"Religion is the opium of the people"

[Angry Dragon]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by dmr (a host of the General Discussion forum).

"Religion is the opium of the people" is one of the most frequently paraphrased statements of Karl Marx. It was translated from the German original, "Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes" and is often referred to as "religion is the opiate of the masses." The quotation originates from the introduction of his 1843 work Contribution to Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right which was subsequently released one year later in Marx's own journal Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, a collaboration with Arnold Ruge. The phrase "This opium you feed your people" appeared in 1797 in Marquis de Sade's text L'Histoire de Juliette and Novalis's "[R]eligion acts merely as an opiate" around the same time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_of_the_people


Republicans are so against Marx and socialism and then at the same time they embrace religion with all their heart.

It is hard to truely understand the hypocracy of the right...........

[Moonwalk]

1. I'm sorry, but this is a false equivalency....

I mean, how then would you explain Ayn Rand, an atheist, and Libertarians, many of whom are also atheists, who, with equal vehemence, reject any form of socialism? And how then do you explain faithful Catholics--priests and nuns, who are virulently against gays or abortion and other things that might put them in the Republican camp...yet give all they have to the poor and are, in their small way, living in communes that share what they have with the poor?

The problem, as I see it, is that Marx was short-sighted (a product of his time) when it came to what he defined as religion. Given Mao's little red book, that religious opiate can as easily be Marxism as anything else if it is given a magical "cast"--meaning seen as a way of curing all ills and creating a paradise. In this, anything can become a religion/opiate. Be it worship of a god who--providing we follow his rules--will let us into heaven, or an economic philosophy, like that put forth by Rand or Marx, which, again, if followed will produce paradise on Earth.

It is a sad fact that we humans really like religion, and our greatest danger is making anything into a religion rather than maintaining a critical eye. There've been times when we've even made science and technology into a religion, believing that doctors couldn't make mistakes, and if we just won the race to the moon we'd all be enlightened and happy. The opiate is not religion, it's the belief that there exists a philosophy, person, or thing which is a cure-all to human problems and unhappiness and if we just latch onto it all our problems will be solved. Religion and superstition might be it's most popular form, but anyone who thinks this is the opiate's only form is being equally blind and in danger of being enslaved to it.

[izquierdista]

2. Nutcase

She can be summed up by one of her titles: "The Virtue of Selfishness". Ayn Rand's opium was Ayn Rand. And her writings give other poorly socialized juveniles (aka Libertarians) excuse to act as if they have no need of a social group.

Humans are social animals, congregating in troops more numerous than those of baboons, gorillas, or other social primates. They have even developed mechanisms for alpha males to cooperate instead of fight, which is what enables the larger social groups size. Unfortunately for human society, the culling mechanism for libertarian humans is not as efficient as the culling mechanism for libertarian baboons (i.e., leopards).

[hifiguy]

3. So many Xtian Dominionists, so few lions.

Sigh.

[Moonwalk]

4. No argument. Rand was a nutcase and I agree with your view on Libertarians...but....

...this doesn't alter the fact that many such people do not cling to any religion or believe in a god. Yet they are as rabidly anti-socialism as any bible-thumping Republican. So the equating bible-thumping with anti-socialism is a false equation.

[Zalatix]

6. The problem is not religion. The problem is hate and stupidity.

Anyone who blames religion, or the lack thereof, for our problems, is missing the big picture.

[napoleon_in_rags]

5. The real gold in the link is hearing the Marquis de Sade arguing right wing talking points:

Though nature lavishes much upon your people, their circumstances are strait. But this is not the effect of their laziness; this general paralysis has its source in your policy which, from maintaining the people in dependence, shuts them out from wealth; their ills are thus rendered beyond remedy, and the political state is in a situation no less grave than the civil government, since it must seek its strength in its very weakness.

So the people become dependent on the government, which blocks wealth production... Where have I heard that before?