In 2018, I left the work world after reading Martin Heidegger’s magnum opus “Being and Time” over a period of two years. I felt our modern global society had reached such an extreme level of inauthenticity that I no longer wanted to be a part of it. Reading Being and Time gave me a clearer understanding of what Heidegger termed the “Dictatorship of the-they,” how the-they reinforces the inauthentic state of being-in-the world by providing an answer to everything. By doing so, the-they also attempts to shutdown independent inquiry into various matters through ridicule of anyone who might independently inquire and challenge the answers given by the-they.
As I began questioning the answers given by the-they, I found them unsatisfactory. Though my questioning began shortly after I graduated from college, with an inquiry into debt-money, it expanded to most facets of life which I had previously taken for granted. After all, the-they provided honest answers to serve the public good, right? Instead, I found the-they provided endless distractions and deception, to keep people ignorant, in a weak and dependent state. This has led to a disastrous outcome for global society at large, where knowledge, power, and resources has been centralized into few hands.
Only through ἀλήθεια will we be able to eradicate ignorance and build a healthy, authentic, and connected society.