Alienation: The Dangerous Side of Human Nature

by Matt Pike
10/18/00

While we are on planet Earth, we can be fairly certain that if we jump in the air we will return to the ground with an acceleration magnitude of 9.8 meters/second squared. This is the reality in which we originated and have traditionally dwelt. Now, perhaps to avoid the occasional knee scrapes gravity results in, we discover a method to travel to an extra-dimensional plane where the rules of physics no longer apply. Later generations find themselves pondering why there is no force to attract masses and find themselves longing for an answer that will tie everything together. This sounds outlandish, until human history is examined.

As a species, we have been trying to remove ourselves from the very laws of Nature since our first ancestor lifted a rock as a tool. Instead of blending harmoniously with the reality in which we exist, as all animals instinctively do, humans attempt to isolate ourselves from all of the dangers and limitations associated with the "animal" world. This, however, comes at a price. The use of increased cranial capacity, opposable thumbs, and technological advances has resulted in our being significantly differentiated from the other creatures that dwell on this planet. The essential question at this point is: what was lost? According to Karl Marx, humanities essence no longer coincides with its existence. Marx asserts that "labor is the act of human reaffirmation and self-creation". Marx proposes that our need for a different societal system is clearly evidenced by the occurrence of what he terms "alienation" within humanity. This alienation takes three forms: alienation from the product itself, from the act of producing, and from the species being.

The first type of alienation which can occur is being removed from the product of our labors. This is one of the trademarks of a capitalist political structure, due to the exchange of labor for a monetary wage. Consider an example of a highly skilled craftsman who arrives at work and pours his heart and soul into the manufacturing of some commodity. He labors at it with all his skill, paying strict attention to detail, and carefully shaping it to be "just right". At the end of the day, he is left with an item which is a reflection of his very being, which he has created in a way unique to him. Then it is collected by his supervisor, shipped to another company, then another, where it is finally sold to some anonymous consumer who will never met the craftsman or appreciate what was put into the making of the commodity and the significance that it has. All the craftsman receives from this is a monetary wage which can be exchanged for other "faceless" goods. Following this, the craftsman becomes aware of the nature of this socio-political system, and begins to simply produce the bare minimum of quality that his boss will accept, in order to increase his quantity, and therefore maximize his gain with as little work as possible. As Marx says, "Labour appears in political economy only in the form of acquisitive activity." The worker no longer has any fulfillment from his labor, and is not satisfied with his existence. The craftsman experiences a sense of seperation, which then perhaps results in what Laing would term, an "us vs. them" mentality, because the worker feels excluded and threatened by other members of society.

For contrast purposes, consider a prehistoric caveman who is a part of true nature, not a "human recreation". This caveman needs to make a tool to improve his chances of survival so he sits down with a piece of flint and begins working the stone. Every strike is both a culmination of all his available skill and practice at improving that skill. All of the lessons he has learned from previous labor is being applied, just as everything he learns here will be applied to future projects. In this way, his past and his future are being combined into his present being, and he knows who he has been, is now, and will be in the future. It is this simple, and essential, act of production that reaffirms and recreates the essence of a human. Once a worker is forced into a menial job for the sake of survival, she is denied the very reaffirmation of what it is to live. Within post-modern society, the people who will experience this the most severally are the minority workers, because of the general socio-economic stratification. This results in minorities and women experiencing the greatest degrees of alienation.

Marx puts forth a cyclical model to account for alienation. As the workers relation to his work degenerates, the relation between the worker and his essence also changes. The focus of society shifts from the act of producing to the act of acquiring. This results in private property which is "the product of the external relation of the worker to Nature and to himself...". According to Marx, capitalisms weakness is its focus on private property. It is more concerned with the accumulation of the end results of labor than on the labor itself. Capitalism uses labor to create and focus on an objectification instead of on the essence of being human which is derived from the labor.

As humanitys fear of the natural world drives it farther from the human essence, humanity becomes increasingly alienated, and the schist between the minority and the majority increases. Humans are finding themselves in a bad place, one need only examine the psychologist listing in the phonebook to see that this is our current reality. Humanity needs to return to nature, making every action an act of love from within the soul. All labor needs to be done for the joy and fulfillment of doing the work, not a measly paycheck. Every human thought, word, and action needs to be art.