<div>You need to read up on how opium was viewed in the West. That the Chinese rejected opium was seen in Britian as a sign of their backwardness.</div> <div> </div> <div>jim andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen@yahoo.com> wrote:</div> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid"> As Marx certainly knew when he wrote the famous passage on religion, opium was prohibited in China, the trade being a capital crime, and it took a war to force opium down the throats of the Chinese. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars#From_the_Napier_Affair_through_the_First_Opium_War_.281834.E2.80.931843.29 --- jrdavis <FROM_ALAMUT@YAHOO.COM>wrote: > Opium was considered a pain reliever and a > beneficial medicine in the West during Marx's early > life. > > jim > > Chris Doss <LOOKOVERHERE1@YAHOO.COM>wrote: > > I always thought he had in mind not the Opium Wars, > but the use of opiates as anesthesia and as a > high-society recreational drug (or did that not > start > until later?). > > --- James Heartfield > wrote: > > > the 'opium of the people'. Marx was no 'sixties > > druggy. He thought opium was > > very bad indeed. The image he had in mind was not > Wm > > Burroughs but the opium > > that the British Empire had used to get the > Chinese > > addicted, so they would > > be forced to give up their tea. > > > > In today's circumstances, which is something like > a > > slip backwards from the > > high point of Enlightenment rationality, I can > > understand the point that the > > critics of religion are sometimes worse than > > religion itself. I mean that > > the Nietzsche/Kojeve/Sartre humanism is a > > disenchantment with humanity that > > strips out exactly that which is best in Hegelian > > Geist, the active, > > subjective side. > > > > But if anyone wants to make a Marxist defence of > > religion they should bear > > in mind that, like a good Hegelian, Marx would > think > > Protestantism superior > > to catholicism, and catholicism superior to > Judaism, > > and all of them > > superior to Islam, which is plainly a descent into > > mumbo-jumbo, and all > > organised religions superior to new age beliefs, > > with the worship of the > > Earth mother Gaia at the bottom of any list he > would > > be likely to draw up. > > > > > > > > > > ___________________________________ > > > http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk > > > > > Lyubo, bratsy, lyubo, lyubo, bratsy, zhit! > > кчан, апюржш, кчан, кчан, апюржш, фхрэ! > > > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ > Get your own web address. > Have a HUGE year through Yahoo! Small Business. > http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/?p=BESTDEAL > ___________________________________ > http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk > > > ___________________________________ > http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk ____________________________________________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta. http://new.mail.yahoo.com ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk </BLOCKQUOTE>