Marx: Alienation, Capitalism, and Ideology in Society
Marx: Alienation, Capitalism, and Ideology
For Marx, man is essentially a social and historical being whose main activity is work.
Understanding Alienation
Marx defines alienation as the phenomenon of suppressing the individual’s personality, controlling and reversing their free will, with the aim of making a person dependent. In relation to capitalism, alienation is established as an imbalance in the production process that has its origin in the division of labor and private property. Alienation is seen in the economic exploitation of workers, but it also has a social dimension: the economic condition of the alienated coincides with the division of society into classes. The causes are the economic conditions of society that focus on private ownership of the means of production. Thus, we have the exploiting and the exploited class.
Alienation in the Industrial Revolution
Although alienation is a constant of human history, it reaches its highest point during the intensification of bourgeois capitalism in the Industrial Revolution of the early nineteenth century. Marx relates alienation to four aspects of human anthropology:
- The product of labor
- The activity performed by the worker
- The relationship between humans
- The relationship with nature
Alienation as the Product of Labor
Alienation as the product of labor is based on the bourgeois capitalist system, which is characterized by capitalist ownership of the means of production (factories and machines) and the labor force of workers. Thus, the product of labor no longer belongs to the proletariat, as they have relinquished it to the capitalist.
Alienation in Terms of Activity
In terms of activity, the worker does not consider the product of labor, but the activity that human beings develop. The incorporation of machines and expertise leads to the worker being involved in only one part of the production process, thus performing the same activity repeatedly. This causes the proletariat to seek satisfaction outside of work, in animal activities (eating, playing, etc.).
Alienation in the Relationship Between Humans
Alienation in the relationship between human beings is based on the division of humans into antagonistic social classes: the exploited and the exploiters. This class division expresses alienation because neither of the classes fully realizes the essence of man. The proletariat is the class of those who work but do not benefit, and the bourgeoisie are those who benefit but do not produce. At this point, Marx proposed that the reconciliation of man to himself will come because of the revolution to abolish the division of social classes.
Alienation in the Relationship Between Man and Nature
Finally, alienation in the relationship between man and nature is based on the idea that the universal human being is a producer of themself. Man realizes his own being in the transformation of nature. However, the masses of workers who have migrated from the countryside to the city to work in factories also lose their natural habitat.
Marx’s Concept of Ideology
Marx also defines the concept of ideology as a set of beliefs and doctrines—religious, philosophical, ethical, legal, and political—that shape the culture of a society in every age. According to Marx, ideological forms reflect the material conditions of human existence imposed by:
- Religion, which Marx called “the opium of the people,” numbs the consciousness of exploitation of the proletariat.
- Philosophy, which, according to Marx, has engaged in theoretical work but does not transform reality.
- Bourgeois morality, a justification to appease the conscience of the capitalists.
- Law and state theory, which are aimed at conserving the status of the ruling class.
The Philosophy of Suspicion
From this point of view, Marx anticipates Nietzsche and Freud and is one of the initiators of the so-called philosophy of suspicion. The latter is the systematic presumption of hidden intentions in the world of rational explanation. These authors will try to expose such hidden agendas. Thus, reason becomes suspect.