I’ve always liked the quote from Karl Marx, “Religion is the opiate of the people.”
A friend wanted me to see the new movie The Golden Compass, based on Philip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials, so I started looking into it. I’ve been wanting to read the HDM books since a few years ago when I was living in London and a SIX-HOUR theatre production of the book trilogy sold out its entire run. The newspapers were filled with stories of how beloved the books are to the British, and you know something must be very, very good if people are willing to sit through six hours of it with their children at a theatre.
In a review of The Golden Compass (which has gotten mediocre reviews, by the way, I think I’ll just skip it and start reading the books), a fellow writer pointed out something that made me reflect on the ever-steeper obstacles to libertarian ideas these days:
“When I see the poor folks in my neighborhood wasting their money on lottery tickets and the old folks trusting in the government to make some new law to protect them, all I can think is that religion isn’t the opiate of the people; lotto is. Or the belief in ‘good politicians’ is. But in the day-to-day world, religion isn’t what people are relying on to get them on in life.”
I knew that people are becoming more dependent on the government to solve all their problems, and that as a result people are relying less on private organizations such as churches or nonprofits like the Red Cross. I view this as a bad thing. But the idea that government is taking over an emotional component of religion as a comfort (and an addiction) is nevertheless quite disturbing.
Tags: Golden Compass, religion and government, opiate of the people
The Golden Compass was OK. It was a better libertarian movie than V, by FAR, IMHO. I thought it was mainly about home schooling, and you’ll see why.
Rachel
December 13th, 2007
Interesting! That makes the movie more intriguing.
libertariangirl
December 13th, 2007
While Nietzsche observed that ‘God was dead’, Marx had sown the seeds to replace God with Government as the ultimate source of goodness and justice in the world in the simple-minded.
It is quite sad that so many people who consider themselves rational become so dogmatic in their worship of the state.
bil.
December 18th, 2007
Yes, I think it’s a big problem to become too dogmatic in one’s worship of anything, including religion, and especially the state, which shouldn’t be worshiped at all.
libertariangirl
December 18th, 2007
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