Opium of the people

The opium of the people or opium of the masses (Opium des Volkes) is a dictum used in reference to religion, derived from a frequently paraphrased partial statement of German sociologist and critic of political economy Karl Marx: "Religion is the opium of the people." In context, the statement is part of Marx's structural-functionalist argument that religion was constructed by people to calm uncertainty over their role in the universe and in society. This statement 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 full sentence from Marx translates (including italics) 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." 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. Often quoted only in part, the interpretation of the metaphor in its context has received much less attention. Marxism and religion Marx wrote this passage in 1843 as part of the introduction to Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, a book that criticized philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's 1820 book, Elements of the Philosophy of Right. This introduction was published in 1844 in a small journal called Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher; however, the book itself was published posthumously. As the journal had a print run of just 1,000 copies, it had no popular effect during the 19th century. The phrase became better known during the 1930s, when Marxism became more popular. The quotation, in context, reads as follows (italics in original translation):The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man.