they

is not an individual person or people but a mode of existence at work whenever something is being done on account of the thoughtless customary, or the fact that 'that is what one does' or 'that is what people do'.

is so all-pervasive a way of being in our everyday lives that even when one tries to flee from the crowd, one cannot escape the fact that one must do it in the way one does it.

even when we flee from the crowd we do it the way one does it' (hubert dreyfus youtube interview from the 70s)

is always at work in us — even when we flee from the crowd we do it the way one does it.

And, of course, "this one" doesn't mean just the masses. As Heidegger says at one point, we flee from the crowd the way one flees from the crowd. But even when we flee from the crowd we do it the way one does it.

is a way of describing how Dasein does not see the world with its own eyes, but sees it the way others do.

the “they.” For the most part, human Dasein does not see the world with its own eyes, but sees it the way others do. In phrases such as “they say that high school is the best time of your life,” the “they” is no one in particular, not even a measurable 51 percent majority of individual people. It is an impersonal, inauthentic force that does our thinking and seeing for us. Only rarely do we break free of it.

is the enemy of conscience, which frees us into responsibility for our own being-in-the-world, which, being authentic, can never belong to the they.

Along with Angst, another force that makes the they collapse is conscience. Conscience calls us to be guilty, and thereby frees us into responsibility for our own being-in-the-world, which can never belong to the they.

is responsible for depriving us of Death’ power to shock by telling us that death is an unlucky mishap that occurs to others sometimes, and which tranquillizes us by telling us not to worry about it yet.

Death is not usually a shocking event: everyone already knows about it. The they interprets death as an unlucky mishap that occurs to other Daseins sometimes. The they does not hide the fact that all Daseins must die, it simply tranquillizes us by telling us not to worry about it yet. In Heidegger’s words, we all realize that “one of these days we’ll die too, but right now it has nothing to do with us.” The they makes efforts to ensure that death is deprived of its power to shock. We console sick people by telling them not to worry, they will be better soon and will soon be tranquillized once more.

is a kind of superficiality where everything original and deep gets treated as something obvious and well-known; where every secret loses its force.

Everything original and deep gets treated as something obvious and well-known. In Heidegger’s words, “every secret loses its force.” Anything gained by strenuous effort is converted into a superficial object of manipulation, publicity, and marketing.

is a dictatorship of sorts: we enjoy what they enjoy, have the same views on literature that they have, and find shocking whatever they find shocking.

The criticisms also take a political turn aimed against Heidegger’s traditional nemesis: mass democracy and its infrastructure. By riding public transportation and reading newspapers, we become like the others, sinking further and further into the they. Indeed, we live under an outright dictatorship of the they: we enjoy what they enjoy, have the same views on literature that they have, and find shocking whatever they find shocking.

they, n.Definitions

they