Applying Heidegger’s Dasein Analytic to a Critique of Culture

"I taste; therefore...never mind."—Kurt Cobain

Human consciousness can manifests itself externally as Erscheinung (sign) to show its internal state.

In the "spirit," of Dostoevsky's "Notes from The Underground", I found some theological interpretations of Nirvana and Kurt Cobaine's song, "Smells Like Teen Spirit." The German theologian, Hegel, speaks of the Unhappy Consciousness.

"The book "Teen Spirit: The Stories Behind Every Nirvana Song describes "Teen Spirit" as "a typically murky Cobain exploration of meaning and meaninglessness." Azerrad plays upon the juxtaposition of Cobain's contradictory lyrics (such as "It's fun to lose and to pretend") and states "the point that emerges isn't just the conflict of two opposing ideas, but the confusion and anger that the conflict produces in the narrator—he's angry that he's confused." Azerrad's conclusion is that the song is "alternately a sarcastic reaction to the idea of actually having a revolution, yet it also embraces the idea" (Wiki: Smells Like Teen Spirit).

Within this mode of existence being has no structure that can be known (Skepticism), and words have no meaning. Cobain can find no words, because there are no words; and yet, his unconscious shouts out what took philosophers centuries to know. Strangely, there is great Truth here. The Unhappy Consciousness seeks Nirvana which is impossible to have because there is no acknowledgment of any correspondence between the Real and the damaged self.( As Leonard Cohen says the Self has been "murdered"--there is no "Self" in the future because the private life is gone. The lost self longs for "Stalin and St. Paul" because in the past there was at least a Self to destroy). 

This form of consciousness says, "I taste; therefore....never mind," not the Cartesian Ego, "I think; therefore, I am." Philosophy has nothing to offer. Work is meaningless. Art is the only reprieve. Aphasia is the mind's natural condition.This is the nihilism that Chris Hedges describes in "The Empire of Illusion." There is no "intercourse," or a better term, "mediation," or interaction with the Real. Regardless of the existential situation it finds itself, intelligence still demands coherence and this is done by the unified self ("It makes me smile...") whatever its condition. What does the Christian Theologian have to say?

“The master-slave dialectic, then, gives graphic practical content to the formal structure of knowledge. It demonstrates the un-sustainability of a consciousness that philosophers imagine can be understood as constituted in isolation from the non-I. Just as the criterion of knowledge (the concept) is constantly adjusted though our engagement with objects, so too is a self that sees itself as complete in isolation from engagement with others. From the process of the development of self-consciousness an ethics emerges in which the dynamic of selfhood realizes the need for an acknowledgement of something outside itself”(Adorno's Negative Dialectic: Philosophy and the Possibility of Critical Rationality by Brian O'Connor- Loc. 596 ).

Or a more modern Theologian in regard to selfhood:

“1. The Self-Integration of Life and Its Ambiguities: a.) Individualization and centeredness.-The first of the polarities in the structure of being is that of individualization and participation. It is expressed in the function of self-integration through the principle of centeredness. Centeredness is a quality of individualization, in so far as the indivisible thing is the centered thing. To continue the metaphor, the center is a point, and a point cannot be divided. A centered being can develop another being out of itself, or it can be deprived of some parts which belong to the whole [Gestalt]: but the center as such cannot be divided—it can only be destroyed” (Paul Tillich. Systematic Theology Vol. III. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1951, 1957 & 1963. page 32 ).
What is the meaning of the first lyrics in the song? " ...She's over-bored and self-assured, Oh no, I know a dirty word...." It's a message to his girlfriend.

There is something in the way keeping us from experiencing the world fully and coherently. We must re-examine our most fundamental assumptions about ourselves and the world, and how beliefs direct our behavior whether we are aware of it, or not. The Dasein Analytic is very helpful doing this kind of re-examination.