>> It is, therefore, the task of history, once the other-world of truth
>> has vanished, to establish the truth of this world. It is the
>> immediate task of philosophy, which is in the service of history, to
>> unmask self-estrangement in its unholy forms once the holy form of
>> human self-estrangement has been unmasked. Thus, the criticism of
>> Heaven turns into the criticism of Earth, the criticism of religion
>> into the criticism of law, and the criticism of theology into the
>> criticism of politics.
>
> The above doesn't convey any clear meaning to me.
I think what he means to say is that, once people see that religion is an illusory consolation for their suffering, they have to turn to the real causes of the suffering -- the legal and political systems which cause poverty. At this point, he had not yet quite developed the famous theory that legal and political systems are a "superstructure" caused by the economic "base," but he was getting close to it. That is why he calls for a revolutionary attack on the existing legal/political system, rather than a revolutionary movement based on the development of the capitalist economic system -- increasing strength of the working class, increasing seriousness of crises, etc.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org ____________________________ The sum of human wisdom is not contained in any one language, and no single language is CAPABLE of expressing all forms and degrees of human comprehension.
-- Ezra Pound, The ABC of Reading, 1.3