Opiates

This Kos diary suggests that shopping has taken over for religion as Marx' famous opiate of the masses.

I don't really quibble with that. I mean, what was the message from on high after September the 11th? "Return to the mall!" Surely there was an effort to pacify people's fear with rampant consumerism. No shared sacrifice, no call to be part of something greater than ourselves. Just buy, buy, buy.

But I actually read this weekend Kurt Vonnegut's perspective on Marx' "religion is the opiate of the masses" quote. He doesn't think Marx was being at all negative about religion and I think I agree with him:

KV: I'll tell you what makes socialism stick in people's craw, and politicians always use it to their advantage: Marx's statement ''religion is the opiate of the masses.'' Of course, he did not mean this is a negative way. Hell, Marx benefited from a variety of opiates all of his life, including lots of opium. Americans do not want to have their religion challenge by the state, but Marx had no such thoughts or intentions. And the media propagates this fear. You ask any journalist to recite a quote from Marx, and that is what they will say. The truth is, that is the only one they usually know. Unfortunately, you get someone like Stalin or Castro, who use Marx's words as an excuse to shut down churches, and then people believe that is what socialism is all about, which it certainly is not.

Obviously, this is coming from a committed socialist, but surely, at that time opium was among the few sedatives there were. What Marx could have meant is that religion offers comfort in a psychological sense. Vonnegut makes the point that at the time Marx said it, 1844, America still hadn't abolished slavery. So if God looked down at Russia and America, which would have annoyed him more?

This doesn't negate your point, but it's important to consider. As with everything there's a lot of misinformation and demonization out there. There may be no more socialist an institution than the church, in many ways.