Chapter 33 11/10

Are our thoughts really our own? This is the question asked in the beginning of the chapter written by Hans Magnus Enzenberger. She argues that while humans go about life thinking that their thoughts are their own, their minds have really been “industrialized” by the society in which it is in. What she is saying is that people’s thoughts are influenced by the environment in which they live in. This subject has been approached previously in this book by French sociologist Emile Durkheim who said that individuals exist in society and society exists in individuals. In the chapter, Enzenberger discusses how people tend to only focus on a certain aspect of the media without recognizing that something deeper has occurred due to the mind being “industrialized”. Thus it can be seen that media has influenced our minds greatly, while people go on thinking that their ideas and thoughts will never be touched. Enzenberger asks where new ideas come from if minds have been taken over by the media. It is believed that thought is social and heavily influenced by previous thinkers, however I can believe Enzenberger’s claim that some minds are less influenced and “industrialized” by the media than others and therefore think outside of the box.