Opium of the People: advocation of pain?

[brainstorm]

Karl Marx is renowned for calling religion "the opium of the people." Supposedly, he believed that by causing working class people to accept their suffering, they would be less likely to engage in revolution. Was Marx actually advocating that people sensitize themselves and others to economic hardship and other pain so that they would react violently against those whose class-status made them responsible for economic hardship, according to Marx's ideology?

This seems quite relevant during times of economic recession when some people seem to take the approach of seeking ways to weather the storm while others clamor as much as possible about the suffering created, presumably with the hope that doing so would result in some kind of revolution or other change.

 

[John Creighto]

A pain killer is an escape. It fools one into making them think they are feeling good when they really aren't. Acceptance is the first step towards trying to improve our position.