Politics Is The Opiate Of The Masses

re: Politics Is The Opiate Of The Masses

MhRipley — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 03:49:42 GMT

Hehe, right! But philosophically speaking, the church and the state are one and the same, only with different guises. Just consider all the similarities and correlations (i.e.: politicians vs. priests/popes, voting vs. rituals/praying, wars to supposedly ''make the world safe'' vs. Inquisitions on innocent, imagined 'enemies', etc. See a pattern here?)

Once anyone were to have thought this through (like more people should), it should become disturbingly clear that they are partners in crime. And one should not be able to support that other more malevolent church and keep a straight face anymore. Surprisingly, it's always that one which people are the least willing and able to give up on. Can you guess which one I'm talking about?

re: Politics Is The Opiate Of The Masses

Cork2 — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:19:59 GMT

Advertising has benefits, such as promoting useful technology and art that maximizes the utility of an individual. However, the goods that does not create an immediate improvement of utility of an individual would be a disincentive for entrepreneurs to promote their product. Due to the inherent bias of human irrationality, ideas that do not seem to be proven by technology or practical application would likely to be diluted with errors and refuted. These ideas are seen as cults, reinforced by confirmation bias and community reinforcement. The cults such as statism and global warming are creations of the state schooling system. These would not be detrimental in an anarchist society, but when they are reinforced in a state, society would ultimate collapse.

Nationalism, a product of a cult, has grave consequences. Nationalism is only an artificial construct, which misallocates one's leisure time of freedom with a conservative cultural faith to one's "nation." Nationalism is an ideology, which diminishes one's rational thoughts and creating a collectivist, nonproductive habit of being loyal to his nation.

A product of ideology is arrogance. Arrogance is a highly inefficient paradigm of thinking, and it is similar to protectionism. Because white supremacists think their race is superior, they oppose free trade mainly because of arrogance. Their use logic of "why do our white people trade with these inferior foreigners, when our superior race would make products better than them?" Their lack of interest of even studying comparative advantage is caused by kneejerk rejections.

Culture is mainly a product of humans' irrationality. Irrational habits would always exist, and have consequences such as close-mindedness. Not all humans have the rational capability to accept anarchism without an empirical, applied application.

re: Politics Is The Opiate Of The Masses

Nitroadict — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:02:03 GMT

Excellent & succinct.

It also had an odd, added effect as I had just finished reading Black's "The Abolition of Work" (which, from what I understood, more or less says work is also an opiate of the masses) before checking for a new post here :).