“Religion is the Opium of the People”

This is one of the most famous quotes be socialist Karl Marx. It’s often used to underline that socialists are people who favour atheism and are against god and the church.

Communists used it as an excuse to act against churches that could pose a threat to them. People listen to to their priests after all.

I always understood this quote in the way that Marx and socialist theory are against religion. An essay by Kurt Vonnegut in “A Man Without a Country” changed this understanding however.

When Marx wrote this sentence in the middle of the 19th century Opium was a normal drug everyone could buy. It was a pain killer. Like aspirin today.

It created relieve and made life for many people bearable.

Seeing it from this angle the understanding of the quote should make a 180° turn. Depending of course on what your position on pain killers is.

Attitudes toward things change over time. Go back a few decades and you could buy Heroin and Cocaine in normal drugstores. The context in that something was done or sad should always be considered.