Heidegger: The They Stole Your Life and You Said Thank You (1927)

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Now, I must tell you something uncomfortable.

[00:00:05]Who are you?

[00:00:06]In your daily life.

[00:00:08]Not who you wish to be. Who are you actually?

[00:00:12]In the average ordinary running of your days. You dress as one dresses. You speak as one speaks. You read what one reads and enjoy what one enjoys.

[00:00:24]You live for the most part not as yourself.

[00:00:28]But as the they. In German, das man.

[00:00:33]One does this. One says that. Nobody in particular.

[00:00:38]Everybody together.

[00:00:40]The they. This they is not a tyrant. It does not force you. It simply relieves you.

[00:00:47]It takes the burden of your own being away from you. You do not need to decide anything deeply.

[00:00:54]Because the they has already decided.

[00:00:57]The they prescribes what one wears. What comes as a success. What is proper to feel at a funeral. What is funny. What is serious.

[00:01:07]In the idle talk, the words that circulate without origin. That everyone repeats without having thought.

[00:01:14]This is its medium. You do not speak your own language. You inherit a language already full of average interpretations. Average meanings. The they speaks first. You repeat. This is inauthenticity.

[00:01:30]Not a moral thing.