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What did Napoleon Bonaparte mean?


Mr Rayon

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I think it was about inequality. Religion helps the poor deal with horrible conditions in this life, so they don't rise up against their wealthy oppressors. They'll gain heaven if they just put their heads down, keep working, and stop bitching about the hours and the low pay.

 

I'm sure there was quite a bit of "God is surely pleased with the wealthy since he made us so prosperous" going on. It's difficult to break the hold of tyranny, and impossible if they seemingly have God on their side.

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There might be an element of Marx's "opiate of the people" as well: something to take their minds off their problems.

 

 

Undoubtedly, but having explicit rules about not taking the stuff from people (or even coveting it) and not killing them is probably more on point.

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Undoubtedly, but having explicit rules about not taking the stuff from people (or even coveting it) and not killing them is probably more on point.

Also, if you have grand rewards to look forward to when you die, it becomes easier to bear a lesser lot in life than if you think that what you get now is all you're ever going to get.

 

Thrown in that doing anything drastic about your current situation is likely to result in losing out on the post-life rewards and that any wrongdoing on the part of the rich is guaranteed to be punished in the afterlife so you don't have to worry too much if one of them seems to be getting away with some bad things right now, and it's fairly effective at at least raising the threshold of tolerance for a lot of people.

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I agree, it raises tolerance levels. Another reason is the a lot of religions have some form of law about not killing people, even if it's fine to kill people of other ethnic groups, its almost universal that killing someone of the same religion is a "sin". Usually the big religions are taken over by governments for the exact use the Napoleon Bonaparte talked about. Think of the pope, that's a good example. And while it has mostly died out today, back in that time and the time before it, religion was something almost all rulers had to have on their sides. In my opinion the Japanese had it the closest and the harshest in relation to what Napoleon has said. They had an emperor who was a supposed GOD. For crying out loud nobody ever wants to anger a god, and if they are taught that the ruler is a god, then that is universally accepted throughout their whole life most of the time. Another example is the ancient Egyptians, but I won't go into detail. In the Muslim culture with the moors a sultan had to be a religious holy person or almost nobody listened to them. (unless threatened) With European governments being excommunicated was terrible, and lost you your kingdom almost all the time. But with modern day advances most religion is separated from the government's.

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Napoleon Bonaparte once said: - "The purpose of religion is to keep the poor from killing the rich."

 

What did he mean exactly when he said this?

 

Does anyone know?

 

 

I think it means he didn’t understand the original message, for example “He is richest who is content with the least” – Socrates, or “Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not” – Epicurus.

 

In other words, fuck them, who cares?

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Also, if you have grand rewards to look forward to when you die, it becomes easier to bear a lesser lot in life than if you think that what you get now is all you're ever going to get.

 

Thrown in that doing anything drastic about your current situation is likely to result in losing out on the post-life rewards and that any wrongdoing on the part of the rich is guaranteed to be punished in the afterlife so you don't have to worry too much if one of them seems to be getting away with some bad things right now, and it's fairly effective at at least raising the threshold of tolerance for a lot of people.

 

 

Indeed. Christianity at least has wording to the effect that the rich won't get into heaven (or not very easily), so you have multiple motivations to keep the population from rising up, as long as they buy in to the religion and the rich don't push them too hard.

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  • 4 weeks later...

This question is pretty much a no brainer.

 

And I can answer it with another quote about religion from a famous person.

 

Lenin.

 

Who called religion an Opiate for the Masses.

 

Indeed.

 

God. Religion. All that silly superstition.

 

Little more than emotional placebos.

 

Which when ya think about it is what drugs are!

 

Especially opiates and narcotics!

 

And poor oppressed people usually pose less of a threat to the ruling class when they are sedated.

 

Or doped up from belief in sky gods.

 

LOL

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