Karl Marx Impact On Society

In the 1800’s, Karl Marx’s made the statement, “Religion and democracy are the opiates of the people.” In laments terms, this is his way of stating how ideas constructed by people such as democracy or a certain religion play a large role in shaping the masses. He believed that religion and democracy were ways for the government to keep the people happy while still being oppressed and underrepresented.
Karl Marx saw religion and Democracy as a distraction for the people. People would be content with whatever harsh realities they faced in life, whether they be from the corrupt government or a more personal level, such as abuse in the home. As long as they believed that a God was watching over them and that they were free in their democratic nation.
Therefore, he saw concepts such as religion and democracy as something that people take comfort in weather than something that is actually beneficial to them. An example of his statements would be, if a woman was being abused by her spouse, she may continue to remain married simply because it is against her religion to get a divorce and she feels as though her God will find another way to help her.
Karl Marx had a strong belief that the reason why people buried themselves further and further into the ideas of democracy and religion was because it gave them the sense that their struggles were for the greater good. He said that as new influences are allowed into society, the influence of religion would diminish. This is seen through watered-down morals that were once based off of a religion or a common political stance.
Democracy has long been viewed as freedom and rights for all people in a nation. However, Karl Marx brings to attention that not all groups are well represented in a democratic nation, thus undermining the literal definition of the word. In his many speeches and books, Karl Marx talks of democracy not truly being democratic. Due to the population of certain areas and the way that voting is counted, minority groups are not well represented. Also, he believes that true democracy is stateless, and by having different laws amongst the states, this is going against the ideas of a truly democratic nation. This would mean that democracy is not a true way of governing a country, but simply an idea for the government to use on the people to make them feel adequate.
Karl Marx often spoke about how he believed that the wealthy people had the most power in society.
This ties in to Marx’s contributions to sociology, mainly the idea of the conflict theory. Marx believed that conflict in society occurred between social classes. There is a saying that, “the rich do not need God.” Karl Marx’s views can be seen clearly through this statement. Since the rich classes have the money, the ultimate decision belongs to them.
However, if the poor realized this, there would be a chance that they would protest and rise above the rich classes. In order to instill in the middle and poor classes false assurance of equality and love, this keeps them from evoking change. If the poor lost their religion, they would have nothing to suffer for. If they7 lost their hope in democracy, they would begin to see the world for the way that it truly is; a world where the rich make decisions and then pretend to take pride in equality.
Karl Marx made the statement that, “religion and democracy are the opiates of the people,” in order to explain how both religion and democracy are used to keep the masses silent. Religion is used to keep the oppressed silent while they suffer in hopes of gaining paradise and democracy is an idea that is used by governments in order to keep its civilians calm and feeling like they are in control of their government
decisions.