Opium of the People
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Religion is the opium of the people" (translated from the German "Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes") is one of the most frequently quoted (and sometimes misquoted as "opiate of the people" or "opiate of the masses") statements of Karl Marx, from the introduction of his 1843 work Contribution to Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right which was actually subsequently released one year later in Marx's own journal Deutsch-Französischen Jahrbücher—a collaboration with Arnold Ruge. Here is what Marx said, in context:
- Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man—state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d'honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion.
- 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. [Emphasis added]
- 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 criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.
Note that the sense in which the metaphor "opium" is used is quite different from our contemporary common sense understanding [1]. At the time when Marx wrote this text, opium was widely and legally available, although there were beginning attempts to regulate, legislate and prohibit its use, sale and production. In the mid nineteenth century, there seem to have been four primary senses which opium could be used as a metaphor:
- Opium was an important medicine. It was used as a painkiller, but also for a wide range of ailments, including combatting cholera.
- Opium was a keyword for widespread social conflict, particularly the opium wars.
- It was the source of an important 'social problem', one of the first 'public health' concerns, known as 'baby-doping' (giving your child opium to keep them quiet.)
- Finally, opium was the source of fantastic visions of the 'opium eaters' (De Quincey, the Romantic Poets, etc.)
The connection between these mid-nineteenth century meanings of "opium" and Marx's text on religion is developed by McKinnon (2005) [2]. The best overview of classical sociological theory of religion remains O'Toole (1984).
[edit] References
Abrams, M. H. 1971 [1934]. The Milk of Paradise:The Effect of Opium Visions on the Works of De Quincey, Crabbe, Francis, Thompson, and Coleridge. New York: Octagon
Berridge, Victoria and Edward Griffiths. 1980.Opium and the People. London: Allen Lane
McKinnon, Andrew. M. “Reading ‘Opium of the People’: Expression, Protest and the Dialectics of Religion” in Critical Sociology, vol. 31 no. 1/2 [3]
O’Toole, Roger. 1984. Religion: Classic Sociological Approaches. Toronto: McGraw Hill
Rojo, Sergio Vuscovic. 1988. “La religion, opium du people et protestation contre la misère réele: Les positions de Marx et de Lénine.” Social Compass v35 no.2-3 pp197-230
