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Alienation: Capitalism and People

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Alienation: Capitalism and People
Introduction to Sociology
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Due to 25th of September
Question 3
Made by Alexander Ivanov, Id:0904016951

Question 3: What did Karl Marx mean by ‘alienation’? Do you think that this condition still exists in the contemporary world? How would you link the concept of ‘alienation’ to work conditions and technology in our capitalist society? Provide useful evidence and discuss it sociologically. Karl Marx in his studies clearly defined what aleination is and I completly agree with the statement that it is very harmful for the society. According to our slides ‘’ Alienation is the expireince of isolation and misery resulting from powerlessness’’. In orther words, alienation is a a concept which describes the working state of most people today. Currently, workers in factories and firms are isolated from the whole process of creating any product. Each worker plays a concrete, small part of the production proccess and as a result they do not care about the whole product and it’s use by society. And I find it logical. Due to capitalistic society people have changed humanistic values on monetary dreams. So, why a worker would care about the product and it’s benefits for other people when none will pay him or her for it? Workers are doing their jobs and got money for it, and the only thing they care about is how to be promoted in order to start getting more money. That factor makes people “alienated”. Due to not having enough power to change anything in the production process and make the product better for the human sake, during the time, people just stopped thinking about society wealth and became more selfish. Working conditions and technology are closely connected with the concept of “alienation”. I would like to start with current working conditions of the majority of workers all over the world. Currently, employers mostly care about the profits, and not only employers but the majority of people all over the world.
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