The Marxist Alienation - Essay Sample

Introduction

In the historical capitalist society, employees worked exclusively for the benefit of the organization. Moreover, while there was still more emphasis on the social class, the vast majority of the workers were not given adequate security and the essential compensations of a kind and devoted employee. This led to the rise of Karl Marx with the term 'Alienation' in 1844, which meant that things which were usually put together are experiencing isolation or another entity is in place between things that were socially fitting(Petrovic 1963: 419). Putting forth this expression, Marx ascribed the reason for alienation to the exact outcomes of capitalism. From this term 'alienation,' Marx divided it into four areas of alienation, including alienation from self, separation from others, isolation from productions, and alienation from the products(Petrovic 1963: 420). Today, Marx's 1844 ideas on alienation are of greater relevance to the contemporary working society.

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Marx's idea on alienation is that, as the organization's production rises, the sense of worth among the employees decreases (Aronowitz 2016: 73). A political economy gets support from labor profits, wages, land, and laws without exhibiting their connections or existence(Grant 2014). An employee works for the pay which permits organizations to generate a product which is in turn sold for profits. Thus, the worker becomes a commodity on his own as well as part of the processing. The work is actualized as the employees become slaves to their work. From this, alienation is brought out in the workers, and their progress goes unrealized. They become alienated from themselves and only exist as workers who lack in individual worth(Petrovic 1963: 422).

This alienation is inversely associated with a rise in the value of the product as well. When the product becomes more valuable, the laborer'send up being less important(Petrovic 1963: 421). Workersdelivertheir duties, but there is no attachment to the work. Their success depends on their endurance in employment and providing a means to an end. In contemporary society, the employees' efforts belong to the organization they work for and generates products for consumption(Grant 2014). The workers face alienation by being slaves to their productivity; they do not seem to be happy at their workplace, and the work pressure control most of them, rather than the employees being in control of what they are doing. Their work practices are what they supply and not part of their existence.

Marx's idea is relevant, in that today, laborers tend to be powerless hence, being part of nature's force of life. People are conscious beings created from nature, although this awareness is unsuccessful if they are not able to make free decisions(Aronowitz 2016: 75). People can not make uncoerced choices if they tie themselves to their works products more than they have to which is the organization's requirements for the profit margin(Windsorand Alana 2015: 65). When workers are enslaved to production and do not maintain mindful self-determination, they get alienated even from their colleagues, who also experience alienation further in the process. By facing separations from their work, people become alienated from their peers ((Petrovic 1963: 422). One's association to their labor is also evident in their relations with the job and their peers. This alienation concept continues to exist in contemporary society.

Marx projected that the growth of capitalism could contribute to a focus on vast wealth build up and capital while on the other side of the social spectrum there would be an accumulation of intense labor, misery, and poverty (Petrovic 1963: 420). Those in the employment sector are getting unequal pay to their labor efforts to maintain profits for the business owners. In America, the employed seem to be confronting a different regime in history, one which continues to see its working-class account for the costs of war and the global economic climate. For a few individuals, life is loaded with hardships and stress and these battles in regular day to day existence while others lavish in solace makes class conflicts in the society. The world sees that the United States is safe to class clashes and the lion's share of its residents carry on with a quiet and prosperous life (Grant 2014). For instance, tycoons operate Trump's government with a focus on extinguishing all advantages acquired by the laborers for decades. Of late, America's business incomes are gashing down, and the rise in production has permitted organizations to develop without much effort in reducing the vast numbers of unemployment cases. With the inexistence of job securities, employees are afraid of leaving their jobs hence lack the power to bargain.

The Marxists hypotheses still shape our general public to date. At the point when Marx supported for a dynamic salary impose through the socialist's declaration, no single state had one. As of now, all countries on the planet have dynamic assessment salaries, and this is the main route through which the United States endeavors to address salary disparity. With the contemporary issues in the public arena, on most events, we turn to Marx's ideas not because we depend on him, but rather because of his inevitability in the capitalist world.

Even though Marx's original ideas on alienation in the workplace look overly focused in today's working condition, especially in the highly industrialized society, the notion is useful in comprehending how today's employees can end up feeling isolated or powerless through working. Marx might have taken an overly critical view of capitalism, but he undoubtedly brought out insights to a broader recognition of the significance of the worker's voice and engendering a sense of value or belonging to personal labor(Aronowitz 2016: 83). Alienation only happens to be of limited use a notion in the understanding of today's employment sector. Nevertheless, Marx's work is essential in shaping our current comprehension in work practices. The contemporary society has a substantially more extensive range of labor than merely large-scale manufacturing in production lines. However with Marx's idea on alienation;we can consistently extend our insight and understand the contemporary working lives better (Windsorand Alana 2015: 64).

Conclusion

In conclusion, in Marx's early writings of 1844, that are more philosophical than profit based, he depicts how the laborer under an industrialist production mode winds up alienated from his peers, work, and himself. Marx contends that work is essential to an individual's sense of well-being and self-conception. Work is as much a demonstration of individual development and a plan of one's way of life since it is a means of survival. Nevertheless, capitalism, the structure of private ownership for the production means, denies people this source of self-identity and worth. The laborer perceives work exclusively as a means for survival and gives little to no focus on the other individual fulfillment of work since he does not have a share in the products of his work. The owners instead take these products and sell them for profit.

References

Aronowitz, Stanley. 2016. The crisis in historical materialism: Class, politics, and culture in Marxist theory. Springer.

Grant, Alex. 2014. "Karl Marx: More Right and More Relevant Than Ever!". Marxist.Com. Retrieved October 9, 2018 (http://www.marxist.com/karl-Marx-more-right-and-more-relevant-than-ever.htm).

Petrovic, Gajo. 1963. "Marx's Theory of Alienation." Philosophy and phenomenological research 23(3): 419-426. Retrieved October 9, 2018(https://www.jstor.org/stable/2105083).

Windsor, Elroi J., and Alana M. Carroll. 2015. "The bourgeoisie dream factory: Teaching Marx's theory of alienation through an experiential activity." Teaching Sociology 43(1): 61-67. doi:10.1177/0092055X14547824