Major Form Of Alienation In Our World example essay topic

Alienation The Marxist concept in which I felt most comfortable discussing is alienation. Alienation may be described as a condition in which men are dominated by forces of their own creation, which confront them as alien powers. The notion is important to all of Marx's earlier philosophical writings and still informs his later work. Man becomes foreign or alienated to the world he is living in because he basically can not control the material possessions of his own life. Man in a capitalistic society is alienated from himself, and the natural world in which he lives.

Workers create products by mixing their own labor in with natural resources to make new things that have greater economic value. Therefore the labor itself is objectified, its worth turned into an ordinary thing that can be bought and sold on the open market, a mere commodity. The labor now exists in a form entirely external to the worker, separated forever from the human being whose very life it once was. This is the root of what Marx called alienation, a destructive feature of industrial life. Radnia 2 Marx's essential criticism of capitalism is that it cuts off that room for growth by separating the worker's actual work from any possible imagination of what is being created in that work. Here lies the core of alienation.

When the worker no longer is able to create in response to an imagined ideal of what is being created, work becomes alienated because there is no room for personal development in that work. Consider this paper, which is my final as an example. Writing it is hard work, but it's not alienated work; why? Because I started with an imagination of the paper I would create, and how it would make the concept of alienation understandable to you Professor. Broslawsky. When I get to the end of writing, and later when I get to class and see your reaction, I'll undoubtedly have failed (compared to what I imagined), but that's all right, because I can keep creating new papers in the future trying to get closer to my ideal.

In writing this, I'm objectifying myself as a student, and as I read it back at some future time, I see myself. What I am capable of realizing in my labor is what I am. The paper I write is not just "getting a grade". To think that is to be deep in alienation. Thus instead of my work being alienating, my work is the process for my development as a person.

Furthermore, Workers in a capitalistic economic system become trapped in a sort of vicious circle. The harder they work, the more resources in the natural world are appropiate d for production, which leaves fewer resources for the Radnia 3 workers to live on, so that they have to pay for their own livelihood out of their wages, to earn which they must work even harder. Thus, Marx pointed out, workers are alienated in several different ways. From their products as externalized objects existing without their makers; from the natural world out of which the raw material of these products has been appropriated; from their own labor, which becomes a horrible necessity instead of a worthwhile activity; and from each other as the consumers of the made up products.

These dire conditions, according to Marx, are the never changing consequences of industrial society. The destruction of these relationships leaves on one side a seriously hurt individual that is physically weakened, mentally confused and mystified, isolated and virtually powerless. In the marketplace the worker's products pass from one hand to another, changing names and form along the way -- value, commodity, capital, profit, interest, rent, or even a wage. A major form of alienation in our world today is work. Thousands of people wake up every morning and have a 9-5 job. A good majority of these people are not really satisfied or happy with the work they do every day.

It becomes a routine. They attain self satisfaction with the pay check or money they receive at the end of the week, month or year. They have lost who they really are because Radnia 4 they are not content with their job, and they are satisfied with the Dollar. The simplest way to suggest your own level of alienation is to ask yourselves the lottery question: if I won one tomorrow, what would I do? To the extent that you would keep on with your present work, that's an indicator of low alienation. "Thank God it's Friday" is one expression of alienation; "blue Monday" is another.

Why is alienation so closely tied to work? Because for Marx, work is the more genuine expression of what it is to be truly human. Furthermore, the majority of students in college are taking classes just to receive an "A" in the class and move on to the next. The fear of not being accepted to a good undergraduate or masters school, reduces their chances of really understanding the material with all their ability.

The students really stop caring and they just do what is necessary to get the best grade. ISAAC B.R.