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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington N.Z. Vol. 1, No. 7 April 27, 1938

[introduction]

Karl Marx once made an unfortunate statement to the effect that religion is the opiate of the people.

Although I disagree with this statement—true religion is not an opiate but a necessity—the present increase in moral apathy may be due to the fact that Science has provided the masses with a number of infinitely more powerful opiates to numb their senses and blind their eyes to the injustice of the social system under which they live.

The most important of these opiates (excluding Uncle Scrim) is the motion picture.

A more perfect vehicle for artistic expression than the motion picture has never been discovered; it is at the same time a canvas and a musical instrument a piece of literature and a stage; almost all the mediums through which mankind has striven to express its greatest and noblest ideals are present. And yet most of the films we see are unadulterated muck. Why is this?