The Opium of the Intellectuals

by Raymond Aron

The Marxist interpretation of proletarian misery cannot but appear convincing to the proletarian. The cruelties and hardships arising from the wage system, from poverty, technology, the threat of unemployment, the lack of future—why not put it all down to capitalism since this vague word covers both the ‘relations of production’ and the method of distribution? Even in the countries where working conditions have been most improved, in the United States where private enterprise is in general accepted, there is still a prejudice against profit-making, a latent suspicion, always ready to spring to the surface, that the capitalist or the limited company, as such, exploit their workers.