How do we have freedom rights when are thinking is influenced by others?

[9987]

Is it really freedom of thought when our family, the media, our social status, our religious believes, our country influence the way we think?
*our, instead of are, sorry

[small]

You are absolutely right... this whole thing about Freewill is just a myth to boost our ego. We are helpless slaves of our selfish desires and dependent mind, both of which are heavily and deeply moulded by everything that takes place in our life. We just kid ourselves thinking we have a mind of our own!!

[Adam W]

it's influenced yes, but not enforced by others. therefore you have the freedom to choose the same or otherwise.

[sereneicequeen]

There is still our ability to choose which we believe or respond to.

[lefang]

at what level do we accept that freedom is a state of mind, eg Nelson Mandella incarcerated for over 25 years found freedom in his own thoughts.
freedom to express yourself in writing speech and actions have consequences we have to accept,the societies in which we live
have rules of law which we adhere to for the greater good of that society in which we live, what we choose to believe in itself is a freedom the one of religeous belief,wether influenced by the actions of others or not, it is your choice.
regards LF

[AMP]

"Influence" isn't the same as control. We still have freewill. You still make your own decisions. Hopefully we aren't just brainwashed lemmings of the media, our family etc. You are responsible for yourself. You can try to blame anything else but you still make up your own mind, based on what you've been exposed to & what you figure out for yourself.

[h.a. k]

If our thoughts are influenced by others, then we may not call it our thoughts,
what should be the real case is that the thoughts of others should guide our thoughts and not be influenced by them and change.

our beliefs should first of all be born out of real solid foundation and truth, as we see and understand it, this requires good background and environment of development from child hood as this is where the roots of our mental development starts.

the views of others should be just compared with our views and differentiated as we agree or not. however cleverly the argument is put, don't change your belief and faith in your views, just agree or don't.

[hobo]

This is the first time ever I've read about freedom of thought already I feel that I've gone too deep with this. With your argument there is NO freedom of anything including thought because of manipulation (brainwashing) by the media so don't read any of it don't watch TV be an internet junkie

[Kiki J]

Well, first you must ask yourself, if there really is freedom of thought? The answer you may find is that there is no such thing as freedom of thought. Freedom in-fact is more of an ideology than a reality. We may have been brought to believe -through propaganda-that it is real, but in actuality it exist more in our mind that in the physical world. This is because everything you believe is influenced by individuals, your socio economic status and yes even the media. Except that the media is sometimes trusted more than people you know in person. This may be because the media reports its stories, by using expressive language and images, in such a way that they seem plausible.
In the end, no one is really free. What keeps up the farse is that we believe we are free. The truth about this is that it is both harmful (impedes what truly being an individual: unique) and protective (prevents others that are not in your collective, from harming you).
And yes where you live, your race, your religion can have great effects on how you think.
For example the bitter old lady that is constantly mean. The only reason she is bitter is because of the influence others have had on her life. The way you are treated or raised or both besides the media has such power over what you think, which influences who you are. That is if there is a who, anyway.

[Timaeus]

Whatever freedom we possess is contingent, rather than absolute. Modernity is pre-occupied with freedom and has engendered a great deal of romantic conceptions in this regard. However, despite all this modern romanticism, the assertion of absolute freedom in a finite world seems to me to be an illusion. So the answer to your question-- you have some measure of autonomy in this life, but whatever freedom this allows you, will always be received and enacted in nexus of finitude.