Marxs alienation
Marxs alienationKarl Marx, who was arguably one of the most influential philosophers and revolutionaries of his time, stated that the ‘alienation’ of man leads to man being viewed as nothing more than a commodity by society. Man, as he put it, was forced into labor and stripped of all human rights. He loses his identity and thus becomes alienated, even to the extent of being alienated to himself. Marx's theories were based on his socialist principals in which an alienated man is one of little value to society as a whole. In today's world, although an alienated man is not looked upon as a useless face to society, in many ways he still becomes nothing more than a commodity. The purpose of this essay will be to demonstrate that alienation still exists today, what forms it takes, and to describe what the term alienation ment to Karl Marx. I will take a two fold approach to this essay. First, I will discuss Karl Marx’s concept of alienation, and second I will tackle the question of alienation today, and if I feel that it has increased of decreased.
Before answering this question, one must find the exact meaning of alienation to interpret what Marx ment. According to the Websters dictionary, Alienation is defined as a “withdrawing or separation of a person or a person’s affections from an object or position of former attachment.” Marx believed this term was best present in the labor force at his time. He saw the capitalist society as exploiting workers and also stripping individuals of their own free will. This exploitation would be dominant enough that it set limits to the individuals creative potential, thus alienating man to himself. Karl Marx believed that labor, under the capitalist system, was forcing workers into work; consequently he came up with the term ‘forced labor.’ He would also argue that in order for this problem to resolve itself, would be to abolish private property and the class relationships that emerge from the ownership and non-ownership of property. Being forced to work, would be enough incentive to believe that alienation would ensue. For example, if I was a factory worker and I was forced into work, would I be emotionally happy or sad? I would obviously be very un-happy as to my situation. Now suppose a whole factory of dejected workers are put in that situation. Would I be predisposed to work in that kind of atmosphere? Of course not! Marx went on to say that man is nothing but a mear commodity, the more he produces, the less he is worth, and the less he is worth, the more he is alienated. The worker is essentially producing goods that he will never have, or never be able to afford. If he keeps producing these products, then he is mearly increasing his problems. The more he...
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