Alexa_ Marx Blog
Marx believed that living in a world where it is mostly a communist country, we would stop alienating our selves, others, our vales, and our creativity. He is expressing how a worker (Proletariat) does the actual labor into producing a product. We don't the the time to appreciate the "time" and "vale" that goes into making a product. When you go to a grocery store you don't think about how this apple, strawberry or blueberries were made just how much they are by the pound. The process of how long it is to grow a plant or any source of food, takes a lot of time and effort. The farmer has to plant it, water it, cultivate it and then ti gets sold to their buys for more consumers, such as you and I, to buy their product. I stand at a fruit stand, look at the quality of the fruit yes, I don't buy gross fruits, and not think about where it came from and how far it it went from a seed to a strawberry or an apple. I'm just concern about the price.
The process of the product is lost or in Marx's eyes alienated. Alienation meaning, our labor becomes lost or disguised by more "important" attributes. In his words we, the worker "enables him to exist first, as a worded and second as a physical subject" (Marx, 73). Basically this is saying that a man who workers hard enough on a product is lost in the value of what he is truly doing because we too wrapped around the idea of getting work done rather taking out time in doing the actual labor. An example would be an art piece that we have created, you give it to someone else and you get no credit for it. Doing a homework assignment and not getting the credit for it. These are just a a few examples of how workers can alienate them selves from their work. Workers or proletariats don't get credit, where credit is due. A major issue would have to be factory workers. They came to the U.S. looking for work and get stuck into factory jobs creating products where they get absolutely no credit for and also low wages. This is also considered alienating from the product. Marx also talks about how we hide from our products. What ever you make, you don't own anymore. Going to the example of how mechanics build cars but don't own them anymore after they are completed and sold to other companies to be sold to their consumers. Lastly he talks about how our we alienate our selves from our selves and our peers.
We live in a world where we we all want to succeed. We all want to make prove to our selves that we can get a career and have a stable life. And by doing so we kind of get lost along the way, we alienate our selves from our selves and others. For example, receiving a diploma from a university, while others get a associates degree from a Jr. college. Typically this just lazy work, where student who do the work should earn an A while other, lazy students should earn not an F but possibly a C for at least trying or showing up to class. It's the process of earning what you want is the important part. Alienating your self from yourself, not doing the work is just simply lazy. I know many students who pass with the class with A's (surprisingly) and don't do any work. Or commit to a group project, receive an A but don't do any work, or do last minute work while you stayed up all night and actually putting the effort towards an A.
But what if we lived in a world where we didn't alienate our selves and just actually cared about our products value. Noticed the labor work we put into a product? A place where we didn't care about the product but rather about the labor that was out in a car or a shirt. I think that world would be very different, we would care less about what we look like and think more about how a shirt or pair of jeans was created or where it came from. I don't think we would care about prices either. Think about it, if we didn't alienate our selves fro out work, we would want more quality than quantity. If I were to buy a shirt, I would first, skim the product for any damages (seeking quality) and if it's worth what it looks like rather then what the prices looks like then I would would it, regardless of what the retail says. I want a product that last and works well. Same goes for electronic products. Lets say you have two products that work the same way but have two different prices. I am not going to buy the cheaper price one because chances are, you'll have to buy another one. See if we took the time to care about our labor and our forkers, we wouldn't have to hide from it. We would want to care about our labor because we made it or it's actually a good quality product. I think if Marx wasn't alive during this era he would say something along the lines of, this is a fair trade or fair share of a product. Where we can come together a live in harmony among consumers and producers.
Marx believed that living in a world where it is mostly a communist country, we would stop alienating our selves, others, our vales, and our creativity. He is expressing how a worker (Proletariat) does the actual labor into producing a product. We don't the the time to appreciate the "time" and "vale" that goes into making a product. When you go to a grocery store you don't think about how this apple, strawberry or blueberries were made just how much they are by the pound. The process of how long it is to grow a plant or any source of food, takes a lot of time and effort. The farmer has to plant it, water it, cultivate it and then ti gets sold to their buys for more consumers, such as you and I, to buy their product. I stand at a fruit stand, look at the quality of the fruit yes, I don't buy gross fruits, and not think about where it came from and how far it it went from a seed to a strawberry or an apple. I'm just concern about the price.
The process of the product is lost or in Marx's eyes alienated. Alienation meaning, our labor becomes lost or disguised by more "important" attributes. In his words we, the worker "enables him to exist first, as a worded and second as a physical subject" (Marx, 73). Basically this is saying that a man who workers hard enough on a product is lost in the value of what he is truly doing because we too wrapped around the idea of getting work done rather taking out time in doing the actual labor. An example would be an art piece that we have created, you give it to someone else and you get no credit for it. Doing a homework assignment and not getting the credit for it. These are just a a few examples of how workers can alienate them selves from their work. Workers or proletariats don't get credit, where credit is due. A major issue would have to be factory workers. They came to the U.S. looking for work and get stuck into factory jobs creating products where they get absolutely no credit for and also low wages. This is also considered alienating from the product. Marx also talks about how we hide from our products. What ever you make, you don't own anymore. Going to the example of how mechanics build cars but don't own them anymore after they are completed and sold to other companies to be sold to their consumers. Lastly he talks about how our we alienate our selves from our selves and our peers.
We live in a world where we we all want to succeed. We all want to make prove to our selves that we can get a career and have a stable life. And by doing so we kind of get lost along the way, we alienate our selves from our selves and others. For example, receiving a diploma from a university, while others get a associates degree from a Jr. college. Typically this just lazy work, where student who do the work should earn an A while other, lazy students should earn not an F but possibly a C for at least trying or showing up to class. It's the process of earning what you want is the important part. Alienating your self from yourself, not doing the work is just simply lazy. I know many students who pass with the class with A's (surprisingly) and don't do any work. Or commit to a group project, receive an A but don't do any work, or do last minute work while you stayed up all night and actually putting the effort towards an A.
But what if we lived in a world where we didn't alienate our selves and just actually cared about our products value. Noticed the labor work we put into a product? A place where we didn't care about the product but rather about the labor that was out in a car or a shirt. I think that world would be very different, we would care less about what we look like and think more about how a shirt or pair of jeans was created or where it came from. I don't think we would care about prices either. Think about it, if we didn't alienate our selves fro out work, we would want more quality than quantity. If I were to buy a shirt, I would first, skim the product for any damages (seeking quality) and if it's worth what it looks like rather then what the prices looks like then I would would it, regardless of what the retail says. I want a product that last and works well. Same goes for electronic products. Lets say you have two products that work the same way but have two different prices. I am not going to buy the cheaper price one because chances are, you'll have to buy another one. See if we took the time to care about our labor and our forkers, we wouldn't have to hide from it. We would want to care about our labor because we made it or it's actually a good quality product. I think if Marx wasn't alive during this era he would say something along the lines of, this is a fair trade or fair share of a product. Where we can come together a live in harmony among consumers and producers.