Alienation (Marxism) facts for kids

Alienation is a big idea in Marxism, which is a way of understanding society and how it works. It's about a feeling people get when they don't feel connected to their work, to other people, or even to themselves.

A famous thinker named Karl Marx (who lived from 1818 to 1883) said that in a capitalist society, where businesses are mostly owned by private people, workers can feel disconnected in four main ways:

• They feel disconnected from the things they make.
• They feel disconnected from the way they do their work.
• They feel disconnected from other people.
• They feel disconnected from their own true self.

When people feel alienated, they might feel like they don't have much control over their lives. They work to earn wages, but the things they create often don't feel like their own.

Understanding Alienation in Work

Disconnected from What You Make

Imagine you're working in a factory. You might spend all day putting just one small part onto a toy, like a wheel or an arm. You never see the finished toy, or how it's played with. This is what it means to be disconnected from the product of your work.

Long ago, people often made things from start to finish. A shoemaker would make a whole shoe. But with assembly lines, workers often do only a tiny part of a bigger job. This can make it hard to feel proud of the final product.

Disconnected from How You Work

This type of alienation happens when workers don't get to decide how they do their job. They just follow rules and instructions given to them. For example, a worker making shirts might have to make them all the same way, without being able to try new designs or patterns.

They don't control the tools or the methods used to make things. They just do what they are told. This can make work feel boring and less creative.

Disconnected from Other People

In a capitalist society, people often have to compete with each other for jobs. This can make it hard for workers to cooperate and help each other. Instead of working together for better conditions, they might see each other as rivals.

Marx believed that people should work together. But when they are forced to compete, they can feel distant from their fellow workers.

Disconnected from Your True Self

Finally, alienation can make people feel disconnected from who they really are. Marx called this feeling Gattungswesen, which is a German word meaning "species-essence" or "human nature." He thought that humans naturally want to be creative and make things.

If someone only screws parts onto a toy all day, they might not feel like a "toymaker." They don't get to use their full creativity or skills. This can make them feel like they're not truly expressing themselves through their work.

Images for kids

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  19th-century German thinker Karl Marx (1818–1883) described alienation as workers not owning the things they create.

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  Workers during the 1912 textile factory strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, United States. They protested when their wages were cut.

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  Philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) had ideas that Marx later built upon.

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  Philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872) studied how people think about religion and human nature.

See also

In Spanish: Teoría marxista de la alienación para niños