False consciousness is an idea propounded by Karl Marx, the German "father" of communism. Marx stated that capitalism causes alienation and the fetishism of money, capital and commodities, which become accepted practice and part of the prevailing ideology of the time. People then believe that they cannot change the system, and do not realise that their ideas are part of the ideology of the time - the products of society. This is false consciousness, and it is very similar to John Stuart Mill's idea of a social tyranny of the majority.