No one person can ever in their lifetime know the mind bogglingly large number of factors that go into all the products that they encounter and use. This alienation from factors of production is a problem as we are atomized from the sources of production- reduced to a tiny infinitesimal fraction of the larger pie. Without grandiose notions of free-fettered capitalism's amazing invisible hand or the overblown notions of alienation from labor in Marx rhetoric, is this a problem for modern humans? — schopenhauer1
1. The general public cares little about the origins of consumer items, which includes slave labor, unethical work practices, and environmental destruction. — NKBJ
is this a problem for modern humans? — schopenhauer1
No one person can ever in their lifetime know the mind bogglingly large number of factors that go into all the products that they encounter and use. This alienation from factors of production is a problem as we are atomized from the sources of production- reduced to a tiny infinitesimal fraction of the larger pie. Without grandiose notions of free-fettered capitalism's amazing invisible hand or the overblown notions of alienation from labor in Marx rhetoric, is this a problem for modern humans? — schopenhauer1
- My work would be a free manifestation of life,
hence an enjoyment of life.
Presupposing private property, my work is an alienation of life,
for I work in order to live,
in order to obtain for myself the means of life.
My work is not my life.
But what are they lacking? and why does the amazon warehouse strip them of that? and then, only then, what to do? — csalisbury
It's easy to decry things. It's very hard to explain how to make things better.) — csalisbury
True enough, manufacturing has become extraordinarily complex. But that isn't "alienation" exactly. Edited, Marx said,
- My work would be a free manifestation of life,
hence an enjoyment of life.
Presupposing private property, my work is an alienation of life,
for I work in order to live,
in order to obtain for myself the means of life.
My work is not my life.
If a man builds his own house, cultivates food on his own land, hunts his own game for food and leather, etc. his work and life would be a unity. Since the industrial revolution, the expansion of the capitalist economic system, urbanization, and so on -- fewer and fewer people have had any opportunity to experience a unity of work and life.
Almost all of us work for others, because we must. Production of all that we need and want is pretty much centralized and highly organized. We work in order to obtain the means of life, as Marx said -- food, clothing, shelter, heat, etc. But our work is not our life. We don't work for the sake of the work we do; we work so that we can buy bread.
That is the kind of alienation Marx was talking about. — Bitter Crank
The second meaning of alienation comes from, but perhaps not obviously, the fact of one's working in an office or factory that is private property and one is just a hired hand. It comes from the recognition that one, in fact, may not have a place in the world that can't be taken by someone else -- just about anybody else.
When we alienated, unhappy people have lost all our connections that bind us together, we are atomized. The next stage, after Alienation and Atomization, is Anomie, the lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group. — Bitter Crank
You are not going to like this, but it all goes back to why we have new humans in the first place. Why bring more people into the world to keep the MACHINE afloat? — schopenhauer1
I still don't get that one. — schopenhauer1
Do you think there is something intractable in life itself whichyour main solutions of better community and more projects to focus onanything we think of will not be able to fix? — schopenhauer1
I don't think the consumer's knowledge of a product's production method and sources is the issue.No one person can ever in their lifetime know the mind bogglingly large number of factors that go into all the products that they encounter and use. This alienation from factors of production is a problem as we are atomized from the sources of production- reduced to a tiny infinitesimal fraction of the larger pie. Without grandiose notions of free-fettered capitalism's amazing invisible hand or the overblown notions of alienation from labor in Marx rhetoric, is this a problem for modern humans?
Does it really all get purchased? And if so; how much of it ends up in the landfill within 10 years? — XTG
Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.