Karl Marx was born of Jewish parents in 1818 in Trier. Marx studied law in both Bonn and Berlin and wrote his Ph.D. thesis in philosophy. He completed his doctorate studies in 1841 and hoped for a job in the formal sector, but he had already fallen out of employment, from being a member of the radical thinkers. He is not only considered as a philosopher from his many insightful theories but a revolutionist. Marx in his economic and philosophic manuscript of 1844 wrote about alienation to address the detrimental effects of private property. Alienated individuals lose their true sense of existence in the struggle for livelihood.
The alienation that Karl Marx was pointing out was fueled by a capitalist society. He noted that workers in a capitalist society are forced to surrender the ownership of their labor to the capitalist. There are four modes of alienation Marx wrote concerning the capitalist mode of production. The first alienation is the estrangement of workers from the products of their labor. The inability of workers to own or benefit from the products that exist as a result of their labor denies them the opportunity to enrich their lives (Chiaburu et al., 2014). This goes against human existence, human beings were born to work, fulfill, and enrich themselves from the products of their labor. The product becomes hostile to the producers in this case since they already surrendered control of the product to the owner. For example, for a worker to acquire the same goods they produced, they have to go purchase them at their local store.
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The second alienation occurs as a result of a lack of control of the production process or labor activity. Lack of power to influence the labor process prevents workers from being innovative and consistently improving the production process. Therefore, workers are compelled to follow the rules of production, leading to them being alienated from their desires, passions, and the power of choosing how to execute the production activity. For example, workers are paid wages in exchange for this control, and should they breach the rules of production, they are fired immediately (Chiaburu et al., 2014). The wages paid in exchange for the labor activity, only fill the workers’ bellies, just enough to go back the following way to keep the production activity going on.
Alienation from human essence is the third category and it involves the separation of workers from their true human nature, that of making life be what they will to. Capitalist alienation denies workers the opportunity to exercise their consciousness and creativity to live life as they wish. Separation from self leads to loss of identity and authenticity (Chiaburu et al., 2014). This leads to difficulty for humans in rediscovering who they are. For example, when one loses a job, they immediately start looking for another job, because this is what they have been accustomed to, selling their labor and giving power to the owner of the production process. Losing of self-identity prevents humans from establishing their path to self-fulfillment.
The fourth alienation is derived from the first three categories; from being separated from the product, production process, and human essence, workers end up being excluded from each other. The first three categories of alienation create competition and unhealthy coexistence among workers, leading to social estrangement (Chiaburu et al., 2014). There will be those employed and unemployed in society and this alienation will create some human hostility, reducing social bonds from value-based to monetary-based. This kind of separation ends up creating class societies, for example, those who accumulated some wealth as a result of work and those who lack either by being unemployed being severely alienated. The fourth alienation dismantles societal values and slowly creates alienation and hostility within society.
Estrangement, as mentioned above, occurs in four ways; separation from the product, production process, alienation from human essence, and finally social separation as a result of the first three categories of alienation. Humans are social beings and from their collaborations and coexistence lies the magic. Giving them an enabling environment to coexist and collaborate, allows them to achieve their true human essence. Additionally, since they invest their labor and creative will power then it is prudent for them to have a stake in the product and production processes. Such ownership keeps them the opportunity to enrich themselves and realize some sense of fulfillment.
Reference
Chiaburu, D. S., Wang, J., & Thundiyil, T. (2014). Alienation and its correlates: A meta-analysis. European Journal of Management , 32 (1), 24–36. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2013.06.003
