Alienation (from the Latin, alienation) means to be outside something, to be oblivious to something. In the case of alienation of work, it is the effect of the worker not having access to the goods he produces.
The concept of alienation of work is one of the main concepts developed by Karl Marx throughout his work.
In a production line, for example, the worker is only part of the process, being completely oblivious to the final product and, consequently, to the value added to the good from his work.
However, it is through work that, throughout history, the individual humanizes himself, dominates and transforms nature in favor of his needs.
Marx, in his main work, The capital, argues about the construction of humanity throughout history. Throughout history it is understood that the development of human beings, from its beginning to the present day, occurred through class struggle.
The history of society to this day is the history of class struggle. (Marx & Engels, in The Communist Party Manifesto)
In this way, work when not dedicated to the interest of humanity, but of a specific group, becomes alienated work. The individual loses his freedom and humanity, he becomes only work force and is transformed into a thing.
Humanization through Work
For Marx, work is the way human beings build their identity by overcoming common everyday obstacles, through their imagination and production capacity. The development of culture was based on production, that is, on work.
In this way, the human being differentiated himself from other beings in nature by building artifacts that aimed to improve everyone's life. The function of work is understood as the ability to produce things to supply your needs. In the case of work as a form of humanization, the result obtained is general well-being.
Alienated Work
Throughout history, humanity has developed from an antagonistic relationship between the rulers and the ruled (class struggle), production now has the objective of meeting the needs of the ruling class.
The working class, also called proletariat, it loses its prominent place and ceases to be the ultimate goal of its own production. This happens from the moment there is a transition in the production mode.
Previously, in manufacturing and crafts, a worker owned the means of production and participated in the entire process, from the acquisition of raw materials to the sale of the final product.
In this way, he was fully aware of the value added by his work, which corresponds to the value of the final product minus the value of production costs.
In manufacturing and crafts, the worker uses the tool; at the factory, he is a machine servant. (Marx, in The Capital)
From the industrial Revolution, the worker is alienated from the means of production, which become the property of a small group (the bourgeoisie). Therefore, this bourgeoisie it also owns the final product. All that remains for the worker is the possession of himself, understood as labor power.
The worker is now priced and understood as another cost within the production process, an analog to machines and tools. This thought is responsible for the dehumanization of the worker and the origin of alienated work.
Added Value and Profit on Disposal of Work
Labor ceases to aim at meeting common needs and well-being, to become a way of making a profit and maintaining the privileges of the bourgeoisie.
Thus, the exploitation of work is the fundamental point that sustains the capitalism. The worker is alienated from the entire production process and becomes the owner only of his workforce.
Thus, the proletariat sells its only asset, which is labor power, and this becomes the capitalist's possession. The capitalist is the owner of the raw material, the machinery, the labor power (of the worker), the final product and, consequently, the profit.
Profit is obtained by the work done in transforming the raw material into a consumer good. This occurs from the practice of surplus value.
Surplus value is the basis of profit and the domination of the working class by the bourgeoisie. It is the result of the difference between the amount produced and the amount paid to the worker as a result of his work (salary).
This is one of the main theses of the Marxism, it is on the idea of surplus value that several theorists develop the idea of exploitation of the working class by the bourgeois class.
The aim of the bourgeoisie is always to maximize its profits, the worker is then coerced to work harder for the same price. And, who prices, that is, says what the work is worth, is not the worker, but the capitalist.
Alienated work makes the individual have no real notion of his worth. This, together with the need to occupy a job, makes that individual have to subject himself to the rules imposed by his employer. Otherwise, there is a group of unemployed people who want to fill these jobs.
Marx draws attention to the role of unemployment as a way of maintaining low wages and poor working conditions. To this group of people waiting for a place in a job, Marx calls the "reserve army".
From the moment a worker becomes aware of their exploitative condition and requires better working conditions, can easily be replaced by a member of the army of reservation.
This dehumanized individual is understood as a defective part of a machine on the assembly line that needs repair or replacement.
The worker only feels comfortable in his spare time, while at work he feels uncomfortable. His work is not voluntary, but imposed, it is forced labor. (Marx, in Economic-Philosophical Manuscripts)
Reification Process and Commodity Fetishism
The individual becomes an analogue of machines. He lives his life in function of his job, dehumanized, loses ownership of himself and understands himself as a thing.
The reification (from the Latin res, which means "thing"), or objectification, of the working class is generated by the loss of consciousness of oneself as an individual, as a human. This condition generates an essential loss, resulting in an existential emptiness.
With the valorization of the world of things, the devaluation of the world of men increases in direct proportion.
(Marx, in Economic-Philosophical Manuscripts)
On the other hand, the existential void, caused by alienation, is led to be filled through consumption. The "spell" (fetish) generated by the commodity gives the impression of giving back to the individual his lost humanity.
The products start to assume human characteristics, relating a way of life and behavior to a consumption pattern.
In a double movement, workers become things, while products become clothed in an aura of humanity. People start to identify themselves through the products they consume.
the short film Employment (El Empleo), from 2011, is a work by director Santiago Bou Grasso (da opusBOU), which has more than one hundred awards at film festivals around the world.
In the short, the author reflects on work and the analogy between individuals and things:
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