Marx's teaching on alienation and exploitation (OCR A-Level Religious Studies): Revision Notes
Marx's teaching on alienation and exploitation
Alienation and exploitation
Alienation occurs when humans are dehumanised and unable to live fulfilling lives exploitation occurs when humans are treated as objects and used as a means to an end Marx aimed to investigate the causes of social instability.
He shared some of Rousseau's assumptions that there was a stage in a 'state of nature' where families all shared the means of production without anyone being exploited.
However, as a society, we reached a point of being able to create a surplus at this point and class divisions occurred between those who had the means to produce more and those who did not (land owners).
This is seen in the feudal system where the feudal lords own the land and therefore, the means of producing food. The serfs, who work the land but do not own it are reliant on the lords for access to the means of producing food and must give their surplus to the lords in return for the job working the land.
This soon led to competition an alienation through the introduction of a capitalist culture. The theory of Alienation states that workers become estranged from their humanity as a consequence of living in a society in which capitalism is a mode of production. Capitalism changed the relationship between people and the means of production. This shift caused social division where the wealthy (the bourgeoisie) who owned the means of production are divided from the workers (the proletariat).
This shift results in alienation.
Marx himself presents four areas of alienation
- Alienation of the worker from their product: The design and development of a production rest not in the hands of a worker but within the decisions of the capitalists. A worker does not have control over what he or she intends to produce or the specifications of his or her product.
- Alienation of the worker from the act of production: The production of goods and services within a capitalist society is repetitive and mechanical which offers little to no psychological satisfaction to the worker. Labour seems coerced because a worker undertakes this as a means of survival.
- Alienation of the worker from their species-essence: The species-essence or "Gattungswesen" of an individual comprises all of his or her innate potential. Under a capitalist mode of production, an individual loses identity and the opportunity for self-development as he or she is forced to sell his or her labour power as a market commodity.
- Alienation of the worker from other workers: The reduction of labour to a mere market commodity creates the so-called labour market in which a worker competes against another worker. Labour is traded in a competitive labour market instead of considering it as a constructive socio-economic activity characterised by collective common effort. Marx argued that beyond capitalism, another major cause of alienation is God. The reason is two-fold:
- He rejected that God is the driving force in history: The belief that God controls history is false consciousness and leads to false hopes and illusions – this is where the idea that "religion is the opium of the people" comes in.
Religion gives power to the state or ruling group to control the population by stating that God's natural order is that some people are born to be rulers and some servants and if this seems unfair it is okay because it will be fixed in the afterlife. Exploitation is taking unfair advantage of someone. It is to use another person's vulnerability for one's own benefit.
Marx subscribed to a labour theory of value, which means that just like any other commodity such as butter or corn, the price (or wage) of labour power is determined by its cost of production.
Marx thought that workers under capitalism would therefore be paid just enough to cover the bare necessities of living. They will be paid subsistence wages.
Marx thought the worker's day is split into two parts
- labourer works for himself – producing commodities that are equal to his wage
- the labourer works for the capitalist, producing surplus value for the capitalist for which he receives no equivalent wages
The natural consequence of alienation is exploitation. This is because, through alienation, people become dehumanised and therefore easily exploited. In a modern-day example, a consequence of globalisation would be that where some factories make technological improvements that reduce costs making it cheaper for them to produce a pair of jeans, other factories drive down wages in order to compete. We are happy because our jeans are cheaper now, but, this has come at the price of exploitation.
Ultimately, Marx argues that capitalism and religion both result in the alienation and exploitation of others. Liberation theology focuses on the idea that action should be taken to support those who are being alienated and exploited. (Note that liberation theologians would not agree with Marx that religion is a cause of this)