What Did Marx Mean by Alienation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

What Did Marx Mean by Alienation - Essay Example The essay "What Did Marx Mean by Alienation?" discusses what Karl Marx, the renowned social scientist, who elaborated on the importance of human labor and its varying form under each stage of the evolution of production relations, meant by alienation and how capitalism contributes to an individual being. He cleverly formulated the concept of alienation as a force serving as a big hindrance on the labor providers’ realization of their true identity and self-worth. This theory of alienation places human labor at the center of a society dominated by much impersonality and indifference. In a capitalist mode of production, labor becomes an object. Workers in this manner are restrained to realize their self-identity through their labor. This valuable human asset becomes an entity independent of them; outside of their control. Instead of giving reality to the workers, their labors become merely an instrument of a constructed reality forged by the few. The working class, in a capitali st mode of production, is entangled in a system wherein their labor is not something that they genuinely own but a being separate from them; their labor becomes a wretched commodity. Alienation has outcomes. It does not only transform laborers to lifeless machines but also remove them from their social being, which is from their fellow human beings. This form of alienation originates from the bitterness developed by the social class structures of a status quo. Laborers are alienated from the individuals who take advantage of their labor.