Blog 2

I found Karl Marx's idea on "Estranged Labor" rather interesting. Now, I'm not the biggest Karl Marx fan, but I do think he makes some valid points.  He shows the great strain between property owners & the property-less workers.  He talks of four different types of estrangements that a worker can feel. 

For one, they can feel an estrangement of worker from the product of his work.  A property-less worker receives no fruits for their labor.  Everything they make contributes to the world outside them.  Second, they feel an estrangement from activity of production.  Their work is their survival, and exists beyond oneself.  Third, they experience an estrangement from "species-being" or human identity. Work becomes their life purpose, and they are not gaining anything from the work they are slaving over, so their life purpose feels empty.  And fourth, there is an estrangement from man to man.  Because the workers product is owned by someone else, the worker regards that person as alien and hostile.  

I think what made this idea so interesting to me is that Marx is essentially raising the question, "What does it mean to be human?" There are core parts of our being that make us, well, human.  We crave a sense of belonging, we desire fulfilling a "life purpose", we seek creative expression and independent thought.   We get bored with monotonous droning of everyday life. We desire the pains and triumphs of progression.  We dream of leaving our mark on the world. These are the things that separate us and make us human.

These are also the things that cause us the most misery when left unfulfilled.  Marx gets this point across when speaking of the property owners and the property-less workers.  There is a great unrest in the property-less workers.  They become mere brutes in the process of bringing products to the consumers. Workers who experience this today feel that sense of dissatisfaction. 

I tried to make this connection with what keeps workers morale up in modern society.  I found an article called  "11 Things That Make Workers Happy", which you can check out here! This article talks about things like offering room for growth. If we feel like we can't make improvements, or work towards a higher goal, we lose that drive.  Workers like those exampled in Marx's theory do not have an opportunity to work their way up, or experience progress in any way, which causes unrest.  There are tons of other great tips in this article that were interesting to read as well. Overall, I may not agree with everything Marx has to say, but I do feel that estranged labor is something that can occur throughout any time in history.