-------LABOR: for Marx was LIFE ACTIVITY (a broader notion than WORK)
------------Labor meant "human productivity"
------------man's regulation of "nature" ---interaction with
----------------through which man changes BOTH nature & HIMSELF
----------------AS both AGENT and PART OF nature
----------------a self conscious awareness of human existence
-------WORK: for Marx: was a limited and distorted Labor in CAPITALISM
------------ALIENATED LABOR: DISTORTED HUMAN NATURE
----------------the negation of "productivity"
---------------ALIENATION: a constant thread running throughout Marx's work (Never lost sight of as object of his CRITIQUE
-----------EXPERIENCING WORLD AND ONESELF PASSIVELY, RECEPTIVELY, AS THE SUBJECT SEPARATE FROM THE OBJECT
----------a Modification of human nature in a specific historical Epoch/period/time
----------very different from labor as a GENUINELY HUMAN ACT.
----------a separation of man's existence from his essence
----------LABORER exists for the process of production
---------------not the process for the laborer
----------leads to an existentia1egoism
------------ALIENATION:
---------------not merely psychological (i.e. a feeling)
---------------not a maladjustment to conditions
---------------Rather: an objective reality of lived experience by real people IN RELATION to other people
MARX ASKED: How do the ways in which people earn their living affect their bodies, minds, and daily lives?
FOUR BASIC COMPONENTS OF ALIENATED LABOR
IN THE ORGANIZATION OF MATERIAL LIFE FOR SURVIVAL (WHICH WE CALL CAPITALISM) MEN ARE ALIENATED FROM:
1. THEIR "PRODUCTIVE ACTIVITY"
---Do NOT work for themselves (to satisfy their own needs)
------neither their individua1 NOR Social needs)
---work for the Capitalist with little say in WHAT or HOW to do it
------CAPITALIST sets the conditions of work
------Especially: IF they WILL or W1LL NOT work
------Uses the worker as sees fit
------PAYMENT of "subsistence wages" : that which is minimally needed to survive
---THUS: through the payment of wages...productive activity BELONGS TO THE CAPITALIST
------AGAIN: owners decide what to do with it
---Productive Activity NOT = (no longer) satisfying IN & OF itself (as an END)
------RATHER: is reduced to a boring and stulifying MEANS
------a MEANS to the established goal of Capitalism
------i.e. earning enough money to survive
---------the "need for money" is the only real "need" capitalism creates
-------- Without this "need" (work is "shunned like a plague")
2. FROM THE OBJECT OF THOSE ACTIVITIES: "THE PRODUCT"
---NOT belong to the worker for the satisfaction or their own needs (again, individual nor social)
------RATHER: belongs to the capitalist sold to make a profit
------SURPLUS VALUE is created and then managed by the Capitalist
--------i.e. "value" created over and above the wages paid for the production
--------the "root" source of all profit
---WORKER has very little sense of WHAT they are PRODUCING
------concentrates on own sphere of activity
------relates to "product" only as an object outside self AND which must be "reacquired" through exchange
------Marx's critique of DIVISION OF LABOR (specialization of tasks)
------THUS: the "assembly line", the "process" comes to be viewed as the "PRODUCER" (NOT the workers)
---PRODUCT stands as an "alien" thing to "have" / to "consume"
------what WAS a "totality" now appears as something "to possess"
------i.e. the acquisition of = the MEANS to survive
3. FROM THEIR "FELLOW WORKERS"
---MARX sees all authentic production as SOCIAL PRODUCTION
------his "faith in man" consists of the need for relatedness, the need and desire to socially cooperate in order to appropriate from nature the means of survival
---IN CAPITALISM: this social production is disrupted and distorted
------a "unity" is disrupted and replaced by a a relationship of "MUTUAL INDIFFERENCE"
------WORKERS ARE SIDE BY SIDE (yet relative strangers)
--------forced into a competitive relationship
--------this competitive relation is "alienated cooperation"
------EVEN IF FRIENDS: people work in self interested isolation
------YET: goes beyond simple isolation
--------Again: Pitted in outright competition, if not open conflict
----------i.e. who can produce more
----------i.e. who can produce quickest
----------i.e. who can please the boss better
----------THUS: the need for a system of DIFFERENTIAL REWARDS (SEGMENTATION)
---ALL THIS ACCOMPLISHES ONE MAJOR THING:
------deflects attention from real source of problems: THE CAPITALIST
4. FROM THEIR OWN HUMAN POTENTIAL ("SPECIES BEING")
---SPECIES BEING: reflects Marx's concept of "GENERAL HUMAN NATURE"
------IS NOT a "something" INSIDE each individual
------RATHER: refers to the need for relatedness and the potentiality of each individual through HUMAN socia1 relations
---THUS: people perform less and less like HUMAN beings
------are reduced to animals, beasts of burden, inhuman machines
------are separated (alienated) from that which gives them their unique status as human beings:
--------their SELF CONSCIOUS ACTIVITY
------Consciousness is NUMBED (ultimately destroyed)
--------relations with humans (self and others) and nature are progressively SEVERED
---THUS: result is a MASS OF ALIENATED WORKERS
------a mass of people UNABLE to express their "ESSENTIAL HUMAN QUALITIES"
------who relate to others as to self:
--------according to standards of their "roles"...i.e. as workers
------the SPECIES relationship, its social relatedness, the "essence" of humans, becomes divided and thus, social relations become essentially instrumental...
--------just like each worker stands in relation to the capitalist.
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THUS: "ALIENATED LABOR" in Capitalist Society DISTORTS both "LABOR" & "LABORER"
1. humans become "crippled monstrosities" through specialization
------forced to work on minute details
------disallows use of all (WHOLE) capacities/potentialities
2. the natural relation of "head and hand" is broken
------"manual" vs. "mental" labor is created
3. the monotony of repetitive tasks experienced DAY AFTER DAY
------numbs the consciousness of other possibilities
------IF FELT AT ALL: is experienced as either personal inadequacy OR as the need to "advance"
4. HUMANS: 1oose sense of being creative beings (as subjects of objects)
------"creative" comes to equal OWNING AND POSSESSING objects (i.e. HAVING)
------BECOMES "COMMODITY MAN"
--------becomes the sole way of relating to the world outside one self
------"having" private property makes people "one sided" & "stupid"
--------to be "authentic" one must "POSSESS"
--------objects are only USEFUL only if they can be eaten. drunk, worn or inhabited
-----THUS: HUMAN powers and needs are alienated
-------FORCED to concentrate on NATURAL power & needs
---------"natural" = animalistic powers & needs
---------that which we share in common with our fellow animals
---------to "fulfill" them becomes equal to "total fulfillment" in capitalist society
5. Belief that the "abilities of the capitalist" leads to the success of the worker
-----this is an INVERSION (i.e. ideological) of actual and analyzed reality
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THE THEME OF MARX'S CONCEPT OF ALIENATION IS THAT THE WORKER MUST HAVE JUST WHAT 1S NECESSARY FOR HIM TO WANT TO LIVE, AND HE MUST WANT TO LIVE ONLY IN ORDER TO HAVE THIS
