das Man drains personal responsibility by taking over decisions that should be our own

Evidence

Being and Time contained at least one big idea that should have been of use in resisting totalitarianism. Dasein, Heidegger wrote there, tends to fall under the sway of something called das Man or ‘the they’ — an impersonal entity that robs us of the freedom to think for ourselves. To live authentically requires resisting or outwitting this influence, but this is not easy because das Man is so nebulous. Man in German does not mean ‘man’ as in English (that’s der Mann), but a neutral abstraction, something like ‘one’ in the English phrase ‘one doesn’t do that’, or ‘they’ in ‘they say it will all be over by Christmas’. ‘The they’ is probably the best translation available, except that it seems to point to some group ‘over there’, separate from myself. Instead, for Heidegger, das Man is me. It is everywhere and nowhere; it is nothing definite, but each of us is it. As with Being, it is so ubiquitous that it is difficult to see. If I am not careful, however, das Man takes over the important decisions that should be my own. It drains away my responsibility or ‘answerability’. As Arendt might put it, we slip into banality, failing to think. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 264

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clear account of das Man — its German meaning, translation difficulty, and why it is not a group ‘out there’ but each individual.
• QUESTION: How does Heidegger think a genuine individual can detect and resist das Man if it is everywhere and nowhere, including oneself?
• XREF: Links Arendt’s banality of evil back to Heidegger’s das Man — an important bridge between existentialism and totalitarianism theory. — connects to: Man is a process, the product of his own actions — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1256; Moral responsibility presupposes that people have self-influence over their actions. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 65; Commitments are often manufactured by removing one’s own control over action — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 714 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Commitments are often manufactured by removing one’s own control over action #corroborates (0.90) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 714
• Believing one is powerless in a system eliminates felt responsibility for actions #corroborates (0.90) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 324
• Man is a process, the product of his own actions #complicates (0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1256
• Moral responsibility presupposes that people have self-influence over their actions. #corroborates (0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 65
• Continuous responsibility shifting across a hierarchy creates free-floating responsibility that incapacitates moral authority #expands (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 463
• Power shifts blame from subordinate to power-holder by suppressing the subordinate’s own motives #qualifies (0.80) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 686
• Blaming the system rather than oneself can protect self-esteem #complicates (0.78) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1097
• When everyone shares responsibility, no one personally feels responsible #corroborates (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 429
• Obeying rules, precedent, and authority means deciding against one’s own best judgment. #complicates (0.72) — Frederick Schauer, Thinking Like a Lawyer, 15