A Stranger to Marxs Estranged Labor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

A Stranger to Marxs Estranged Labor - Essay ExampleKarl Marxs Theory of Alienation gives us an idea about the de kind-heartedizing effects of capitalism that affects the worker in the society. Marxs idea of worker alienation pertains to the worker being deprived of all his fundamental human qualities as a result of the production process.As the society develops, people become alienated and estranged from his work, his being, and his society. In his essay Estranged Labor from the Economic and philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, Marx saw how the whole society must falls apart into two classes property owners and propertyless workers. As a writer and journalist struggling to depict a living, his observations on Germanys poor and oppressive condition greatly influenced his writing ideas (Wheen, 2001). Marx saw how rich factory owners have manipulate antagonistic conditions towards workers who ar subjected to a mechanized process of production. He argues that in contrast to the pre-ca pitalist period wherein the worker owns the means and ways of production, the workers in capitalist societies have no go steady over the entire production process. As a result, Marx observed that the object which labor produces confronts as something alien because the product does not belong to the worker anymore. This constitution aims to examine the capitalist societys alienation of the worker and how our modern society alienates the worker from his product, its labor process, from his fellow workers and eventually from himself. By looking at the four aspects of alienation, I will be able to examine and apply his ideas in relation to my work. In this way, I will be able to insist the truthfulness of his ideas in my own experiences at the workplace. Estranged Labor The Wordplay The word estranged is peculiar. Its from a late 15th century sr. French word estranger which means to treat as a stranger or extraneus in Latin (Barnhart, 1988). Nowadays however, the word has taken a u nlike form to mean from being removed from customary environment or associations to a more interesting definition to arouse especially mutual enmity or indifference in where there had formerly been love, affection, or friendliness (Mirriam-Webster, 2011). It is this later form that Marx uses in his theories, and what he thinks will eventually lead to the originate of the workers. From Small Shop Owners to Factory Workers The idea about the worker being alienated from the product, the process, his fellow workers and eventually from himself is understandable. In pre-capitalist society a worker would jut out his day by producing his own goods at his shop. It could be a weapon, a shoe, a tool or a simple an agricultural commodity. He would set out in his own speed and choice of production process. He would be able to change his production method or style as he communicated with his buyers. He would choose a payment to satisfy his own simple lifestyle and to make sure that he had enou gh money to guide in society. If he needed more money he might improve his products, perhaps develop new designs or qualities to enhance the function of his product. He would always be in close cooperation with the people around him and the society as he is greatly dependent upon them for the growth and developing of his business. The kind of society I just described differs a great deal from the society we live in nowadays. Modern workers are not a part of the development process of the products they make. Usually, people produce things now in factories where they perform repetitive and closely monitored labor tasks by their managers and employers. This makes the entire process of work impersonal or alien to the worker. Worse, they are most often paid a low salary that does not reflect what they produce, but manages the capitalist to make a unchewable profit. There would most often be fierce competition among fellow workers to get bonuses or a less meaningless job function. From this comparison over the state of workers in