Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. 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.
The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.
Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself.
--- Arash <arash at riseup.net> wrote:
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-admin at lbo-talk.org
> [mailto:lbo-talk-admin at lbo-talk.org]On
> Behalf Of kelley at pulpculture.org
> Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 6:15 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: [lbo-talk] master's tools
>
>
> We don't want to pluck the flowers from
> the chain and wear the chain without any
> consolation. We want to break the
> chain and cull the living flower.
>
> Who chains up flowers? The master's tools thing I
> kind of get, but chaining
> up flowers is plain silly, and why would I think of
> wearing the chain after
> I picked the flower?
>
> On the master's tools, I think saying "oppressive
> tactics can't bring down
> an oppressive system" (because they just bring about
> a new oppressive
> system) would get the point across more clearly.
> The abstractions seems to
> beat the metaphor in this case.
>
> Arash
>
> ___________________________________
>
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