ALIENATION

Olumide Lucas

Born in 1818 in Trier, in the German Rhineland, to a middle-class family, Karl Marx

witnessed personally the rise of the industrial revolution and the initial beginnings of capitalism. 1

As a result, Marx became capitalism’s most prominent critics. During his time, Marx recognized

two distinct social classes; the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.2 The bourgeoisie was the upper

class who owned most of society's wealth and means of production/distribution while the

proletariat were considered the working-class that generally didn’t have the means of amassing

the resources to invest in mass production. Consequently, the only thing the proletariat could sell

was their labor. As a strong supporter of the proletariat, Marx believed that in the current

capitalist system, the proletariat got the short end of the stick, where they gained very little but

lost much whereas the bourgeoisie benefited a great deal. Due to this inequality between the two

classes, Marx believed that the proletariat would eventually rise up and overthrow the upper

class; creating a new economic system. Marx theorized that a new economic system would be

created where better means of distributing wealth was established and a more improved way of

tapping into our full human potential, or what Marx referred to as “species-being”. 3 According to

Marx, he believed that our relationships with nature and with each other are defined by our

productive activity. In other words, we are what we do. Prior to the industrial revolution, it was

possible for individual people to own their work. Since there was a direct connection between the

1“Karl Marx.” Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, April 16, 2019. https://
www.biography.com/scholar/karl-marx.
2Davidshofer, William J. Marxism and the Leninist Revolutionary Model. New York, NY:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
3Wartenberg, Thomas E. ""Species-Being" and "Human Nature" in Marx." Human Studies 5,
no. 2 (1982): 77-95. Accessed March 10, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/20008832.
laborer and their work, they identified their work as an extension of who they were as a human

being. Under capitalism however, the proletariat experienced what Marx referred to as

“alienation”.

Alienation can be described as the state to which an individual is subjugated by external

forces of their own creation, forces which oppose them as foreign powers. 4 This state of being

constructs a feeling of laxity and estrangement from one's own society and culture. These

moments of estrangement create an environment where the individual is incapable of controlling

their own fate as well unable to classify themselves with a common culture. Both of these

aspects in turn make the individual incapable of creating any substantial change or effect on the

events of the world around them. As a result, the individual is whittled down to nothing more

than an object. Marx’s theory of Alienation is not only still relevant but can be seen in a

contemporary western setting. The complaints about the degrading nature of work persist,

especially in America where capitalism has become deeply engrained in today’s society. Today’s

society has gone through numerous alterations which resulted in major changes in how human

activity relates to objects and the institutions that were created as a result. These changes have

resulted in the individual’s role as an initiator becoming greatly diminished and virtually

nonexistent. Today, man's meaninglessness and powerlessness with regard to himself, society,

and culture seem to have reached even greater heights. We are in the midst of a situation where

man finds themselves becoming a walking contradiction; that being between “man the

individual” and “man the social being”. As an individual, a person governs over their individual

freedom and creativity, but how is it possible to possess individual freedom in a society where a

person is completely powerless over the laws, establishments, culture, that said individual has

4Churchich, Nicholas. Marxism and Alienation. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University

Press, 1990.
created? Thusly, their individuality becomes an article of trade and private exchange, and their

individual freedom becomes virtually nonexistent, instead allowing themselves to be completely

dominated by the socio-cultural system.

Karl Marx's theory of alienation was fundamental to his critique of industrial

capitalism and in extension, the social stratification that both resulted and supported this system.

The way Marx used the term altered as he evolved and developed as an intellectual, but the

version of the term that is most commonly associated with Marx is the alienation of laborers

within a capitalist system of production. According to Marx, the way the means of production is

organized under a capitalist system results in a wealthy class of owners, the bourgeoisie, who

purchase labor from workers for wages, the proletariat, creates the alienation of the entire

working class. In a todays modern setting, there are four broad ways to which workers are

alienated. They are:

1.Man's relation to his productive activity.

2.Man's relation to the product of his activity.
3.Man's relation to himself.
4.Man's relation to the social community5

Firstly, the worker is alienated from the product they make because it is designed and

directed by others. Also, none of the profits aren’t directly earned by the worker but rather the

capitalist. Today, there is also a great emphasis on products or commodity; which has become

increasingly more dominant in today’s landscape. This phenomenon has also gone hand in hand

with spectacle. Spectacle is a capitalistic tool that is utilized in a way to both distract and pacify

the masses at large. From the advertisements posted on billboards and building faces to the pop-

5Marx, Karl. Estranged Labour, Marx, 1844. Accessed March 10, 2020. https://
www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/labour.htm.
up ads being transmitted via electronic devices, spectacle reduces reality to an endless chain of

commodifiable fragments, while simultaneously encourages people to focus on appearances. The

combination of commodity and spectacle have also alienated the worker by erasing all traces of

productive activity and individuality, which further makes the product hyper realistic. As a result,

the worker of today has been placed in a passive position of both spectator and consumer.6

The second way the worker is alienated is from the means of production itself. This

arrangement often sees the worker being completely directed by someone else, doing repetitive

tasks, and not being able to express themselves in a creative way. The work as a result is done

merely as a means for survival. The proletariat are also alienated from their true inner self,

dreams and aspirations by the demands placed on them by the socio-economic structure. The

capitalist mode of production converted the worker into nothing more than an object, just another

cog in the corporate machine. Additionally, the worker is also alienated from each other by a

system of production which pits them against each other in a battle to sell their labor for the

lowest possible price.

Lastly, on a social level, the worker is alienated from the world itself. Due to the

increased mechanization and digitalization of socio-cultural life many aspects of life appear

artificial or hyper-real. For example, many individuals live vicariously through tv personalities,

movie stars, or “online influencers”, an increasingly more widespread phenomenon; not only in

western culture, but across the world. The act of obtaining pleasure and achieving a sense of self-

fulfillment by “living” through these unreal apparitions created by the public is an absolute

acknowledgement of emptiness. Its today’s obsessive fascination with our appearance that is a

clear manifestation of the socio-cultural forms of alienation.

6Debord, Guy, and Donald Nicholson-Smith. The Society of the Spectacle. New York: Zone
Books, 2012.
 These are only some examples of the manifestation of the forms of alienation that we see

in today’s western culture. In today’s global society, alienation has become a widespread

occurrence and can be seen everywhere as a result. We primarily live in a culture of

consumerism where the workers well-being and humanity is pushed aside becoming nothing

more than a cog in the capitalistic machine. The overall focus has shifted evermore over the

years to maximizing profits and while minimizing the individual’s contribution to the end

product. Traditional values are no longer supported by this modern mentality. As a result, we as

humans live isolated from our work and each other, ending up alienated.

Marx pushed the idea that true fulfillment can be derived from creative and meaningful

work. Unfortunately, the individuals experience in a work setting in capitalist economy is often

described to be tedious, creating an atmosphere of apathy, and fatigue. Further examination may

show additional effects of alienation, like the breakdown of the common culture. While many

will view these contemporary manifestations of alienation as the death of the individual as we

know it, Marx’s theory of alienation provides a theoretical basis that gives us crucial insight into

the nature and cause of these experiences, which assures us that we have the power and means

to regain our sense of individuality and that the reality we have created can be changed.
 Citation

“Karl Marx.” Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, April 16, 2019. https://
www.biography.com/scholar/karl-marx.

Davidshofer, William J. Marxism and the Leninist Revolutionary Model. New York, NY:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Wartenberg, Thomas E. ""Species-Being" and "Human Nature" in Marx." Human Studies 5, no.
2 (1982): 77-95. Accessed March 10, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/20008832.

Churchich, Nicholas. Marxism and Alienation. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University

Press, 1990.

Marx, Karl. Estranged Labour, Marx, 1844. Accessed March 10, 2020. https://
www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/labour.htm.

Debord, Guy, and Donald Nicholson-Smith. The Society of the Spectacle. New York: Zone
Books, 2012.