A Stranger to Marxs Estranged Labor - Essay Example

? here] A Stranger to Marx’s Estranged Labor Introduction Karl Marx's Theory of Alienation gives us an idea about the dehumanizing effects of capitalism that affects the worker in the society. Marx's 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 make a living, his observations on Germany’s poor and oppressive condition greatly influenced his writing ideas (Wheen, 2001). Marx saw how rich factory owners have set antagonistic conditions towards workers who are subjected to a mechanized process of production. He argues that in contrast to the pre-capitalist period wherein the worker owns the means and ways of production, the workers in capitalist societies have no control 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 paper aims to examine the capitalist society’s 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 verify the truthfulness of his ideas in my own experiences at the workplace. Estranged Labor: The Wordplay The word “estranged” is peculiar. It’s from a late 15th century old French word estranger which means “to treat as a stranger” or extraneus in Latin (Barnhart, 1988). Nowadays however, the word has taken a different 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 uprising 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 start 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 enough money to function 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 development 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 hefty 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 pre-capitalist and capitalist societies, I was finally able to fit the word puzzle why the word estranged could interesting signify “indifference in where there had formerly been love, affection, or friendliness”. The affinity towards work in the pre-capitalist is very much in contrast with the indifference towards impersonal and alien work nowadays and this is where Karl Marx begins to complain. Four forms of Alienation In a nutshell, Marx’s Theory of Alienation suggests that in modern industrial production, workers are not able to gain control over their lives because they lose control of their work (Shalla & Wallace, 2008). In his essay “Estranged Labor, Marx identified four forms of alienation which pervades the capitalist society: (1) product alienation, (2) alienation from our labor process, (3) alienation from our species being and (4) alienation from other human beings. In product alienation, the worker is alienated from the things we produce because it does not belong to him but to the capitalist for whom we work. According to Marx, the produced object meets the laborer in a hostile manner as his “activity is an alien labor that does not belonging to him”. In this case, the laborer becomes slave of the object because as more wealth the worker produces, the poorer he is and the cheaper he himself as a product becomes. In Marx’s words, “the more the worker produces, the less he has to consume and the more values he creates, the more unworthy he becomes”. It is a vicious circle which the worker gets caught in, and what makes this cycle going is the market economy. Alienation from the labor process means that because workers are expected to act according to corporate agenda, he/she loses control over how to things are done. Direct instructions are pre-emptively given to the workers and close monitoring of his/her activity should ensure that the quantity and quality of the product is done in accordance to the owner’s desire. In this way, the laborer becomes alienated from the process because he/she feels that “his own activity does not belong to him” but to the capitalist. Moreover, workers are alienated from themselves because in the process of commodifying our own minds and bodies, we are compelled to exist as machines with no spontaneous or creative freedom. As man is “one with his life activity”, Marx claims that it is inhuman to treat labor as mere commodity that can be bought and sold in an open market. In contrast with the repetitive and poor conditions at work, he believed humans should produce things creatively and intelligently. Lastly, we are alienated from our fellow human beings because we tend to compete for a better wage. In a capitalist society, we do not relate with other workers because they only represent different relations in the production. All in a Day’s Work The only way I could determine the truth in Marx’s Theory of Alienation is to examine his views in relation to my work. As a working student in a capitalist nation, I should be able to look into the common working condition of a worker in a clothing store. Indeed, as James Rinehart correctly asserts in his book, The Tyranny of Work: Alienation and the Labor Process, “the overwhelming majority of people... do not exercise control over the process and purposes of their labor”. To examine his point, I will relate my experiences as a sales clerk in a clothing store. The nature of my job is to assist and convince customers to buy clothes from the clothing store. My task also includes keeping the store area clean for customers. In return, I get a fixed rate of $10.70 per hour excluding a 1% commission of every item I was able to sell. On weekdays, I spend around 5 hours and around 9 hours during weekends at the store. (1) Product alienation In my work, product alienation happens when I have no control on the clothing products that I sell. I must admit that I have very little idea about the design and fashion style of the garments delivered in the store. I am aware though that my company imports garments from China for cheaper labor costs. I have no control over the quality of material and labor that they have over there. What I know is that I am obliged to sell all supplies that are delivered to us. Also, I feel alienated from the products I sell in the sense that I do not own anything in the shop except that I get 1% bonus which barely makes any difference in my salary. In contrast to the million dollar earnings of the company per year, I only get minimal incentive partly because I do not own the products which we sell. Moreover, as a branded clothing store for teens, the prices of items that I sell are admittedly too pricey for me. This goes to show that in a capitalist society, workers “build houses in which they will never live, make cars they can never buy, and, produce shoes they cannot afford to wear” (Shalla & Wallace, 2008). (2) Alienation from the Labor Process During my work experience as a sales clerk, I felt no control over what I do. When I was starting out with the work, I had scripts to follow when potential buyers enter the shop. I was not able to use my creativity and experience that I have to improve my sales. The shop manager had in such detail set forth how I should go about dealing with customers, how to invite them in, show them around, help them, and close the sale, that I was not personally in control of any part the process. My job simply commands me to sell, as best as I could, the clothes that our company displays. In this case, it is true that according to Karl Marx, “the relation of the worker to his own activity is an alien labor not belonging to him”. The way things work in the clothing store is not under my control but that of the manager. I simply have to follow the tasks that were given to me as I work. (3) Alienation from our Species Being According to Marx, a worker is “only himself outside his work and in his work feels outside himself”. I could attest to that statement in a way that I do not take my work personally. I simply consider my work as a job that I should do in order to survive and help me with my studies. When I am not at work, I love to spend my days playing music and hope that one day I would become a successful musician. My current job does not contribute on my creativity and passion for music. In fact, I simply have to settle into my career in sales for the mean time in order to sustain my education. Although I cannot say I am happy with my job, I am just satisfied that I have means to make money. My reasoning reminds me of what Rinehart (2005) used when he pointed out that when workers feel “satisfied” with their jobs, this is just an indication that the individual worker is “satisfied relative to job opportunities available to them.” Indeed, I have my job now because I have to have it. (4) Alienation from Other Human Beings My workplace had bonuses for selling clothing items displayed on the store. We were rewarded 1% of our sales in bonus, as well as competing to be the monthly salesperson, which would give additional incentive to our salary. Because of this, I am forced to “lie” to them in some cases to make buy our products of lesser quality (but higher cost) just so I could reap some benefits of my selling. My fellow workers and I were pretty much estranged. We worked on shifts of two people at a time, but we are supposed to stay in different parts of the shop and not spend time talking. It was a very competitive working environment, which completely alienated me from my fellow workers. We had a yearly party, but honestly we were not much interested in socializing with the people that were our fiercest competition to get bonuses. With this kind of sentiment, I was able to relate to the statement that in a capitalist society, “we are not related to each other as individuals but as representatives of different relations of production, the personification of capital, or land or labor.” (Shalla & Wallace, 2008). I could not care less about the factory workers that work for my company in China. As long as we are able to produce clothing supplies that I could sell, then I am alien to the condition of workers in another line of production. This estranged feeling stems from the fact that I do not associate myself to these workers who are located half way around the world. Strange Insights from Marx’s Estranged Labor Reading Marx’s Estranged Labor and supplementing it with James W. Rinehart’s The Tyranny of Work helped me question and made me ponder on my future. Currently, I aim to get a degree so that eventually I could settle to a job that will give me a higher compensation and better living. These thoughts however have also made me realize that in the future, I will simply just be part of the capitalist system, working for companies and become “alienate” from work like the rest of us in the society. I have come to accept this reality – that I am part of this dire and oppressive system. However, I will not allow myself, as much as I could, to be swallowed by the evils of capitalism (i.e. profit driven ways of transacting business). The mere awareness of how the corporate world may corrupt my values and ways as a human being is enough to make me feel armed in the future. I console myself that at least I am equipped with intellectual tools to understand what is happening in my society. I could only hopes that eventually, I am going to take part in making gradual steps to lessen, if not eradicate the evils of capitalism. I am glad to know that I also share this hope for the future with Rinehart (2005) when he stated that “alienation is not inherent to the human condition” knowing that strategies such as worker self-management, a democratically planned economy and social policies can help workers redeem their lives. This strange hope enables me to do my part to at least humanize the oppressive nature of the capitalist system. References Barnhart, Robert K., ed., The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology. New york: H.W. Wilson Co., 1988. "Estranged." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2011. Web. 25 May 2011. Marx, Karl. “Estranged Labor”. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. Trans. Martin Mulligan. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1959. Print. Rhinehart, James W. The Tyranny of Work: Alienation and The Labour Process. 5th ed. Canada: Nelson College Indigenous, 2005. Print. Shalla, Vivian & Wallace, Clement. Work in Tumultuous Times: Critical Perspectives. Canada: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2008. Print Wheen, Francis. Karl Marx: A Life. New York: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2001. Print Read More