Karl Marx is famously misquoted as having said that "Religion is the opiate of the masses."
His actual words give us more accurate insight into his thoughts on religion. "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."
In Marx's opinion, people developed religious faith because the human condition drove them to it. Absent oppression, religion would be obsolete.
Vladimir Lenin said similarly, yet almost admiringly, "[The masses] are taught by religion to practise charity while on earth, thus offering them a very cheap way of justifying [the capitalists'] entire existence as exploiters and selling them at a moderate price tickets to well-being in heaven."
Lenin recognized that if "the masses" could have their senses dulled by "spiritual vodka" as he called it, they could be cajoled into doing anything, or abused at the will of the masters.
Religion was then a powerful tool to be used wisely by the masters. And, as Lenin and his cabal became the masters of Russia, they used the false religion of the State to stupify their subjects.
In America, though, we love to boast of our "freedom" and our "liberty".
My father-in-law grew up during the Second World War and the 1950s. One evening as we talked of politics he looked at me and said, "You think you live in a free country. If you could see the America I grew up in you wouldn't even recognize it!"
His implication was that the culture and condition of "Americans" had evolved so radically that the "freedom" we thought we enjoyed in the 1990s was a shadow of the virtually unfettered liberties of the early Post-War years.
The prosperity of America following World War II and through the 1990s allowed for leisure time. More leisure time than mankind had enjoyed in history.
And entertainment became the new American Religion. Focus shifted from interdependence to independence. Independence deteriorated in the 1960s and 1970s to dependence - dependence on drugs, on illicit sex; on entertainment.
The goal of the behaviors driven by dependence is, ironically, to distract oneself from one's dependent and pathetic condition.
As the "opiate" of entertainment stupefied Americans, a few who were alert took advantage of their compatriots' condition. They rose to positions of power and authority in education, industry and government. Some of them called themselves "conservatives" or "Republicans" and others called themselves "liberals" or "Democrats"; some called themselves "pure capitalists" and others called themselves "corporate citizens". They pretended to aim at widely divergent goals. Some cried for individual liberty, and others called for compassion for the less fortunate among us; some talked of shareholder interests, and others preached social responsibility.
In truth, their drive was shared. They were all motivated by greed and the will to amass personal power; to gain control and keep control.
Today we are so restricted in our individual liberties - and so well accustomed to those restrictions - that we think little of the fact that the Indiana State Supreme Court recently ruled that police officers do not need a warrant to enter homes in the state - regardless of probable cause or iminent danger (or the lack thereof).
We think nothing of US Senators serving 6, 7 or even 8 6-year terms in a row.
We collectively lack the intelligence to question any idea presented as "fact" by an "authority". The slogan so popular among Baby Boomers, "Question Authority!" now draws stern reproach from those "Boomers" because it now threatens their own standing in society. It threatens to expose their own hypocrisy and deception they are now perpetrating on America.
So, I say, "WAKE UP, AMERICA!" Kick the entertainment habit.
While you are distracted and dulled you have lost your country! If we do not do something NOW, we risk having lost the ideal of "America" forever.
His actual words give us more accurate insight into his thoughts on religion. "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."
In Marx's opinion, people developed religious faith because the human condition drove them to it. Absent oppression, religion would be obsolete.
Vladimir Lenin said similarly, yet almost admiringly, "[The masses] are taught by religion to practise charity while on earth, thus offering them a very cheap way of justifying [the capitalists'] entire existence as exploiters and selling them at a moderate price tickets to well-being in heaven."
Lenin recognized that if "the masses" could have their senses dulled by "spiritual vodka" as he called it, they could be cajoled into doing anything, or abused at the will of the masters.
Religion was then a powerful tool to be used wisely by the masters. And, as Lenin and his cabal became the masters of Russia, they used the false religion of the State to stupify their subjects.
In America, though, we love to boast of our "freedom" and our "liberty".
My father-in-law grew up during the Second World War and the 1950s. One evening as we talked of politics he looked at me and said, "You think you live in a free country. If you could see the America I grew up in you wouldn't even recognize it!"
His implication was that the culture and condition of "Americans" had evolved so radically that the "freedom" we thought we enjoyed in the 1990s was a shadow of the virtually unfettered liberties of the early Post-War years.
The prosperity of America following World War II and through the 1990s allowed for leisure time. More leisure time than mankind had enjoyed in history.
And entertainment became the new American Religion. Focus shifted from interdependence to independence. Independence deteriorated in the 1960s and 1970s to dependence - dependence on drugs, on illicit sex; on entertainment.
The goal of the behaviors driven by dependence is, ironically, to distract oneself from one's dependent and pathetic condition.
As the "opiate" of entertainment stupefied Americans, a few who were alert took advantage of their compatriots' condition. They rose to positions of power and authority in education, industry and government. Some of them called themselves "conservatives" or "Republicans" and others called themselves "liberals" or "Democrats"; some called themselves "pure capitalists" and others called themselves "corporate citizens". They pretended to aim at widely divergent goals. Some cried for individual liberty, and others called for compassion for the less fortunate among us; some talked of shareholder interests, and others preached social responsibility.
In truth, their drive was shared. They were all motivated by greed and the will to amass personal power; to gain control and keep control.
Today we are so restricted in our individual liberties - and so well accustomed to those restrictions - that we think little of the fact that the Indiana State Supreme Court recently ruled that police officers do not need a warrant to enter homes in the state - regardless of probable cause or iminent danger (or the lack thereof).
We think nothing of US Senators serving 6, 7 or even 8 6-year terms in a row.
We collectively lack the intelligence to question any idea presented as "fact" by an "authority". The slogan so popular among Baby Boomers, "Question Authority!" now draws stern reproach from those "Boomers" because it now threatens their own standing in society. It threatens to expose their own hypocrisy and deception they are now perpetrating on America.
So, I say, "WAKE UP, AMERICA!" Kick the entertainment habit.
While you are distracted and dulled you have lost your country! If we do not do something NOW, we risk having lost the ideal of "America" forever.
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