So, what is Alienation? It's a state of estrangement, a feeling of disconnect that people experience. That is particularly endemic to Capitalism. But what does that mean exactly?
Humans are fundamentally a social species. We come together and work to produce stuff necessary for our lives and thus produce the life we live, socially. No lone tigers hunting in the forest here. In every system of production throughout history, from hunter gatherers to feudal agriculture, there are social relationships which create the necessary connections for people to come together and work. These relationships contain within them the reality of how people identify (their roles), how they see other people in relation to themselves and the particular division of labour involved. These can be exploitative/hierarchial or co-operative.
Under Capitalism though these social relationships, as far as the production process is concerned, no longer exist. Or rather, they are hidden from experience. Instead the connection between humans are mediated by the exchange of money and commodities in a market. And since money/commodity becomes the medium of social activity, actual social relationships no longer mediate production. This leads to Alienation.
Think about it like this. As a consumer, you are surrounded by 100s of commodities that you purchased from the market. But these are not just products that appeared magically on the shelf. They are a result of real work that real people did. The way they did it, in what conditions, the lives they live inside and outside work, their relationship with all the other people involved, leaves an imprint on how the commodity actually turns out and it's final price tag. But you don't experience any of that, infact you have zero connection to the actual people whose hands created the things you use and love. Except the fact that you paid for those things and hence own them, privately, in an alienated manner. So your relationship to those commodities is relegated to one of private ownership and you cannot experience any social aspect to them (they way you can experience, say, your grandmom's love in a sweater she herself knitted for you. A labour activity and it's product that are contingent on that relationship and hence carry it within themselves)
This goes the other way round too. The worker himself is socially alienated from the people he is producing for. The products of his labour are packaged and shipped off to be sold in markets to people he has no knowledge or control of. In effect the worker becomes alienated from the commodity he himself produces using his own hands. Instead of something that emanates from the worker's own being, the commodity becomes an alien force that exists over and above the worker. And makes the worker slave away for it's own existence. Sometimes the worker cannot even afford the very thing he creates. Consequently, the worker becomes alienated from his very own labour. He doesn't do that work because he actually wants to but because he needs to inorder to make a living. This leads to misery, as the work does not emanate from the worker's own being/free will, the worker does not feel like himself when working. He feels like a drone who can only become himself when he reaches home. The work is not a part of his life because he can only live as himself outside work. This is why you will seldom find a bunch of Chinese workers taking pride in the fact that they created the globally beloved iPhone.
So, as you can see Capitalism disconnects a man from both ends. It disconnects us from the people who produce for us and the people we produce for. Thus alienation is fundamentally a loss of community. It is only possible under Capitalism that a man can have zero friends, no family, zero girlfriends, can go to work and barely interact with anyone outside work stuff, come home, buy commodities and live a completely isolated life. An experience some of you may be familiar with.
Capitalism alienates worker from worker because instead of co-operating it expects them to compete for employment and promotions. It alienates capitalists from capitalists as they are in a constant struggle to expand into each other's markets. And it alienates workers from capitalists for obvious reasons we've already discussed in previous posts.
Humans are fundamentally a social species. We come together and work to produce stuff necessary for our lives and thus produce the life we live, socially. No lone tigers hunting in the forest here. In every system of production throughout history, from hunter gatherers to feudal agriculture, there are social relationships which create the necessary connections for people to come together and work. These relationships contain within them the reality of how people identify (their roles), how they see other people in relation to themselves and the particular division of labour involved. These can be exploitative/hierarchial or co-operative.
Under Capitalism though these social relationships, as far as the production process is concerned, no longer exist. Or rather, they are hidden from experience. Instead the connection between humans are mediated by the exchange of money and commodities in a market. And since money/commodity becomes the medium of social activity, actual social relationships no longer mediate production. This leads to Alienation.
Think about it like this. As a consumer, you are surrounded by 100s of commodities that you purchased from the market. But these are not just products that appeared magically on the shelf. They are a result of real work that real people did. The way they did it, in what conditions, the lives they live inside and outside work, their relationship with all the other people involved, leaves an imprint on how the commodity actually turns out and it's final price tag. But you don't experience any of that, infact you have zero connection to the actual people whose hands created the things you use and love. Except the fact that you paid for those things and hence own them, privately, in an alienated manner. So your relationship to those commodities is relegated to one of private ownership and you cannot experience any social aspect to them (they way you can experience, say, your grandmom's love in a sweater she herself knitted for you. A labour activity and it's product that are contingent on that relationship and hence carry it within themselves)
This goes the other way round too. The worker himself is socially alienated from the people he is producing for. The products of his labour are packaged and shipped off to be sold in markets to people he has no knowledge or control of. In effect the worker becomes alienated from the commodity he himself produces using his own hands. Instead of something that emanates from the worker's own being, the commodity becomes an alien force that exists over and above the worker. And makes the worker slave away for it's own existence. Sometimes the worker cannot even afford the very thing he creates. Consequently, the worker becomes alienated from his very own labour. He doesn't do that work because he actually wants to but because he needs to inorder to make a living. This leads to misery, as the work does not emanate from the worker's own being/free will, the worker does not feel like himself when working. He feels like a drone who can only become himself when he reaches home. The work is not a part of his life because he can only live as himself outside work. This is why you will seldom find a bunch of Chinese workers taking pride in the fact that they created the globally beloved iPhone.
So, as you can see Capitalism disconnects a man from both ends. It disconnects us from the people who produce for us and the people we produce for. Thus alienation is fundamentally a loss of community. It is only possible under Capitalism that a man can have zero friends, no family, zero girlfriends, can go to work and barely interact with anyone outside work stuff, come home, buy commodities and live a completely isolated life. An experience some of you may be familiar with.
Capitalism alienates worker from worker because instead of co-operating it expects them to compete for employment and promotions. It alienates capitalists from capitalists as they are in a constant struggle to expand into each other's markets. And it alienates workers from capitalists for obvious reasons we've already discussed in previous posts.
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