On Thu, Dec 11, 2003 at 11:56:58PM -0500, Brian Siano wrote:
> andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>
> >It's from Marx's Introduction to the Critique of
> >Hegel's Philosophy of Right (1844), and is connected
> >with Marx's famous discussion of religion as the opium
> >od the masses.
> >
> >
> >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.
> >
> >
> I forget where I read this-- maybe even on this newsgroup- but Marx's
> line about religion being "the opium of the people" is a metaphor that's
> changed with time. For the last hundred years or so, "opium" had meant a
> powerful drug, with overwhelming narcotic powers, and whose use was an
> example of extreme drug indulgence. To modern ears, drawing an analogy
> between religion and opium implies that religion has similar effects.
> (It does, but only in extreme cases.)
>
> It was pointed out to me that, in Marx's day, opium didn't have those
> extreme connotations. In his day, opium and its derivatives were
> prescribed as a general pain-killer and relaxant, and regarded as
> harmful and as dangerous as aspirin. The quote is one of the few that's
> become _more_ provocative as time's gone by-- but Marx wasn't being much
> harsher than drawing an analogy to, say, Bactine or Excedrin.
>
>
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-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu