Teutonic precision is always admirable, especially
considering how easily it can derail and drift to pure non-sense and
absurdity. Heidegger was one of the sharpest mind of his generation (a bit like
Chairman of Philosophical Politburo); he acutely described the relation of
consciousness and technology. 
And he got it tremendously wrong.
Like a good
German, he did his own homework, he was careful with accounting, so if
philosophy was born in Greece and Germany was the heir of that tradition, then
Being There, the Dasein had to be in that liminal position because of
technology. Wrong Marty, wrong. So interested in the line that you forgot about
the pencil drawing that line, which was European imperialism.
One of the easiest objections to Christianity is: if Jesus
is the universal Savior of humankind, what about those who live before him,
what about those who for accidental, contingent historical reason didn’t know
him? What about the Chinese???
Can someone theologically catholic think to the
Chinese???
Now Marty, if the history of Dasein is so in tune with the sentiment
of an imperialist German, son of a Christian preacher, with an ambiguous,
unresolved relation with technology and mass production, either being there is
King Kong, or simply you are not stating the universal trajectory of being and its
consciousness, but simply describing the narrative of Prussian-European
domination, its uncertainties and its lack of doubts.
In fact the tribulations of Dasein seem quite correlated
with the declining aspirations of European imperial citizenship. The crepuscular
relation with the power of technology is sinister only because the shadow
grows, which means the power declines.
Heidegger was a very intelligent man and
he grasped quite clearly that the ascendant domination of European identities
was somehow ungrounded. He was obtuse enough not to have the slightly idea that
actually all the Greek tradition turned Christian turned Holy Roman Empire
turned Europe Colonial Empire turned Prussian was just an imperialist
propaganda. That other cultures weren’t so shaken by the trajectory of being,
not because inferior, or not sensitive enough to listen to the story of being, but because on the different side of domination.
A domineering consciousness is the representative of a
domineering caste, which can be described as the Empire. Before, after or under
the Empire, you won’t experience any of the crepuscular spleen of the Dasein;
you won’t have any qualm for technology that pinched Heidegger: you are too deeply
in the shit because of the Empire, to really worry about turn and pirouette of
being.
Nonsense is the other side of imperial citizenship: all the advantages
can stand because oppression and exploitation of others under or outside the
Empire. But of course, apart from shallow, natural enjoyment of being at the
top, there is no other reason than brutal domination for being at the top.
No
matter the sophisticated propaganda, domination is always ungrounded, why-less.
A bit like the rose of Meister Eckhart. Any civilization in a dominant position
needs to elaborate the non-sense of its arbitrary ruling; the tricky part of
course is not during the ascendant part, but when things get tough, when the
rule becomes disputed, then your Angst needs a fucking good answer. Of course
Anyway, very glad that Germany finally learned the lesson
and found her way out of brutal application of her own self-referential
domineering propaganda.
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