2022 DAY 21: The Living Flowers
"The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo." Karl Marx
Because I'm reading the same passage that I read two and three years ago, I go back into my blog to see what part of that passage resonated with me, before I even read the reflection again. I want something else to stand out for me this time.
I think Marx understood that there was more needed than just the debunking of the Christian Narrative. To do that like pulling the tops off the weeds and hope they don't come back. The roots create the plant again and again. Pull the roots, and the weed dies. For a well established Canada Thistle, it's not as easy to pull the roots. Maybe that is how Marx saw the story. Maybe he understood Christianity as a weed that needed removal... but criticism was like cutting the tops off. It was not removing the weed.
Three years ago, I talked about living flowers. Canada Thistle still has living flowers that are kind of beautiful. They are invasive as a plant and choke out a lot of other plants in the process. They are the bullies of the vegetation world. But they are still stubbornly beautiful. I guess I would call them a contradiction... much like I would call Christianity a contradiction. Interesting analogy today!
