Opiates of the people: from religion and cellphones to voting and political correctness…

THE FAMOUS OVERSIMPLIFIED SOUND BITE: “Religion...is the opium of the people.” (“Die Religion...ist das Opium des Volks.”)        Karl Marx (1818-83)        German philosopher, historian and “Founding Father” of socialism and communism        In his Critique of the Hegelian Philosophy of Right (1844)        The quote above (sometimes translated as “Religion...is the opiate of the people” or “Religion...is the opium of the masses”) is the familiar, condensed sound bite taken from a more nuanced point Marx made in the introduction to A Critique of the Hegelian Philosophy of Right. Here’s what he actually said: “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 MODERN ZOMBIE APPLICATION: “Cellphones are the new opiate of the masses, stifling conversation with friends and strangers alike, even worse than those music-carrying earbuds that keep people looking straight ahead like cattle, showing blank, uncurious faces, totally unaware that we might be approaching the slaughterhouse.”        Tony Vagneur         American rancher and newspaper columnist        In his March 27, 2015 column in the The Aspen Times

THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY COUNTERQUOTE: “REVOLUTION IS THE OPIUM OF THE INTELLECTUALS.”        Graffiti on a wall in the film O Lucky Man! (1973)

AN AMERICAN COMMUNIST’S COUNTERQUOTE: “I think voting is the opium of the masses in this country. Every four years you deaden the pain.”        Line spoken the film Reds (1981) by American Communist leader Emma Goldman (played by actress Maureen Stapleton)         It does not appear to be taken from Goldman’s actual written works

THE ANTI-PC VARIATION: “Political correctness is the opium of the liberal…It makes them feel good.”          Comment in a letter to the editor in the suburban Chicago Daily Herald, August 20, 2010

THE HOMOSEXUAL TAUTOLOGIST’S VARIATION: Gudrun (actress Susanne Sachsse): “Heterosexuality is the opiate of the masses.” Holger (actor Daniel Bätscher): “I thought opiates were the opiate of the masses.”        In the film The Raspberry Reich (2004)

THE ECONOMISTS’ VARIATION: “Popular culture distracts and confuses Americans through distorting perceptions of social issues and existing social institutions. If religion was ‘the opium of the masses’ in the nineteenth century, the electronic media is the ‘opium of the masses’ in the late twentieth century.”        Economists William E. Halal and Kenneth B. Taylor        In their book 21st Century Economics (1999)

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“Religion is the opium of the people.”

THE FAMOUS KARL MARX SOUND BITE: “Religion...is the opium of the people.” (“Die Religion...ist das Opium des Volks.”)        Karl Marx (1818-1883)        German philosopher, historian and “Founding Father” of socialism and communism        From the introduction to his manuscript Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (1844)        The quote above (sometimes translated as “Religion...is the opiate of the people” or “Religion...is the opium of the masses”) is the familiar condensed sound bite taken from the more nuanced point Marx made in the introduction to his critique of the views of German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831). Here’s what he actually wrote: “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 OCCUPY WALL STREET VERSION: “Occupy Wall Street...ignited a month ago after a prompt from AdBusters, a not-quite-underground magazine based in Toronto that wraps its anti-corporate message — hyper-consumption is the opiate of the people — in high-definition, high-gloss irony. (It is rather delicious that the counterattack to the vast class war waged for so long by the American right wing and its corporate masters was hatched under Canadian sponsorship. The last time Canada provided such a public service was when it harbored Vietnam-era draft resisters.)”        Editorial in The Boston Phoenix, October 17, 2011

THE OCCUPY WALL STREET VERSION 2.0: “Is talking about the economy becoming the opiate of the classes?”        Rev. Michael Bresciani        American minister, author and conservative columnist        In one of his recent columns on the RenewAmerica website, September 25, 2011

THE ONLINE PORN VERSION: “We might not have free education, healthcare, or affordable housing but at least we have the ‘freedom’ to pay for unlimited access to online pornography. But what is this tawdry freedom really? Surely the masturbating porn audience is a parody of sexuality. Work, consume, masturbate to porn, be silent, die. Pornography is the opium of the people.”        Dr. Abigail Bray        Australian sociologist and author of the book Misogyny Re-Loaded          Comments in an opinion piece published in The Sydney Morning Herald, October 8, 2011

THE ONLINE JOKESTER’S VERSION: “If religion is the opiate of the masses, then what the fuck is opium?”        Mason Lerner        American stand-up comedian and freelance writer        One of the 25 things Lerner said he cares about more than whether the NBA is going to have to cancel some games, in his column on the FasterTimes website, October 17, 2001

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Workers of the world, unite! (Fat people, women and zombies, too.)

FAMOUS ANTI-CAPITALISM QUOTE: “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!”        Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels         The Communist Manifesto (1848)        The usual paraphrase of the final words of the Manifesto (NOTE: A more complete and accurate translation of the closing sentences of the Communist Manifesto is: “Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working Men of All Countries, Unite!”)

ANTI-FATISM QUOTE: “Fat people of the world unite! You have nothing to lose.”        Final words of “The Fat Liberation Manifesto”        A manifesto for people fighting against prejudice toward fat people

ANTI-SEXISM QUOTE: “Some people think I’m saying, ‘Women of the world unite — you have nothing to lose but your men.’ It’s not true. You have nothing to lose but your vacuum cleaners.”        Pioneering feminist Betty Friedan        In an interview in LIFE magazine, November 1, 1963

ANTI-ZOMBIE ABUSE QUOTE: “Zombies of the world, unite — you have nothing to lose but your chains!”        The Weekly World News tabloid, July 29, 2003          In an article about a labor strike by zombie slaves, who were demanding “higher wages and shorter hours.”

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“A specter is haunting Europe” – it’s Hugo Chavez at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference!

FAMOUS QUOTE: “A specter is haunting Europe — the specter of Communism.”        Karl Marx (1818-1883)        Opening words of The Communist Manifesto (1848)         Sometimes translated as "A ghost is haunting Europe…” and "specter" is often spelled the British way, as "spectre"

HUGO CHAVEZ QUOTE: “To paraphrase Karl Marx, the great Karl Marx, a specter is haunting the streets of Copenhagen...Capitalism is the specter, almost nobody wants to mention it...Socialism, the other specter Karl Marx spoke about, which walks here too, rather it is like a counter-specter. Socialism, this is the direction, this is the path to save the planet, I don’t have the least doubt. Capitalism is the road to hell, to the destruction of the world.”        Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez         At the U.N. Climate Change Conference, Dec. 16, 2009

CHAVEZ COUNTERQUOTE #1: “Hugo Chavez , who paraphrased Marx in assigning blame for climate change...That's from the leader of a country whose economy is based largely on the export of particularly dirty oil. Awkward.”        Newspaper columnist Stephen Stromberg        Washington Post, Dec. 17, 2009

CHAVEZ COUNTERQUOTE #2: “When he [Chavez] said there was a ‘silent and terrible ghost in the room’ and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was deafening...It's especially ironic that Chavez would berate free-market nations for causing catastrophic climate change when he helps fund his own Bolivarian Revolution by selling his country’s oil and natural gas to the United States.”        Newspaper columnist Paul Thornton        Los Angeles Times, Dec. 17, 2009

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History repeats itself again

FAMOUS KARL MARX QUOTE: “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.”        Karl Marx (1818-1883)        German philosopher and political theorist        Paraphrase of a passage in Marx's 1852 essay, “Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte”

HISTORIAN’S COUNTERQUOTE: “History repeats itself. Historians repeat each other.”        Philip Guedalla (1899-1944)        British historian and biographer        In Supers and Supermen (1920)

GRIMMY’S VERSION: “The History Channel repeats itself.”        The Mother Goose and Grimm comic strip, June 2006        Written and drawn by Mike Peters (b. 1943)

ENIGMATIC BECK VARIATION: “Hollywood people and all these liberals, all these just great thinkers, they don't understand that history repeats itself…They can't recognize themselves that there are only like four movies that have ever been made, and half of them star Gene Hackman and the other half star Bruce Willis.”        Glenn Beck (b. 1964)        Conservative TV and radio talk show host        On his radio show, February 11, 2008

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