View source for Theory of Alienation

Marxist theory unconditionally supported industrialisation as the major vector of economic progress. The soviet regimes of the twentieth century promoted unbridled industrialisation, at the price of ecological devastation. Marxist communism  was summed up in Lenin's formula: "communism is the soviets plus electrification." Marxist theory as a whole is thus enthusiastic about, rather than critical of, industrialization.

However, the Marxist theory of alienation does present elements of a critique of industrialisation. According to this analysis, the worker in the industrial factory mechanically produces an object which belongs to, and is completely defined by, someone else. The product contains nothing of the worker's own autonomy or creativity. The worker thus experiences as something alien both the productive process and the finished product (which the worker then buys on the marketplace). By extension, the entire society and its component parts, including notably the media, are produced in a similar manner. Human society as a whole is thus experienced as something that is alienated from its human producers.

==Links==
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation

[[Category:Historical Roots]]