@philosophyminis: Oscar Wilde once wrote that “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” Try to think one thought that is genuinely, originally your own. Not something you heard, not something you absorbed, not something someone sold to you. But something that is yours and yours alone? Well according to Louis Althersser, it’s nearly impossible. We have inherited an idea, that finds roots in ancient Greek philosophy, that it’s important to be independent. The best minds will be self-aware and self-governing. We alone should control our thoughts. With good thinking and pure reason, we can free ourselves from illusion. But in 1970, the philosopher Louis Althusser argued that it’s too late. By the time any of us develop the cognitive ability to do anything like philosophizing, our reason has already become decidedly impure. From the moment we are born, we are doused in an amniotic broth of bias, propaganda, and ideology. Your parents, your school, your church, your job, your TV, and your government are all plopping in all those thoughts you think are “my” thoughts. These days, we can add media barons, social media, and tech oligarchs to the shadowy equation as well. Althusser argued that individuals internalize dominant societal values and voluntarily accept their place in the social hierarchy in a process he called “interpellation.” We think our viewpoints are self-generated. We think we are thinking original thoughts when really we’re just regurgitating the mimetic script we’ve been force-fed from birth. So are Wilde and Althusser right? And is there any such thing as an original thought?

Jonny Thomson

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Monday 20 July 2026 14:04:15 GMT