> It seems that entertainment can be just as good opium for the
> masses as religion. Forget about the traffic, forget about the lack of
efficient transportation, affordable health care or being one paycheck from>
homelessness, forget about the war, corruption, crime or lack of >
prospects -> just put your earphones on and tune in.
I not only think about those things all the time, I spend a lot of my life writing, broadcasting, and agitating about them. And I still love my iPod. I just don't buy this argument at all.
Doug
^^^^^
CB; Anyway, the old idea on "opium" is that,We, the masses, _need_ it to deal with all the anxieties and alienation of our society. Since capitalism doesn't seem to be about to go away in our lifetimes, why shouldn't we be happy here and now, through entertainment and by other means. Otherwise, we are "living" for the "afterlife" of socialism here on earth after _we_ are dead. Socialists should eat, drink and be merry , for tomorrow we die.