"Religion is the opium of the people" is one of the most frequently paraphrased statements of German socialist Karl Marx. It was translated from the German original, "Die Religion... ist das Opium des Volkes" and is often rendered as "religion... is the opiate of the masses." The quotation originates from the introduction of Marx's work A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, which he started in 1843 but which was not published until after his death. The introduction to this work was published separately in 1844, in Marx's own journal Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher, a collaboration with Arnold Ruge. The full quote from Karl Marx translates as: "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". Often quoted only in part, the interpretation of the metaphor in its context has received much less attention.
Full quotation
The quotation, in context, reads as follows :
Meaning
Marx was making a structural-functionalist argument about religion, and particularly about organized religion. Marx believed that religion had certain practical functions in society that were similar to the function of opium in a sick or injured person: it reduced people's immediate suffering and provided them with pleasant illusions which gave them the strength to carry on. Marx also saw religion as harmful, to his revolutionary goals, as it prevents people from seeing the class structure and oppression around them, thus religion can prevent the socialist revolution.
History
Marx wrote this passage in 1843 as part of the introduction to a book that criticized philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's 1820 book, Elements of the Philosophy of Right. The introduction was published in 1844 in a small journal. The book itself was published posthumously. As the Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher journal had a print run of just 1,000, it had no popular effect during the 19th century. The phrase became better known during the 1930s when Marxism was more popular.
Modern comparisons
Some writers make a modern comparison of the phrase "opium of the people" to that akin to sports fandom, celebrities, the distractions of television, internet, and other entertainment, etc.
Similar statements
The same metaphor was used by many authors during the 19th century.
In 1840, Heinrich Heine also used the same analogy, in his essay on Ludwig Börne:
Welcome be a religion that pours into the bitter chalice of the suffering human species some sweet, soporific drops of spiritual opium, some drops of love, hope and faith.
, the famed Spanish author of the Generation of '98, focused his nivolaSan Manuel Bueno, mártir around the theme of religion's opiatic effect on the people of rural Spain. In the book, the protagonist Don Manuel is a priest who does not believe in God, but continues preaching because he sees the positive impact he can make in the lives of his parishioners. Religion in this way also serves to cure his own deep depression, through the happiness he feels from helping the people of Valverde de Lucerna. Unamuno makes direct reference to Marx when Don Manuel explains:
Lenin
, speaking of religion in Novaya Zhizn in 1905, alluded to Marx's earlier comments :
Those who toil and live in want all their lives are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while here on earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward. But those who live by the labour of others are taught by religion to practise charity while on earth, thus offering them a very cheap way of justifying their entire existence as exploiters and selling them at a moderate price tickets to well-being in heaven. Religion is opium for the people. Religion is a sort of spiritual booze, in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, their demand for a life more or less worthy of man.
