Notes on Marx’s opiate of the people

Religion

I agree and say yes Religion is the opiate and human life is riddled by separation and loneliness and the opportunity to connect beyond the suffering is vital for our human condition — I’m bloody glad opiates exist and they should be free for everyone and well governed. I want doctors who are qualified and care about me giving me morphine when I need it and helping me find support and health so I can stop using it at the right time.

The goal is healthy connection with my world through temporary safety from it. I do not want to throw opiates away, or have them given to me by someone who doesn’t care or incentivised by some other profit or growth motive.

So opiates can be good and just need good governance and disconnection from power, maybe this is the same with religion too. How do we keep religion governed well and away from power? Maybe we do that my making in easy and quiet and free , let our actions be in this world now! But let us keep our listening quiet and meek.

Rationality

I am not a rationalist in that I see irrationality or life beyond calculation as a higher human experience than anything the homo economicus model of man can comprehend. There are artistic and creative emergent leaps which humans have always made, exponential moments of creativity which require that further inspiration and action beyond that which rational models can account for.