For example
>1. Germany's deviation from an original and authentic past, its having
>lost its way and abandoned authenticity, its 'thrownness'. This is the
>Heidegger philosophising of a central tenet of reactionary thinking that
>German greatness had been squandered through the years of pusillanimous
>democratic leadership.
>
>
>3. Authenticity is concentrated in the simple life of the country and of
>the craftsman. Inauthenticity is concentrated in 'Das Mann', 'the They'
>- which is to say the urban proletariat. This is a central theme of
>German (and American) reaction of the time. As the cities grew the
>'authentic' German culture of the black forest felt threatened.
>Translated this means that the middle classes felt threatened by the
>growth of the working class. Heidegger associates the They, the
>inauthentic ones with 'publicness' and 'idle chatter'. As opposed to the
>stillness and timelessness of the authentic life, the city streets are
>abuzz with talk and democratic debate - to Heidegger's dismay.
>
However, for Heidegger authenticity and inauthenticity correspond not to class division but are modes in which all human being exist. Inauthenticity is the average way of being and is not something "bad" that needs to be gotten rid of. At times in life, humans exists in an authentica but that is not a monopoly of any group. Authenticity is not a stillness since Da-sein is always a being-in-the-world and the "resulteness" of authenticty occurs amid the world and our dealing with things and others.
>4. The inexorable decline must be arrested by a Stand in History, where
>authentic being reasserts itself. It hears the Call to conscience, which
>is non-rational, but intuitive. Authentic being stirs to action after
>years of silence, it is 'being-in-the-face-of-death'.
>
My own reading, and others, takes the opposite understanding of Heidegger concept of authentic historicity. This understanding of history means that one grasps the past in all its tragedies and saddnesses. Inauthentic historicity "levels" down meaning and understand the past in average way. Thus, inauthentic understanding would see the U.S role in World War Two as a heroic march of freedom against Nazi tyranny. An authentic understanding recalls and hold in mind the truth of US involvement in terms of the saturation bombing of German cities, etc. That is, it grasps the truth of the past in an authentic way.
>
>Like Mein Kampf, Being and Time should be studied, of course. But it
>should be studied for what it is: a philosophical reworking of the main
>themes of German reactionary thinking.
>--
>Jim heartfield
This strikes me as extremely anti-intellectual way of thinking about philosophy. Certainly seeing Being and Time as a outgrowth of "German reactionary thinking" is one legitimate intepretation, but just one. To throw out other interpretation is to neglect the possible rich insights of Being and Time. Hardly an authentic way to do philosophy, nor generous to others.
Jacob Segal