"Opium of the Masses" | Intro to Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right by Marx

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[@georgekostaras]

Thanks for this. I used to be taken in with the new atheists. This is a much more grounded and material analysis of religion and religious practices

[@SocialismForAll]

I think new atheism is logically correct in many ways, and religion should be confronted and criticized. The problem is that, not being communists, the movement's leaders took people nowhere socially and ended up being quite reactionary. About this, Marx 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 criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo. Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower." Here, Marx shows sympathy for the suffering that leads people to develop and embrace religious illusions and false hopes, but he points out that in order to combat that suffering in a real way, those illusions must be discarded. New Atheism's problem is not that it confronts religion, but as Marx wrote in the third quoted paragraph, they aren't offering the living flower, just chains without comfort or illusion (more capitalism). Atheism is a liberating force for humanity, but it needs to be coupled with Marxism so that a positive social future can take the place of the oppression which makes religion appealing. Otherwise, proponents just become reactionary edgelords.

[@gogodaal7273]

@@SocialismForAllthat sentence about the criticism of the vale of tears of which religion is its halo, really connects quite nicely to Nietzsche’s analysis of Christianity and its morality as a slave religion, it valorizes being in need and in suffering and tells the victims of these conditions that their lack is actually a virtue and the only way to achieve that status in the mind is by taking up the mantle of religion. Religion is first and foremost a response to the human condition of alienation whether it was our powerlessness in the face of nature in the past or our suffering under class society makes no difference because it creates the same effect to the person, except for death but that comes out eventually anyway.

[@williammdsilva]

If God is shaped in man's image, and God is immutable, then man becomes fixed, and his creations (class society) fixed also. By abolishing religion human beings are emancipated and are thus able to fulfill their true destiny ❤ I am curious how many borgoise constitutions begin with rights given by God. And all protect property rights. Property relations upheld in constitutions which enslave the masses. I like how he calls Gods super heroes. Im reminded by religious scholars of today who say Marvel DC and the superhero fictions we create are the same as the gods of myth. Superman does wear red and blue and has white skin. Why is there no Captain Communism? 🤔

[@danishaffer2673]

Good to see you back hope you had a nice break from uploading, unless it was a KZbin strike in which case I whistle at them.

[@JohnT.4321]

Great read and religion is the opiate to deflect from current social problems. I have a motto: Solutions are a system change away.

[@benedictbrunker2484]

Good shit! Just wanna pedantically point out a translation issue with the German word Recht, which means 'right' but also 'law'. So often translating the word as 'law' makes more sense to Anglophones.

[@connecting_the_dots24]

Marx seriously needed to hear the sentance. "Why use long word when short word do good?"

[@citizensmith4113]

Thank you

[@Bolchegato]

Shit I didn't get this one at all

[@SocialismForAll]

If you have questions, let me know.

[@Bolchegato]

@@SocialismForAll I'll see if reading instead of listening helps beforehand. Thanks!

[@giggity2722]

@@Bolchegatohow’d the read go comrade?

[@jamesaydelotte6269]

Man I wish I knew about Marx when I went through my atheist phase, would of saved me years of liberal idealism.

[@SocialismForAll]

Same

[@adrienpartier7207]

1:52 "religion is... the opium of the people" 10:21 "the last phase of a world-historical form is its comedy" 18:06 "material force must be overthrown by material force, but theory also becomes a material force..." 19:25 "Luther... shattered faith in authority because he restored the authority of faith" 31:22 "The proletariat... is not the naturally arising poor, but the artificially impoverished..."

[@hiera1917]

13:06 - I think an interesting adaptation can be made here according to the ‘American’ context and its relation to the world, following in its backwardness, and as a relevant thought experiment: “As the ancient peoples went through their pre-history in *thought, in philosophy* , so we *Americans* have gone through our post-history in *imagination, in mythology* . We are philosophical contemporaries of the present without being its historical contemporaries. *American mythology* is the ideal prolongation of *American history* . If therefore, instead of the [incomplete works] of our real history, we criticise the [posthumous works] of our ideal history, *mythology* , our criticism is in the midst of the questions of which the present says: that is the question.“ This is to say - the US is a strange phenomenon that turns history and philosophy on its head, putting mind over matter, ending with the most bloody results. The US has imagined this mythos of itself as a victim of the world’s hostility to its supposed novelty (“they hate us because of our freedom”), in effect, backwardly creating from the outset and in contrast to all but a few countries of previous times, a view of itself as sacred and separate from all that has come before it and all that exists. The US twists reality; it asks you to ignore the question of how it came to be, but rather to praise the *posthumous works* of its creators, and to also ignore the present moment - its *incomplete works* - whenever talk of its innumerable crimes inevitably crop up, in favour of championing its “achievements,” its “freedoms,” and “unprecedented” moments. So with a simple rewording, Marx reveals to us no longer the nature of the German state of affairs of his time, but that of the true nature of the abject blight and curse that is the US upon the world: its mere existence being a lie contrary to the weight of the whole universe.

[@manuellanthaler2001]

Religion is coming back really hard. People desperately need that Opium in this time of cancerous alienation. Cancerous and/or crippling.

[@humanwithaplaylist]

Would you consider doing videos on disability and genocide. The first people that the Nazis came after were disabled people and it's happening again worldwide. Its happening here in nz currently. Im terrified

[@SocialismForAll]

While I am getting to this, here are some resources for you, put together by one of my patrons: linktr.ee/capitalismanddisability

[@hiera1917]

25:01

[@TheJesus318]

Yeeeeees!

[@SpiritRed]

" 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"...........Wow. These words are liberation, action now, and empowerment slapping one across the face.

[@Pacman420]

Thank you for this, great upload comrade.

[@johnrivera3482]

Nice

[@Tnega74]

Excellent job once again, have you considered reading Mao's Little Red Book?

[@SocialismForAll]

The LRB is just collected quotations, and I usually do the whole works that they came from.

[@jtruque]

Can we expect a full read of Marx’s Critique of Hegel’s philosophy of right?

[@SocialismForAll]

Not any time soon from me, no

[@jtruque]

@@SocialismForAll I leave the room mad, talking through my teeth.

[@SocialismForAll]

Feel free to do your own reading of it