Philosophy explanation of NPC memefrom @glass__museum

Transcript

Heidegger was calling people NPCs way before Gen Z slang made it a thing. He called it Das Man or the they. In Being in Time, Heidegger explains that most of us live an inauthentic mode of existence where we run on best that we did not design and ignore our true selves. Instead of acting out of genuine choice, we act because that is simply what one does. Das Man It is not a distinct quantifiable identity, but rather an amorphous representation of society and its expectations. Heidegger writes, we take pleasure and enjoy ourselves as they take pleasure. We read, see, and judge about literature and art as they see and judge. The they, which is nothing definite, prescribes tier kind of being of everydayness. This everydayness is precisely what we mean when we call someone an MPC. Someone whose thoughts, values, and tastes aren't really their own, but echoes of the collective. In this mode, our individuality dissolves. We are not Dasein, beings capable of authentic selfhood, but rather interchangeable, standardized selves, Our identities reflecting rank internalization of our surrounding paradigms. Do you actually like the boo boos or is that just what Best Man tells you to like? Or on a realer note, do you actually want a house in the suburbs with two and a half kids or is that just the life of Das Man? For Heidegger, the challenge is to break free from Das Man. To To face the anxiety of freedom and take responsibility for your being. But most people retreat to conformity because that feels safer. Think of music streaming. Infinite choices, yet most people just play their auto generated day best. That is the comfort of Das Man. Letting the they decide what's good. But if listening to Best Boone is the result of that, then maybe the anxiety of freedom is worth it.