We Live as One Lives — On Imitation, Ego, and Borrowed Life
Martin Heidegger – We Live as One Lives
Gems from the World (English) | 12 January
Living as “People” Live
We live as people live. We think as people think. We choose what society has already chosen and value what others value. We say, “This is how things are done,” as if it were a natural law. No one seems to decide—yet everyone follows. The comfort of this life is safety and settlement; Heidegger’s question is whether this comfort costs us our own existence.
Das Man: The Anonymous “They”
Heidegger calls this force Das Man—the faceless, anonymous “they.” It isn’t a group out there; it lives inside each of us. It thinks on our behalf. Our names, ambitions, fears, careers, and targets are largely borrowed. Even when we “choose” engineering or management, the choice is already pre-approved. Everyone becomes “other,” and no one is truly himself.
Busyness as Escape
We stay busy so we don’t have to face ourselves. Noise protects us. Perhaps this busyness is intentional. But sometimes the noise falls away—through silence, failure, loss, or anxiety—and we realize we’ve been living someone else’s life. That realization is disturbing, so we quickly return to routine.
What Remains Without Das Man?
If Das Man is removed, what remains of “me”? Is my time my own? Is the thumb scrolling the feed my own? Is the mind that doesn’t listen to me really mine? Is the algorithm mine? This is frightening precisely because it exposes how little of our life is self-owned.
Dasein: The Being That Questions Itself
For Heidegger, Dasein is the being that questions its own being. Existentialists at least dissect how and why we are living the way we are. They refuse to take life for granted. If your security depends entirely on money, status, or currency, what happens when the world stops respecting those symbols?
Living by a Vague “One”
“We live as one lives.” But who is this “one”? Nobody in particular—just a vague idea. Because reality feels uncertain, we return to what “one does.” This creates a strange condition: everyone is other, and no one is himself. Language becomes borrowed too—idol talk, repeated without understanding.
Anxiety vs Fear
Fear has an object; anxiety does not. Anxiety is more helpful because it shakes us awake. It reveals that what sustains us also threatens us—grass and tiger together. When we see ourselves as separate from the world, duality arises and existence turns into consumption. Religion, at its core, is meant to liberate humans from suffering, not decorate this duality.
Being Alone at Death
All your life you spoke the language of others. Yet you will die alone. The world constantly demands your energy, emotions, and intellect—but it will not share your death. “If my life is yours,” Heidegger provokes, “will my death also be yours?”
Distraction and the Question of Freedom
In a world of constant distraction, the real question is not “How do I move forward?” but “How did I come here?” If the mind is filled entirely with the past, no new future can arise. Psychological dependence erases existence. A leaf does not follow a fixed course; it bends. Dead wood is useful to others; a living tree grows on its own. Do you want to be settled—or alive?
Creative Destruction
Questioning creates tension. Existence moves through creative destruction. If you do not demolish what confines you, nothing new can emerge. Don’t be afraid of demolition. Freedom is not pictures of the sky—it is release from the jail.
God, Truth, and Objectification
“Is God?” People focus on “God” and miss the word “is.” Whatever can be seen as an object—like a microphone, the universe, even the body—belongs to subject–object play. Truth is that on which this play happens. Therefore, God is not truth; truth is God. It has no name, because naming turns it into an object. Tat Tvam Asi points to this non-separation.
The Core Insight
We live as people live because it feels safe. Heidegger exposes the cost: a borrowed life. Anxiety cracks the shell. When distraction drops, the question appears—not about the world, but about me. And that question is the beginning of authenticity.
We live as “one” lives.
Most of the time, we do not live as ourselves.
We live as “one” lives.
We speak as one speaks.
We think as one thinks.
We choose what is chosen.
We value what is considered valuable.
We say:
“This is how it is.”
“This is how things go.”
“This is life.”
No particular individual makes decisions.
Yet everyone follows.
Thus, no one is responsible.
And no one is truly free.
This way of living feels safe.
It feels normal.
It feels unquestionable.
But in this life, nothing is truly ours.
Our opinions are borrowed.
Our ambitions are borrowed.
Even our fears are borrowed.
We are busy.
We are entangled.
We are distracted.
And because we are always busy,
we never have to face ourselves.
Only occasionally is this routine interrupted.
A sudden silence.
A failure.
A loss.
A moment of anxiety.
In such moments, the noise stops.
And for the first time,
we realize we have been living someone else’s life.
The experience is uncomfortable.
So we quickly return.
To the routine.
To the noise.
To “how things are.”
About this text
This is a poetic rendering of ideas from Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time (1927), especially his analyses of das Man (“they”/“one”) and Angst (anxiety). It is not a direct quotation; Heidegger’s original language is dense, technical, and filled with German terminology. This adaptation aims to make the core insights accessible while remaining faithful to the structure of his thought.
Key Heideggerian Terms
- Dasein: Heidegger’s term for human existence. Literally, “being there.” Unlike objects, we are beings for whom our own existence is always a question, always at stake.
- Das Man (they / one): The anonymous collective that determines how “one” lives, thinks, and speaks. It is not a particular person or group, but the impersonal norms we internalize without choice. “Everyone else exists, and no one is oneself.”
- Gerede (idle talk): Everyday conversation about things we do not truly understand. We pass on what “is said” without making it our own.
- Verfallenheit (falling / entanglement): Our tendency to lose ourselves in busyness, distraction, and worldly concerns. It is not a moral failing, but a structural feature of existence—we avoid facing ourselves.
- Angst (anxiety): A fundamental mood distinct from fear. Fear has an object; Angst does not. In Angst, the familiar world loses its hold, and we face our existence without the shield of routine or distraction.
- Unheimlichkeit (uncanniness / not-at-home-ness): Literally, “not being at home.” The unsettling feeling that arises in Angst, when we realize that the world we accepted does not fully contain us.
Source: Martin Heidegger, Being and Time (1927), translated by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson (New York: Harper & Row, 1962).