Karl Marx Got A Bum Rap

Contrary to the delusions of the educationally deprived citizens of this nation, Karl Marx (May 5, 1818 - March 14, 1883) was not the bringer of communism to the eastern Europeans and Russia. That was Lenin, I believe. According to Wikipedia, Marx was an economist, a philosopher, a sociologist, a writer and, yes, a socialist in the real sense of the word. His most famous quote, that is often taken out of context, is here, IN context; "Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions."

The image that the word "socialism" brings to most people is Nazi fanaticism and Stalin-esque totalitarianism and cruelty. That's not the whole story and people would do themselves a favor to further investigate what socialism really is. There are a number of nations in Europe who have socialism heavily figured into their governmental structure and there is no repression of speech, opportunities or (unfortunately) religion. However, these nations tend to be more secular than most. Here in the US we have economic repression that boggles the mind of the First World nations and let's face it...we are on a greasy, downhill slide to Third World status. Socialism and atheism are dirty words to the true believers in god and the 'Murrican way. The current congress and their Billionaire Owners Club (BOC..my title and I like it) are spinning and using those words to keep the fear among their minions who vote according to the pulpit at a fever pitch...and they still don't know what they really mean.

Not all atheists are socialists and not all socialists are atheists. While I am not convinced this person ever really existed, the Jesus of the bible would have to be called a socialist in his views of our responsibility to the poor and suffering. I know political conservatives who are atheists. I happen to be both atheist and socialist. I am an atheist because I am a skeptic and require real evidence, not mythology. I am a socialist because I am tired of the poor being criminalized, the rich being made richer from our labors and because I like fairness and justice.,,,not exactly revolutionary values but it may come to that.

Right now, we have a bloc of voters who either stand to gain by siding with the fat cats or who cannot do their own thinking without someone behind a pulpit or a politician evoking the name of god. They are anywhere from smugly stubborn to dangerously fanatical. Christianity has become a monster as has Islam and any number of other beliefs. Perhaps Islam is the most dangerous, FOR THE MOMENT, because their call to violence against the non-believer and the "heretics" is most bloodily overt in their holy texts. But Christianity is catching up.

The world, and especially this nation, has a 2000-year (give or take a hundred years or so) habit. Some get their fix from church and some from texts and some from just refusing to question their own beliefs. But a fix it is..as real a fix as taking a needle to a vein and injecting the mind-altering poison, directly. A friend, Barry Groover, posted a chart that is a good representation of the drug-like effects of religion. It works for me.

I have a hope that we can see how caring for each other is not a bad thing and that a nation this size needs a strong central government with a genuine, legislative social conscience to balance out our technological advanced and thriving marketplace. Right now, without that social conscience, we are a table with three legs and are bound to fall. 

There is a group on Face Book called "Religion Poisons Everything." I was raised in the church. I am still detoxing after many years of struggling out from under the indoctrination I received as a child. I find much of worth on that group. I know what it did to me. I see what is does to others and I want to cry. Religion is being used to justify racism, violence towards women, minorities and the poor and to form an elite class. I shudder to think what will happen if this is allowed to continue with nary a challenge. That is where Charlie Hebdo was pointing us with their satire.

Face it folks. Supernatural solutions for secular problems don't work. In fact, they don't exist. I am a small voice in a big cacophony of noises. But more and more, voices of reason are trying to be heard above the din. The ones who come after us will have to be louder and stronger and more well-organized. I think they will be. I smell blood on the wind.