). But Heidegger differed greatly in the understanding of this mass consciousness in that he saw Dasein as being in and with the "World," and not just an object within it. Fascism had its start in the philosophy of Hegel, whose musings on the State leave no room for the individual. According to Hegelian philosophy, the whole nature and meaning of Being lies in its taking part in the "absolute spirit" of the State. Heidegger would surely tell us that Dasein's authentic existence stands in opposition to the "World" or State. The State, as viewed by Heidegger, is a lie that Dasein must transcend.

Communism, Nazism, and Fascism all got their start from the philosophy of George Hegel, as did Heidegger. The Hegelian dialectical process is everywhere that you look in today's propagandized "World of the they." Two opposing forces create a new revolutionary age (New World Order): bourgeois vs. the proletariat, republican vs. democrat, black vs. white, liberal vs. conservative, etc. Everywhere there is a dichotomy, always at war, and you must choose a side or be crushed by both. There is no middle ground. This is how they shape the present "World of the they." This is how our "World" is created for us. By manipulating both sides, a small minority can change the present epoch and mold it into what they wish. This is why our national elections are notoriously corrupt and rigged. This is why we are given a choice of two candidates, with a third sometimes thrown in to swing the vote one way or the other. The masters of our "World" always pit one side vs. the other, and then pick up the pieces left behind.

A small few that have broken from tradition have, with much angst, changed the "World" of the "they." We have seen this in the epochal revolutions in thought that have occurred across historical record, such as the Aristotelian, Copernican, Galilean, Newtonian, and Einsteinian revolutions that have changed the scope and thought of man across Time. Each of these sweeping changes in our world view took place slowly and with much birthing pains, but they succeeded in reshaping the "World" of the "they". The present epoch Heidegger labeled as distinctive in its technological way of Being.

Heidegger warned of the standing-reserve nature of the present technological age, that sees everything through the lens of its own "resourcefulness". Everything that we interact with in our world today is defined by us through its resourceful nature: a mountain is a coal mine, a river is a hydroelectric plant, a virus is a tool for biological warfare etc.. And the most evil and "monstrous" standing-reserve of all is Dasein, now regarded as merely a resource and a tool for governments and moneyed vultures. We witnessed this monstrosity in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, and now our current leadership carries on this German tradition of Super Men and their chattel.

Part of the allure and success of the present propagandized society lies in its covert nature. The Nazis, though masters of propaganda warfare against their people, were overt in the way they disposed of undesirables and political enemies. They openly preached hatred-laced coercions against their own people, and any opposition was immediately silenced. Modern regimes are much more slick than the Nazis or even the Soviets in the way that they wage their ideological and political wars against the people. The American Democracy that is espoused by self-serving politicians today is a prime example of the slickster's totalitarianism that has become a staple of the modern age, molded in the very likeness of the Greek-democratic-larceny system fashioned by Pericles 2500 years ago. In today's television-Hollywoodized society, everything from a candidates hair to his tie color are considered over and above any real issues, creating the perfect environment for political slickmeisters to pander for the popular support of their larcenies. As long as you can fool the people into going along with it, you can get away with murder. It makes it far more difficult to convince an individual who is an unwitting participant of a corrupt system that the corruption even exists. He will most likely rebel saying, "I don't see anything." A man that is born into the system, never questioning it, will accept it as just something that "we" do, or "they" do, even if that something is overtly immoral, e.g., the institution of slavery before the Civil War.

In America today fraud and theft by and for our government is manifestly accepted throughout society. If you asked a person if it were wrong to steal, he would most likely reply that it was; but if you asked the same person if it were wrong for the government to steal a person's house for not paying an illegal and unjust property tax, he would likely reply that it was not wrong. The government has been allowed to fleece the American public at an alarming rate over the past seventy five years, yet it is widely accepted as just part of Being in the "World". We have massive amounts of fraud emanating from our Capitol, from lobbyists, Senators, Congressman etc., yet "we" accept it as just something that "we" do today. In the 90's we were all witness to the corruption of Wall Street, the stock market bubble and the dotcom ponzi schemes. Though most lost their shirts in the end, some made astounding gains, but we accepted it because we were part of it all and congressmen were paid off. As long as Enron, World Com, and others can acquire the assistance of politicians in Washington D.C. through bribes and extortion, we will accept it because that is what "One" does, and if it ever hits the fan, we will make scapegoats out of a small few, and then continue on as if the system did not make the man, until the entire system crashes and we are forced to confront it. As long as Bill Clinton can charm the camera, or wink his way to grand larceny, we will accept it because that is the way "we" do things today, besides he had nice hair. Though we were seemingly attacked by foreign terrorists on 9-11, George W. Bush's Homeland Security will somehow turn old grannies into Muslim terrorists in their grand quest to rewrite the Constitution, yet we accept it because that is what everyone else does. We will persecute old women like Martha Stewart for doing nothing, while allowing the real criminals to run free, and still we contend that we are not being manipulated. We have huge money rackets dishonestly fleecing the public, such as insurance, medical, credit, banking, and pharmaceutical rackets, all in plain view, yet we willingly lay down for them, because that is what "One" does. The glaring inequalities of the current legal system with its convoluted and arbitrarily petty laws, seeming unlimited resources provided for prosecutors, and the great expense required for an adequate defense, make it almost impossible for justice to be done for the poor or the uninitiated, yet we are content with it all because that is just how "we" do things today. Our police and judges are notoriously corrupt, while members of elite clubs like the masons or the bar association, yet we take it. Our streets have been turned into extortion rackets for overzealous police departments, seeking to meet quotas for government funding and promotions, thus leading to false arrests, harassment, and the violation of the basic Constitutional rights of innocent civilians, but we are told by our TVs that it is for our own good, so we accept it. A small group of wealthy and private corporations have taken over our monetary system, forced us to accept their debt, caused countless booms and busts, increased their own massive holdings at our expense, taken over our government and our media, made us their slaves, and yet we just sit by and accept it because that's the way it was when "we" were born. As long as the bull frogs don't notice that they are being slowly boiled to death, everything will be ok. As long as we remain safely nestled within the "they," we won't notice the giant fraud that is our "World."

The American government is so corrupt that I scarcely have the space in this article to document it all, and though I stand starkly in opposition of the "they" on this, here are just a few examples. Political assassinations, such as Martin Luther King, RFK, John Lenin, and JFK have taken place in full public view, while being blamed on small remote elements outside of the government. In the 50's our government brought Nazis into the highest levels in what was labeled Operation Paperclip. During the first half of the 20th century, the Federal Reserve Banking conglomerate was set up, allowing for the creation of the Great Depression, the debasement of our money, and the culmination of a communist-socialist State dependant on taxing and spending the people into slavery. The corrupt CIA, formerly known as the OSS, whose sole job after WWII was to smuggle Nazis into the country, has played a key role in controlling the media and destroying free speech, while running the drug trade, and selling illegal weapons to South American dictators. Fake war after fake war has been arranged by the moneyed class, for things like drugs and oil, with our children as the fodder. Yet we are supposed to do the patriotic thing and look the other way, as if patriotism stands for corruption.

We are so far enveloped by the "World" that we have no ability to distinguish moral values from immoral values. When honest businessmen and women do a great job with their companies, like Jack Welch and Martha Stewart, we demonize and persecute them for their good values, while immortalizing dishonest thieves like Bill Clinton or Alan Greenspan. We have no comprehension of what true values are. We commonly take Marxist, communist, and socialist ideals, and make them into something that we term the "American Democracy," as if James Madison and Thomas Jefferson wrote Marxist diatribes in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We have been increasingly programmed into accepting Marxist dogma to the point that we scarcely know the difference. We exist in a communist/fascist society, and yet most Americans would somehow believe that they are free-market capitalists because that is what they have been told by the "they".

"One example of such grossly-erroneous thinking glares from the common acceptance of progressive income taxes -- force-backed redistributions of earned capital (versus non-force consumption taxes). Without destructive income taxes and irrational government regulations, prosperity would expand without limits. In such a free-enterprise boom, sales-tax revenues would also expand without limits, allowing the consumption-tax percentage against the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to continually shrink as the percentage of improper-and-unnecessary government spending declines toward zero.

Consider also how replacing the onerous filing of income taxes with a simple sales tax would bring debt-liquidating prosperity to prevent an otherwise inevitable real-estate-bubble collapse and a forced debt-liquidation recession or depression. �Percentage-wise, the working classes would benefit the most by eliminating all income taxation on individuals and businesses. For, income taxation destroys the future -- destroys job-and-wealth-creating earnings, savings, investments, capital, entrepreneurial opportunities, and the most-precious commodity -- time.

Ultimately, only competitively earned income continually improves both short-range and long-range human life. Only competitively earned income provides net-productive investment capital. Only competitively earned income generates net advances in prosperity, business, jobs, education, well-being, health, science, art, and romantic happiness."-- Pax Neo-tech

Today's self-serving politicians have had a great role model in the art of political fakery, and that role model was the Grecian political sophisticate Pericles around 450 B.C.. By wielding the democratic capital of a bewildered and fooled public, he was able to defraud and lie his way into popular support for whole-scale fraud. He robbed his people blind, but with a wink and a smile they lauded him, setting up a string of demagogues that ended the Grecian Golden Age. Clinton, Bush, etc. are perfect modern examples of the vote-pandering politico in the mold of Pericles, and a gauge of the current condition of the "World" of Dasein. The Romans also fashioned a fraudulent form of government in the likeness of Pericles and his demagogic heirs. A government where wealthy Senators appear to be doing the "will of the people," when in reality they are lining their own coffers with the stolen capital of their pacified constituents, yet both the Romans and Pericles are held up by today's politicos as models for honest statesmanship. The Constitutional Republican (not Democracy) form of government set up by our founding fathers has long been dissolved in favor of a Democratic Socialist State, allowing for the emergence of demagogic electors and popular sovereignty over the rule of natural and moral law.

We must realize that it is very hard to save a civilization when its hour has come to fall beneath the power of demagogues. For the demagogue has been the great strangler of civilization. Both Greek and Roman civilizations fell at the hands of this loathsome creature who brought from Macaulay the remark that "in every century the vilest examples of human nature have been among the demagogues." But a man is not a demagogue simply because he stands up and shouts at the crowd. There are times when this can be a hallowed office. The real demagogy of the demagogue is in his mind and is rooted in his irresponsibility towards the ideas that he handles�ideas not of his own creation, but which he has only taken over from their true creators. Demagogy is a form of intellectual degeneration.-- Jos� Ortega y Gasset, History as a System,
trans. Helene Weyl

Dasein must stand in stark opposition to the "World" of the "they," if he is going to right the centuries of wrongs committed against him. He must find his own authentic existence over and against the "they," i.e., he must have the courage to go against the crowd or be doomed to a "World" of darkness. History has shown that a single individual with the courage to stand against the crowd can change the "World" for the better (Martin Luther, Einstein, etc.,), now imagine a sea of Daseins all pointing towards a more authentic existence. It becomes increasingly more difficult for Dasein to stand afar from the vastness of the "they," and view himself authentically. It is much like a boat that is lost at sea... Every direction looks the same when you are in the midst of a vast ocean, but if you look inward within yourself, you will find the compass or teach yourself to navigate the stars from your central vantage point from within the boat. If you try to navigate the sea by looking from without into the endless horizon of blue darkness, you will go in circles and never find your way.

by Ryan Bradfield

Sources:

Melchert, Norman The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy, Mayfield Publishing Company, Mountain View, California 94041, 1999

http://www.neo-tech.com/pax-b1/index.php