Editing Marx's theory of alienation (section)

== Dimensions of alienated labour ==
Marx stated that in a [[capitalist society]], workers are alienated from their labour - they cannot decide on their own productive activities, nor can they use or own the value of what they produce.<ref name=":Qian">{{Cite book |last=Qian |first=Ying |title=Revolutionary Becomings: Documentary Media in Twentieth-Century China |date=2024 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=9780231204477 |location=New York, NY}}</ref>{{Rp|page=155}} In the "[[Notes on James Mill]]" (1844), Marx explained alienation thus: <blockquote>Let us suppose that we had carried out production as human beings . . . In my ''production'' I would have objectified my ''individuality'', its ''specific character'', and, therefore, enjoyed not only an ''individual manifestation of my life'' during the activity, but also, when looking at the object, I would have the individual pleasure of knowing my personality to ''be objective, visible to the senses'', and, hence, a power ''beyond all doubt''. ... Our products would be so many mirrors in which we saw reflected our essential nature.<ref name=":Qian" />{{Rp|page=86}}</blockquote>

In the first manuscript of the ''[[Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844]],'' Marx identifies four interrelated dimensions of alienated labour: alienated labour alienates the worker, first, from the product of his labour; second, from his own activity; third, from what Marx, following Feuerbach, calls [[species-being]]; and fourth, from other human beings.{{sfn|Jaeggi|2014|p=11}}

=== From a worker's product ===
Marx begins with an account of man's alienation from the products of his labour. In work, a worker ''objectifies'' his labour in the object that he produces.{{sfn|Petrović|1967|p=83}}  The objectification of a worker's labour is simultaneously its alienation. The worker loses control of the product to the owner of the [[means of production]], the [[capitalist]]. The product's sale by the capitalist further reinforces the capitalist's power of wealth over the worker.{{sfn|Arthur|1986}} The worker thus relates to the product as an alien object, which dominates and enslaves him. The products of his labour constitute a separate world of objects, which is alien to him.{{sfn|Petrović|1967|p=83}} The worker creates an object, which appears to be his property. However, he now becomes its property. Where in earlier historical epochs, one person ruled over another, now the thing rules over the person, the product over the producer.{{sfn|Leopold|2007|p=230}}

The design of the product and how it is produced are determined, not by the producers who make it (the workers), nor by the consumers of the product (the buyers), but by the [[capitalist class]] who besides accommodating the worker's manual labour also accommodate the intellectual labour of the [[engineer]] and the [[industrial designer]] who create the product in order to shape the [[Taste (sociology)|taste]] of the consumer to buy the goods and services at a price that yields a maximal [[profit (economics)|profit]]. Aside from the workers having no control over the design-and-production protocol, alienation (''Entfremdung'') broadly describes the conversion of labour (work as an activity), which is performed to generate a [[use value]] (the product), into a commodity, which—like products—can be assigned an [[exchange value]]. That is, the capitalist gains control of the manual and intellectual workers and the benefits of their labour, with a system of industrial production that converts this labour into concrete products (goods and services) that benefit the consumer. Moreover, the capitalist production system also [[Reification (Marxism)|reifies]] labour into the "concrete" concept of "work" (a job), for which the worker is paid wages— at the lowest-possible rate— that maintain a maximum rate of return on the capitalist's [[investment capital]]; this is an aspect of [[Exploitation of labour|exploitation]]. Furthermore, with such a reified system of industrial production, the profit (exchange value) generated by the sale of the goods and services (products) that could be paid to the workers is instead paid to the capitalist classes: the functional capitalist, who manages the means of production; and the [[Rentier capitalism|rentier capitalist]], who owns the means of production.

=== From a worker's productive activity ===
[[File:1912 Lawrence Textile Strike 1.jpg|thumb|250px|Strikers confronted by soldiers during the 1912 [[1912 Lawrence textile strike|textile factory strike in Lawrence]], Massachusetts, United States, called when owners reduced [[wages]] after a state law reduced the work week from 56 to 54 hours]]
In the [[Capitalist mode of production (Marxist theory)|capitalist mode of production]], the generation of products (goods and services) is accomplished with an endless sequence of discrete, repetitive motions that offer the worker little psychological satisfaction for "a job well done." By means of [[commodification]], the [[labor power]] of the worker is reduced to wages (an exchange value); the psychological estrangement (''Entfremdung'') of the worker results from the unmediated relation between his productive labour and the wages paid to him for the labour. The worker is alienated from the means of production via two forms: wage compulsion and the imposed production content. The worker is bound to unwanted labour as a means of survival, labour is not "voluntary but coerced" (forced labour). The worker is only able to reject wage compulsion at the expense of their life and that of their family. The distribution of [[private property]] in the hands of wealth owners, combined with government enforced taxes compel workers to labour. In a capitalist world, our means of survival is based on monetary exchange, therefore we have no other choice than to sell our labour power and consequently be bound to the demands of the capitalist.

The worker "[d]oes not feel content but unhappy, does not develop freely his physical and mental energy but mortifies his body and ruins his mind. The worker therefore only feels himself outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself;" "[l]abor is external to the worker,"<ref name=":0">Marx, Karl. [1844] 1932. ''[[Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844]]''.</ref>{{Rp|74}} it is not a part of their essential being. During work, the worker is miserable, unhappy and drained of their energy, work "mortifies his body and ruins his mind." The production content, direction and form are imposed by the capitalist. The worker is being controlled and told what to do since they do not own the means of production they have no say in production, "labour is external to the worker, i.e. it does not belong to his essential being.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|74}} A person's mind should be free and conscious, instead it is controlled and directed by the capitalist, "the external character of labour for the worker appears in the fact that it is not his own but someone else's, that it does not belong to him, that in it he belongs, not to himself, but to another."<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|74}} This means he cannot freely and spontaneously create according to his own directive as labour's form and direction belong to someone else.

=== From a worker's ''Gattungswesen'' (species-being) ===
The ''[[Gattungswesen]]'' ('species-being' or 'human nature'), of individuals is not discrete (separate and apart) from their activity as a worker and as such species-essence also comprises all of innate human potential as a person.

Conceptually, in the term ''species-essence'', the word ''species'' describes the intrinsic human mental essence that is characterised by a "plurality of interests" and "psychological dynamism," whereby every individual has the desire and the tendency to engage in the many activities that promote mutual human survival and psychological well-being, by means of emotional connections with other people, with society. {{Citation needed|date=April 2025}} The psychic value of a human consists in being able to conceive (think) of the ends of their actions as purposeful ideas, which are distinct from the actions required to realise a given idea. That is, humans are able to objectify their intentions by means of an idea of themselves as "the subject" and an idea of the thing that they produce, "the object." Conversely, unlike a human being, an animal does not objectify itself as "the subject" nor its products as ideas, "the object," because an animal engages in directly self-sustaining actions that have neither a future intention, nor a [[Consciousness|conscious]] intention. Whereas a person's ''Gattungswesen'' does not exist independently of specific, historically conditioned activities, the essential nature of a human being is actualised when an individual— within their given historical circumstance— is free to subordinate their will to the internal demands they have imposed upon themselves by their imagination and not the external demands imposed upon individuals by other people.

==== Relations of production ====
Whatever the character of a person's consciousness ([[Will (philosophy)|will]] and [[imagination]]), societal existence is conditioned by their relationships with the people and things that facilitate survival, which is fundamentally dependent upon cooperation with others, thus, a person's consciousness is determined inter-subjectively (collectively), not subjectively (individually), because humans are a social animal. In the course of history, to ensure individual survival societies have organised themselves into groups who have different, basic relationships to the [[means of production]]. One societal group (class) owned and controlled the means of production while another societal class worked the means of production and in the [[relations of production]] of that ''status quo'' the goal of the owner-class was to economically benefit as much as possible from the labour of the working class. In the course of economic development when a new type of economy displaced an old type of economy—[[Agrarian society|agrarian]] [[feudalism]] superseded by [[mercantilism]], in turn superseded by the [[Industrial revolution|Industrial Revolution]]—the rearranged economic order of the social classes favoured the social class who controlled the [[Technology|technologies]] (the means of production) that made possible the change in the relations of production. Likewise, there occurred a corresponding rearrangement of the human nature (''Gattungswesen'') and the [[Value system|system of values]] of the owner-class and of the working-class, which allowed each group of people to accept and to function in the rearranged ''status quo'' of production-relations.

Despite the ideological promise of industrialisation—that the mechanisation of industrial production would raise the mass of the workers from a brutish life of subsistence existence to honourable work—the division of labour inherent to the capitalist mode of production thwarted the human nature (''[[Gattungswesen]]'') of the worker and so rendered each individual into a mechanistic part of an industrialised system of production, from being a person capable of defining their value through direct, purposeful activity. Moreover, the near-total mechanisation and automation of the industrial production system would allow the (newly) dominant [[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]] capitalist social class to exploit the working class to the degree that the value obtained from their labour would diminish the ability of the worker to materially survive. As a result of this exploitation, when the proletarian working-class become a sufficiently developed political force, they will effect a revolution and re-orient the [[relations of production]] to the [[means of production]]—from a [[Capitalist mode of production (Marxist theory)|capitalist mode of production]] to a [[communist mode of production]]. In the resultant [[communist society]], the fundamental relation of the workers to the means of production would be equal and non-conflictual because there would be no artificial distinctions about the value of a worker's labour; the worker's humanity (''Gattungswesen'') thus respected, men and women would not become alienated.

In the communist socio-economic organisation, the relations of production would operate the [[mode of production]] and employ [[From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs|each worker according to their abilities and benefit each worker according to their needs]]. Hence, each worker could direct their labour to productive work suitable to their own innate abilities, rather than be forced into a narrowly defined, [[Wage slavery|minimum-wage]] "job" meant to extract maximal profit from individual labour as determined by and dictated under the capitalist mode of production. In the classless, collectively-managed communist society, the exchange of value between the [[Reification (Marxism)|objectified]] productive labour of one worker and the consumption benefit derived from that production will not be determined by or directed to the narrow interests of a bourgeois capitalist class, but instead will be directed to meet the needs of each producer and consumer. Although production will be differentiated by the degree of each worker's abilities, the purpose of the communist system of industrial production will be determined by the collective requirements of society, not by the profit-oriented demands of a capitalist social class who live at the expense of the greater society. Under the [[collective ownership]] of the means of production, the relation of each worker to the mode of production will be identical and will assume the character that corresponds to the universal interests of the communist society. The direct distribution of the fruits of the labour of each worker to fulfil the interests of the working class—and thus to an individual's own interest and benefit— will constitute an un-alienated state of labour conditions, which restores to the worker the fullest exercise and determination of their human nature.

=== From other workers ===
Capitalism reduces the labour of the worker to a commercial [[commodity]] that can be traded in the competitive labour-market, rather than as a constructive socio-economic activity that is part of the collective common effort performed for personal survival and the betterment of society. In a capitalist economy, the businesses who own the [[means of production]] establish a competitive labour-market meant to extract from the worker as much labour (value) as possible in the form of [[capital (economics)|capital]]. The capitalist economy's arrangement of the [[relations of production]] provokes social conflict by pitting worker against worker in a competition for "higher wages", thereby alienating them from their mutual economic interests; the effect is a [[false consciousness]], which is a form of ideological control exercised by the capitalist [[bourgeoisie]] through its [[cultural hegemony]]. Furthermore, in the capitalist mode of production the philosophic collusion of [[religion]] in justifying the [[relations of production]] facilitates the realisation and then worsens the alienation (''Entfremdung'') of the worker from their humanity; it is a socio-economic role independent of religion being "[[opiate of the people|the opiate of the masses]]".<ref>[http://uregina.ca/~gingrich/s3002.htm Marx on Alienation]</ref>