The fundamental leftist critique of religion is that religion lulls the masses into complacency with promises of a better life in Heaven and an assurance that the Earthly order is ordained by Providence and, on the flip side, recognition of the falsehood of religious belief will cause the masses to undergo a radical re-evaluation of the world, the way it is organized, and their relationship with their fellow man. But here in 2024, and in the Western world, is this still relevant?
Let's look at the first claim. Is the largest or even significant ideology keeping the masses in line the promise of a better life in Heaven? Do the actively religious actually believe that the world order as it is established now is the product of divine providence? I would say that obviously this is not the case and hasn't been for a while. What subdues the masses can vary from country to country, but at least in America (and increasingly around the world) it is not the promise of Heaven that motivates the masses to stay in line, but the promise of earthly reward. The "temporarily embarrassed millionaires" attitude has long been an aspect of the American ideology, but I would argue that it has moreso and moreso taken on the religious aspect of maintaining social compliance. First you had Horatio Alger stories which generally portrayed a "rags-to-riches" narrative based on young men engaged in some kind form of good works to rise above the poverty while benefiting their community, which then turned to Ayn Rand's stories which rejected outright any greater social responsibility of the industrialist tycoon, instead portraying them as pseudo-divine "Great Man" figures for which all the industry and wealth of the world was merely an extension of their great personalities and any attempt to direct or interrupt their great works was to invite disaster upon the world, for the world needs the entrepreneur, the entrepreneur does not need the world. This is further developed by the "self-help" movement that began to take off in the 70s, where often men of wealth would give advice on how to get rich to the masses, but this "advice" was almost never about making shrewd business decisions or actual ways of acquiring capital and business deals, but a litany of all the supposed morals and examples of virtuous living the wealthy supposedly possessed. And then, finally, to top it off we have "The Secret," a bestselling novel which posited that it is not simply being a great personality a
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