The Cabinet · No. 11 of 37
An idea you believe in, or one that’s taken possession of you?
In The Ego and Its Own (published at the end of October 1844) Max Stirner told his readers: “Man, your head is haunted; you have wheels in your head!” His ghosts were fixed ideas: God, the state, duty, morality, “the good cause”, things we make and then let rule us. Stirner was a nickname: Stirn is German for forehead, and his was famously high. (Steven Byington’s translation, 1907.)
Choose the ideal you feel most bound to serve. Ask for its papers. Then decide who’s in charge.
An idea becomes a spook when you serve it instead of using it. Stirner didn’t want you rid of ideas, just back in charge of them: a thought is yours when you could put it down.
Ask yourself. Which idea are you serving that you never actually chose?
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