Alienation Of Labour Within A Capitalist Society example essay topic

Marx's Alienation of Labour There is deep substance and many common themes that arose throughout Marx's career as a philosopher and political thinker. A common expressed notion throughout his and Fredrick Engels work consists of contempt for the industrial capitalist society that was growing around him during the industrial revolution. Capitalism according to Marx is a "social system with inherent exploitation and injustice". (Pappenheim, p. 81) It is a social system, which intrinsically hinders all of its participants and specifically debilitates the working class. Though some within the capitalist system may benefit with greater monetary gain and general acquisition of wealth, the structure of the system is bound to alienate all its participants. This paper intends evaluate Karl Marx's theory of alienated labour.

In doing so it will demonstrate how capitalism both a century and a half ago, and to this very day, produces and also perpetuates alienation within the work environment. Though Marx's theory of alienation is not without its flaws, the fundamental backbone to his theory is still relevant to this day. A critical element is to take Marx's basic premises of alienation into context and realize that the capitalist world has evolved tremendously since Marx's work during the early years of Industrial Revolution. Marx's concept of alienation can be defined as "the distortion of human nature that is caused by the domination of the worker by the 'alien will' of the capitalist" estrangement (Ritzer, p. 55).

A key element to his theory of alienation focuses on the individual's experience of feeling powerlessness when they fail to realize their own human potential, which in turn causes false consciousness. His theory is based upon his dialectics and on the totality of reciprocal relationships to nature and to other individuals within society, which are motivated and perpetuated by the need for material things. Marx' theoretical concept of alienation was forged during his transition from the Critique of Hegel to the Critique of Economic philosophy. It was during this time that the issues of labour and class became central to his theories. In Marx's early writing's, specifically 'The Economic Philosophical Manuscript' written in 1844, he presented the types of alienation which where interdependent and rooted in the productive labour of capitalism. The '...

Manuscripts of 1844's et forth his views of alienated labour, communist people and society, and capitalism to human needs. Marx's theory of alienated labour is structured around a class-based system. It is vital to acknowledge that Marx's evaluation of the capitalist system is based focused the Industrial Revolution a century and a half ago, and therefore must be kept somewhat in that context. Within Marx's simplified capitalist society model, one class of people own and control the raw materials and their means of production. They are referred to as capital, bourgeoisie, or the owning class. The capitalist does not just own the means of production, but also all the items produced.

By virtue of their ownership of production property they receive an income and earn a living from the operations of their factories and shops. The owning class owns the productive resources, though they do not usually operate the production means themselves. The need for a second, less class of citizenry to work is essential and they are referred to by Marx as the labour, Proletariat, or the working class. The working class exists to run the means of production, and they must sell their labour-power to the owning class in order to sustain themselves. Their skills are their only true 'value' in the alienated minds of the capitalists. The worker is limited with what they have to offer the capitalist and that is themselves and their individual skills as a commodity.

Marx viewed the 'commodity' as the most elementary form of modern wealth. The essence of the commodity is the separation of 'use value' from 'exchange value'. 'Exchange value' can be defined as objects produced to be exchanged for other objects; in the case of the worker it is a paycheck. 'Use value' are objects produced to satisfy ones own needs. They are ideally objects that are the product of human labour; therefore they cannot achieve an independent existence because the actors control them. Within a capitalist society, 'use value' does not exist for the worker because the workers are not working for themselves.

Everything becomes a commodity: the product and the worker. Labour has no 'use value' even though the worker has put his own labour, time, and power into his work. This is because all aspects of production belong to the capitalist, and the labour is left powerless. This premise goes against what Marx believed was the true nature of work for humans. The relationship that exists between the capitalists and the labour is alienating to both parties. The focus of this paper is limited to the alienation of 'labour' within a capitalist society, though it is important to note that even the capitalists themselves are alienated within there own system.

According to Marx's theory of alienation there exist four intertwined ways in which labour is alienated. The first to be addressed is the 'alienation from the product of work', which is the concept that the labour is detached from the items they produce (Finifter, pp. 12-13). Even within nature the production process is a social process, but in a capitalist society the means of production are generally privately owned. Within the production process the worker puts their life into an object, which " is a necessary and universal aspect of human life" (Ritzer, p. 60). This concept known as objectification and to Marx it is the natural relationship between a worker and his productive labour. However, workers use their skills to forge and construct items that in the end they will be detached from.

Capitalism produces a distortion of the natural relationship between a worker and the product of their labour. The object produced by the worker allows him to first exist as a worker and then as physical being; the product dominates the worker and confronts him as a "hostile" and "alien force" (Ritzer, p 55). The more the worker puts of himself into the products he produces, the more powerless and owner less he becomes. The working class tends to lose sight and the realization that nature allows the existence of their labour.

They unfortunately come to believe that it is the capitalist who allows their labour to exist and as a result are alienated from nature. The worker begins to regard nature as a means for subsistence for his work rather than for means of existence. The strange relationship between labour and the objects they have produced forces them to become 'a slave to the object' (Finifter, pp. 12-13). The worker receives work first and then receives a means of subsidence, or in other words a pay cheque, a wage, or income. Though the process of objectification has occurred and the worker has placed a piece of them self into what they have created; they are deprived from their creation in return for a low wage. This feeling of owner less-ness causes the alienated worker to become indifferent to, and uninvolved with the objects they produce.

The worker has no control over what has been produced and on occasion performs such specialized tasks that they have no realization of their role in the total production process. The workers value diminishes and they become poor (monetarily and mentally) with the wealth they produce for the capitalists. In this situation the worker and the capitalist are both alienated because they both come to regard not only the end product, but also the labour too as a commodity. The worker merely serves a purpose as long as the bourgeoisie value their labour, and they are only valued then as a commodity. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates.

As the world of things increase in value, the human world becomes devalued. For labour not only produces commodities' it makes a commodity of the work process itself, as well as of the worker... ". (Josephson, pp. 94 - 95). This then leads to another key concept of Marx's alienated labour, the 'alienation from the act of working' or alienation from productive activity. In an ideal sense Marx believed that labour was an expression of the human essence, which is achieved through the appropriation and objectification of the natural world.

The notion of self-creation profoundly distinguishes man from other animals because "man through his own labour produces and sustains his own life and reproduces society and the human species" (Pappenheim, p. 85). Humans have a unique socially organized process of material production that separates them from the rest of the animal world. Most animals simply take what they find in nature or use what the immediate environment provides them with. Humans, on the other hand, actively and deliberately manipulate nature in order to meet their basic needs. Marx believed firmly that the act of producing items (the industrialization process) was a positive trait for the individual to possess, though the production of items that the individual worker had no attachment to in the end, as is the case within a capitalist system, is alienating. Alienation is manifested into the process of production.

For Marx, labour is alienated on all levels of production and the work performed is external to them. Meaning that the worker may spend their time producing items, however the final product and the energy expended in the production process belongs to the capitalist. According to Marx, this situation goes against the very nature of the labourers work and the worker is not capable of finding fulfillment". He does not fulfill himself in his work but denies himself, has a feeling of misery rather than well being, does not develop freely in his mental and physical energies but is physically exhausted and mentally debased" (Finifter, p 12-13). Money or some form of monetary supplement is provided to the worker in exchange for his creative labour, but fulfillment from the act of working is practically dormant. The worker has sold his skills to the capitalist, and therefore the worker's productivity is alienating to themselves.

Their very actions in all elements of production serve little rewards to them, because in essence their actions are a commodity. The working class must sell their skills to the capitalist to sustain themselves, not for their own personal amusement. The labour performed by the worker is forced upon them, not necessarily to their liking. In order to survive an individual worker must perform the means of production the capitalists are willing to provide the worker with.

By today's standards on a broad scope this can be generally regarded as a somewhat accurate notion, however the evolution of the capitalist system is no longer as clear cut and polarized as Marx's described mid nineteenth century system. In western capitalist nations like Canada the diminishing middle class still constitutes almost one half of the entire population, and the power of the worker is far greater now than in Marx's day. The face of labour has evolved immensely, and though equilibrium between labour and capital is still far away it is still a very different portrait. The general beliefs espoused within capitalist societies imposed upon all individuals' posses many problems on a variety of levels. A common dilemma is that there are many perceived material needs within the capitalist society, and in order to implement these perceived needs the workers are forced to secure labour within the available constructs of the bourgeoisie's industries. This is the basic premise behind Marx's idea of 'forced labour' upon the worker.

The workers have no control over their life; their well being depends on the wealth of the capitalist and the economy. The act of working in capitalist system is disciplined and the workers are not necessarily free to develop or follow their own path. They are usually placed in a situation where they must follow one of the specialized occupations provided by the capitalists. Quite often leading to forced specialized positions that are monotonous and tedious; with little satisfaction that individually leads to a feeling of hopelessness to improving the situation. The wage for labour exchange between the capitalist and worker, as well as the forced positions, leaves the worker in a situation in which "labour is shunned like the plague" (Geyer, p. 61).

In practice, workers only amount to a commodity, a source of labour bought by the capitalist and discarded when their labour is no longer needed. A worker is not free when they work; they have sold their freedom to the disciplined capitalist system for that time. Like cattle the worker is forced to fill a role during their phase in the production process and is unable to manipulate the environment, but instead is merely regimented by the capitalist. Therefore, the worker only has freedom and is able to exercise their true 'human potential' during their leisure times. This unfortunately means wasting most of their productive skills for the betterment of the capitalist system, rather than for their own personal benefit. Work becomes an issue of survival and the pursuit of money, rather than a form of expression for the worker.

"He therefore only feels at home with himself away from work while in work he feels estranged from himself" (Pappenheim, p. 91). The process of material production is no longer a means to fulfilling ones human essence but is a means to an end. Capitalism deprives us of our right to true human expression by alienating us from nature. Not only is the worker unfulfilled asa human through their activities, but is treated as a commodity. Labour becomes an object that is bought and sold by the capitalists.

The workers livelihood depends on the economy, a social structure that is created and maintained so long as he sells his labour. Capitalism thereby creates an environment of economic enslavement for the working class. "The devaluation of the human world increases in direct relation with the increase in value of the world of things. Labour does not only create goods; it also produces itself and the worker as a commodity, and indeed in the same proportion as it produces goods". (Finifter, p 12) We as humans have transcended our basic needs.

The more needs we have the more needs we create. We will never truly be satisfied in our work because it is not part of our nature. Essence of work is ideally freedom to Marx and freedom ceases to exist within the work environment of capitalism. When the workers have entered into an agreement with the bourgeoisie, they have sold most of their productive activity to the capitalist system. This prevents the worker from being able to fully exercise their true nature of work, and thereby the individuals "perform less as human beings as they are reduced in their work to animals" (Ritzer, p. 57). The workers ability to achieve their 'human potential' is unlikely in the capitalist society.

This is where the concept of 'alienation from human potential' arises. Marx believed even up till his time that the human race had not developed collectively into what it could ultimately be, because the societies prior to capitalism were too harsh to allow people to realize their potentials. Prior to capitalism we were too busy trying to meet our basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter. Although capitalism has provided solutions for some of its predecessor's problems it is too oppressive of an environment to allow most people to develop their 'human potential'. Human potential is an idealist abstract concept that can be described as our "ability to raise a structure in one's imagination and then to erect the structure" in the real social world (Ritzer, p. 50).

Human potential is our full conscious awareness of our potential productive activity. This concept cannot be attained for human species collectively in a capitalist system, because many of the workers are in situations of forced labour. In order for human potential to be attained we must all collectively produce items that reflect the individual worker and serve their needs as well. Therefore, human potential is actualized in the objectification of products that are produced to the individual's needs or desires. However, labour within a capitalist society does not allow for workers to use all of their skills or even produce something worthy of full objectification, because they are alienated from the items they create.

Furthermore, the inability for workers to attain their human potential causes self-alienation. Workers are never certain of their true human potential because they have not been granted the opportunity to discover it, because their labour is a commodity. It is an object with only 'exchange value' that is bought and sold rather than an expression of ones essence: skills and knowledge. The working class can never truly understand their full potential, given the constraints that the system places upon them. Once labour has taken on the characteristic of being a commodity (which is invariably the case within a capitalist state), then work loses its human meaning. The product and the worker are both commodities, and the worker as a commodity must be able to fill the requirements of the capitalist, and the possibility of discovering their human potential is lost.

"The workman who is subjective to this fate can hardly be anything else but a commodity in human form, an individual not belonging to himself but alienated from himself" (Pappenheim, p. 94). The workers are additionally alienated from their human potential because they have become oblivious or blind to the existence of their human potential. As mentioned previously, the workers life revolves around forced labour in which they do not fulfill themselves and if they cannot fulfill themselves in their productive activity they can never truly realize their full human potential. Many workers lead an existence similar to animals, merely acquiring the necessities to ensure their continued short-term existence and not conscious of their activities. They are leading a life were they are fulfilling the needs of the capitalist's rudimentary tasks and failing to fulfill their own human potential. The workers reward of a modest wage is perceived as a favourable return for compromising our ability to obtain the human potential.

The positions filled by individuals within the capitalist system are also a symbol of our standing within the society. Workers and capitalists identify their worth in accordance with the role they play in the society. Unfortunately most of the players within the capitalist system seem to accept the misconception that one's status in the system can be a substitute for human potential. This is a critical flaw which is still a very dominant, one's identity in the eyes of many is based almost exclusively upon their role and title.

This leads into what is our final form of alienation to be discussed in this paper, which is the 'alienation from fellow workers'. Marx believed that the human beings are inherently social creatures. We naturally seek interaction and nurturing from others, however capitalism prevents this from fully occurring. The capitalist system creates not only a division between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, but through various subdivisions within each group.

Capitalism ensures that work has becomes competitive rather than cooperative, which further creates divisions amongst all participants and breaks down the common bonds between people. The only force that brings people together and puts them in relation to one another is selfish and private interest of each other. The market is designed so that competition pits everyone against everyone, including worker against worker. The labour force is so specialized that the competition for jobs is high and the worker, because of issues of survival, observes other workers as a threat to their well being. By perceiving their counterparts as a threat to their survival, workers are alienating themselves from their fellow workers. They fail to realize that though they put so much of themselves into their labour, that in the end the capitalists reap all the rewards while they and their fellow workers are barely getting by.

Workers, as previously expressed, are alienated from their products produced, their actual labour, and their ability to attain their human potential. Given that a worker is alienated as an individual, how are they supposed to relate to others? If a worker is self-alienated; then the fellow worker must too be perceived as an alien force. "What is true of man's relationship to his work, to the product of his work, and to himself, is also true of his relationship to other men" (Geyer, p. 46). In addition the alienated relationship between individuals, specifically the working class and the capitalists, can be summed with:" If the product of labour does not belong to the worker, but confronts him as an alien power, this can only be because it belongs to a man other than the worker. If his activity is a torment to him it must be a source of enjoyment and pleasure to another" (Finifter, p. 17).

Most people allow for their position (or title) in the capitalist society to in some way embody their essence. A misconception, that is prevalent in all facets of the society. The working class and capitalists tend to place a false value upon their individual economic advantages and disadvantages. This also causes an additional alienation between fellow workers. Assumptions such as: a manager may be of a higher character than an entry-level individual; or that a professional may have greater worth than a non-professional.

These beliefs further create alienation between workers. The capitalist system has built "an elaborate system" that is "catering to the consumer's wants while remaining truly unrelated to human needs" (Pappenheim p. 89). Though Marx believed that we could overcome the binding ties of capitalism that hold us down, the evolution of the system in the past century and a half appears to be taking us further and further away from that possibility. Marx's solution to the inherent problems of capitalism can be found though 'PRAXIS'. Praxis can be understood as human actions. Action is needed in a place where the constants and norms, that are accepted, are devaluing the basis of human life.

Marx believed that in a historical context that the proletariat's were the descendants of slaves. The working class has historically been the oppressed section of society. They own little and consequently they have little to worry about losing. By exercising true creative labour, Marx's Praxis, the workers could discover his full human potential and realize why and who was oppressing them. Marx believed this realization would result in the unification and a common uprising among the workers. Collectively they would realize the Praxis solution and revolutionize the system (first through socialism and then eventually communism).

The revolution would not be lead by the bourgeoisie because they feel comfortable and confirmed in this self-alienation, and are therefore less likely to revolt. Marx's theories of alienation are quite profound, and his analysis of the alienation of labour is logical and is almost as relevant to his time as it is to ours today. Workers are alienated from the products they produce, their labour itself is alienating, we are alienated from our human potential, and our system perpetuates alienation between workers. Our entire social structure in the western world is full of a mass of alienated people. Few are even able or willing to open their eyes to this reality. We live in a society where we put more value into the material possessions we perceive as necessary then we do into human life.

Plain and simply put, we treat most others like a commodity and embrace an illusionary reality. As relevant as Marx's theory of alienation is, his solution to the problem appears over simplified and lacking the same in-depth study as he dedicated to developing his theory of alienation. The general dialectical arguments presented by Marx re-enforce continuously his general arguments, however he makes assumptions about human nature and the capitalistic society that cannot necessarily be held as true and are more subject to conjecture. This is even more so the case in this day and age, in which the lines are far more blurred now between the classes then they were in Marx's day. As well, Marx presumed that workers would unite as one large collective seeking the common good for all and rise up to overcome their grotesque state of existence, though our history has shown trends that differ. We live in a day and age where labour is no longer a collective but continuously branching off into smaller and smaller fraction ed groups.

In the same vein as Plato assuming that the Greeks would seek to live a 'good life' in the Republic, Marx was clearly wrong to assume that workers could and would surely unite to overthrow the seem that hinders them. Furthermore in the past one hundred and fifty years, Capitalism has continued to evolve and take upon new shapes that are able to appease all the players involved. In Marx's day labour had little or no voice at all, and would be forced to work obscene hours, with little pay, no benefits, and few or no regulatory bodies. Today we have state regulated; government protected rights as labour, as well as (in this country at least) a social safety net. Workers may still be oppressed and alienated, but at least they have a voice, and the opportunity of choice. In other words the system has modified itself to pacify the masses, and hopefully deter any form of radical revolution: such as Marx's Praxis.

Though with new beasts lurking in the shadows these days - issues such as globalization, trade liberalization and a diminishing middle class - the conditions are lending themselves once again to perhaps sparking Marx's revolution based on labour's alienation.

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Retrieved from [ web & [ web Rick, ' Introduction's to Marxism', retrieved from [ web MARX - ALIENATION [ web Alienation of Labor, retrieved from [ web Encarta 98 Encyclopedia, Copyright 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation.