Leveling Down, Down, Down
Reading Heidegger's Being and Time, I came across this:
The tendency of Being-with-one-another concerns itself as such with averageness, which is an existential characteristic of the "they." ... This care of averageness reveals in turn an essential tendency of Dasein which we call the "leveling down" of all possibilities of Being.
Basically, I think what he's saying is that doing things as 'one does' causes everyone to be brought down over time. This puts me in mind of the "No Child Left Behind" act enacted a few years ago. I hate it: I hated it at the time it was enacted, and hated it more after I saw the results. It should really be called the "No Child Allowed or Encouraged to Develop His or Her Full Potential Act". I know that isn't exactly what Heidegger was talking about, but I think it is related. We have this idea of equality. Originally, it meant equal opportunity or being treated as equals. However, it has been perverted to mean that everyone should actually be equal. When everyone is made to be equal, we have to go to the lowest common denominator. So, really smart people are held back academically, athletic people are held back athletically, artistic people are held back artistically, etc. When we fail to recognize the difference between treating people as equals and people being equal, no one can realize his/her full potential. We are different from one another, and we should embrace those differences as what makes us special and what makes us capable of being treated as equal to someone who is different from us.
/END RANT
The tendency of Being-with-one-another concerns itself as such with averageness, which is an existential characteristic of the "they." ... This care of averageness reveals in turn an essential tendency of Dasein which we call the "leveling down" of all possibilities of Being.
Basically, I think what he's saying is that doing things as 'one does' causes everyone to be brought down over time. This puts me in mind of the "No Child Left Behind" act enacted a few years ago. I hate it: I hated it at the time it was enacted, and hated it more after I saw the results. It should really be called the "No Child Allowed or Encouraged to Develop His or Her Full Potential Act". I know that isn't exactly what Heidegger was talking about, but I think it is related. We have this idea of equality. Originally, it meant equal opportunity or being treated as equals. However, it has been perverted to mean that everyone should actually be equal. When everyone is made to be equal, we have to go to the lowest common denominator. So, really smart people are held back academically, athletic people are held back athletically, artistic people are held back artistically, etc. When we fail to recognize the difference between treating people as equals and people being equal, no one can realize his/her full potential. We are different from one another, and we should embrace those differences as what makes us special and what makes us capable of being treated as equal to someone who is different from us.
/END RANT