Reaction to the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts by Karl Marx:

I believe that the most interesting idea put forth by Marx when talking about the needs of
the human being, the production of wealth, and the reception of such wealth was the theme of
human identity. What I want to discuss or investigate is the idea of dehumanization put forward
by Marx and how this, as part of the basic view of his economic theory regarding the
dictatorship of the proletariat may connect to sociological theories about the demonization or
dehumanization of oponents. I find it fascinating, the idea that our personal identity extends to
not only our place in the civilized world, based on occupation of socio-economic class, but also
to our identity as human. Marx first suggested this type of identity in the manuscript entitled
Estranged Labour. I certainly agree with the idea that self-worth or even identity can be
dependent upon our circumstances with respect to employers or other workers. It is an interesting
concept to think that we practice some form of self-deprecation or self-denial when we subject
ourselves to creating production for the purpose of another rather than ourselves. Perhaps he
means to say that in doing so, we are turning ourselves into objects or tools rather than human
beings, and will be viewed more as employers view machines today emotionless. Secondly,
Marx identifies another form of dehumanization, but from the opposite perspective, where the
workers find their employers or owners to be unsympathetic and alien to their ways of life, thus
writing them off as alien and inhuman in the same way. The reason I think that this is interesting
when connected to some other sociological theory is that it could be seen as a channel through
which these proletariats decide to rise up and take society from the hands of their exploiters.
By using theory of dehumanization in the context of war, I think a lot could be added to Marxs
historical and dialectic model.