Karl Marx on Alienation

Karl Marx believed that work, at its best, is what makes us human. It allows us to live, be creative and flourish. But under capitalism he saw workers alienated from each other and the product of their labour.

Narrated by Gillian Anderson. Scripted by Nigel Warburton.

This project is from the BBC in partnership with The Open University, the animations were created by Cognitive.

[rockoman]

Very strange how this video always talks in the past tense. News flash, alienation is still around in full-force in capitalism today! It is a part *of* capitalism.

[sophiazaynor]

I love how they put everything in here in past tense as if this isn't the present reality. Because that would mean admitting that this current world is a hellscape and that powerful people need to be put in their place. But god forbid BBC, an established and very wealthy organization supported by both taxpayers and corporations, would want to do that.

[JayyPeeB]

now to put this in a 2000-2250 word paper..

[VinsLeMans]

Modern reality is so absurd that something I pinch myself as though hoping to wake up from a bad dream..

[Freecell]

I appreciate the swole Marx illustration.

[lostwithowls]

concise and simple presentation of Marx's ideas but christ. why make it seem as though this is all something of the past? as though this is not something that exists in manners just as stark today?

[commie]

Today we are in alienation pro max, but the presenter spoke like it was back when Christ was alive.

[sociologylive]

Great examination of capitalism. Tying this to modern society is important. Alienation is everywhere today!

[SashaN]

"A spectre is haunting Europe..."

*X-Files theme plays*

[anniecurtis]

Alienation is defined as alienated labor. In Karl Marx's Manuscripts, alienated labor refers to forced and involuntary labor in which the worker finds no purpose, no joy or happiness, no fulfillment of necessities, no independence or power, no mental or physical development. A person in this situation feels lonely, embarrassed, worthless, and unimportant. It is someone else's operation, it is not random, and it is merely a means of providing the bodily necessities of life. In the political economy, it is purely a wage-earning profession. According to Marx, there are four forms of alienation associated with the capitalist method of production: alienation of the worker from the products of his labor.

[AnonymousAnarchyst]

I like how Gillian Anderson narrates this video 👍🏼❤️ Here is the quote from Marx on alienation, from Das Kapital: "The fact that labour is external to the worker, i e, it does not belong to his essential being; that in his work, therefore, he does not affirm himself but denies himself, does not feel content but unhappy, does not develop freely his physical and mental energy but mortifies his body and ruins his mind. The worker therefore only feels himself outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself. He is at home when he is not working, and when he is working he is not at home. His labour is therefore not voluntary, but coerced; it's forced labour. It is therefore not the satisfaction of a need; it is merely a means to satisfy needs external to it".

[Ulezim]

Unfortunately this video dresses up Marx's Theory of Alienation, not as a general theory applicable even to modern Capitalism today, but as some specific and so simple as to apply to only 19th Century Manufacturing...

I also don't think anyone really cares for the pot shots at Brand.

[ralphjasoncarlos]

Yeah being a factory worker feels like a robot. It left you feel alienated and have no time to do other things in life other than going to work, sleep, repeat. 😓.

[ThesWolf_]

And now we have created a alienated unemployed working class.

[eqhedrick]

Please caption your videos, BBC! It helps us all to retain the information better, in addition to being compliant for hard of hearing users.

[balsarmy]

Marx was genius. Many modern "economists" label him as idealistic and old guy who wrote big book.
But he really changed the world. Without his ideas and revolutions there would be no rights we have today.

[drewsisera]

Facebook won't let me share this video. What the hell? Does it let anyone else share it?

[orCane]

Apparently the youtube link for this video is marked as spam on Facebook. I can't share it there.

[robinvik]

*Capitalism is inherently exploitative, because workers are never fully compensated for their work.* If a business pays you 14 dollars per hour, that is because you produce more than that in value for the company. The rest of the value goes to the owners of the business as profits simply because they own the means of production. This fundamental problem is why inequality is on the rise in the wast majority of the world, even in countries like Norway and Denmark that have good labor laws and high taxes on the rich.

To combat this problem we need to fundamentally change how the economy works. One solution that would would keep all the benefits of the current marked system is to democratize the workplace. By doing away with the owner class and making every worker a shareholder of the company they work at they would get all value that they produce.

Nothing about this suggestion is theoretical. The largest worker co-opt that exist right now is the Mondragon Corporation which consists of 257 sub-companies and have over 80 thousand employees. Studies done on worker co-opts show that they are *more* productive than regular companies and offer more stable employment and have smaller difference in wages between managers and regular workers (because they vote on it). Like tuition-free college, universal healthcare and a livable minimum wage, this has already been tested in other countries and it works way better than what we have now. Why shouldn't we fight for it in the same way we fight for universal healthcare, tuition-free college and a livable minimum wage?

[waznaab]

can anyone please tell me what she clearly said on 0.09 "species essence..."