the opiate of the masses

the opiate of the masses

That which creates a feeling of false happiness, contentment, or numbness to reality. Adapted from Karl Marx's description of organized religion. But all of this superstition is of course just the opiate of the masses, designed to make you feel better about the chaos of the world and the fear of death, while remaining in service to an organization that directly benefits from your financial contributions. All of these pieces of technology, these video games, these television shows, they are all the opiate of the masses, keeping us blind and numb to the machinations of the corporations and politicians that control everything.
See also: masse, of
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • opium
  • the opium of the masses
  • the opium of the people
  • a song in (one's) heart
  • a song in your heart
  • be at peace with the world
  • contentment
  • feel a glow of contentment
  • hygge
  • gild
References in periodicals archive
(What is all the more Alice-in-Wonderlandish about it is that, on the Nepali side, it was promoted with such obvious gusto by our Communists caudillos fed on the notion that religion is the opiate of the masses!) Incidentally, not a few noted their revealing locations: in the trans-Himalaya, in the mid-Hill region and in the Madesh.
Modi's 'Hindu diplomacy', shades of Tanakpur and all that
Religion is not the opiate of the masses; security is.
Stinging rebukes
When Karl Marx described religion as the opiate of the masses, could he have possibly foreseen this mishmash of categories?
Aguirre's gobbledygook
It is said that the most famous aphorism about religion was Karl Marx's "religion is the opiate of the masses." Both -- religion and opiates -- daze people.
Marx was far too easy on religion
that religion is "the opiate of the masses," and now claim
Dynamics of Religiosity in Contemporary Spanish Soccer as portrayed in Jose Luis Sampedro's "That Saintly Day in Madrid"
What would old Karl say Ruairi, religion - the opiate of the masses - and capitalists looking after the proletariat?
Socialist principles Ruairi? Don't make me laugh..
In what appears to be a joking reference to religion being the opiate of the masses, Safia is maniacally addicted to prescription drugs.
The perils of hair removal in Gaza
Marx thought that religion was the opiate of the masses, but Soloveitchik argues that, on the contrary, this business of living out a faith is complex and arduous: "The pangs of searching and groping, the tortures of spiritual crises and exhausting treks of the soul purify and sanctify man, cleanse his thoughts, and purge them of the husks of superficiality and the dross of vulgarity.
A matter of faith
Isn't religion the opiate of the masses? In this sense, the ambivalence coloring the curators' rhetoric regarding the "recognition of the power of faith and ritual to change normative responses" feels oddly defeatist.
31st Sao Paulo Bienal
Religion, Karl Marx famously wrote, is the opiate of the masses. He would be surprised how the quest for fairness has now turned subsidies - intended as a tool for equity - into a similarly powerful opiate of the people and an instrument of political power.
Robbing Peter To Pay Paul
As to his famous saying "religion is the opiate of the masses," it was also featured in A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right in the context of the talk about the exploitation of religion as a tool to control the poor.
Marx, an "Islamic Thinker"
Religion is the opiate of the masses, as John Gardner will attest.
After school special
A cynic might also say that Karl Marx was wrong: Religion isn't the opiate of the masses. Cars are.
Costs: medical care v. auto repair
Karl Marx described religion as "the opiate of the masses".
Here's to the happy couple, I say
Here are two from "Maxims For Diverse Occasions": "Education is whatever you cannot forget" and "Masses are the opiate of the masses".
Karma, Dharma, Pudding & Pie