Man, Labour and Alienation in Marxism

Sawinder Singh ( ! )

" Human essence is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of society . "

The 1st theme with which Marx dealt in Grundrisse and Capital was Man, his relations with the nature and the process of alienation. For Marx, man is not an abstraction , but already a conception of social man, of man as the " being " who makes himself through collective labour. Hence in the Das Kapital Marx demonstrated that Capitalism is nothing but another class society. Although the laws of capitalism are universal and have developed materially whole of the planet. But nonetheless it has its own internal contradictions. Also that communism is a material necessity which has been created by capitalism itself and it has to come if humanity has to saw herself from devastating effects of capitalism.

Thus dealing and understanding the internal laws of motion of human societies he gave the above stated definition of man. Where he does not mean that man is merely the product of his circumstances but demonstrated that human beings are the ' specie ' whose unique characteristic is its capacity to transform itself and its environment through a - ' labor process ' and through history. Here is also one interesting quote of Marx where he uses word ' transform itself through labor '. We see that how the Author of Kapital has related the Man's evolution of Mind and consciousness with a Unique quality - LABOR or Creativity ! Which by the virtue of nature does exists unlimited in Man only and the way he brings it out is again labor.

Consequently the 1st volume of the capital deals with ' anthropological question ' i.e. question of the generic man, that what distinguishes man from other animals. We shall discuss labor's definition step by step as was given by Marx. 

" Labor is a process in which both man and nature participate, and in which man of his own accord starts, regulates, and controls the material reaction b/w himself and nature...."

In this 1st part of the definition if we put some emphasis on the term that labor is a process, then many things about man's psychological and spiritual development becomes clear. As Marx also has termed that Man is only man when he creates freely ! ..here the word create is synonym to labor and since labour/creativity is s process then it will be always moving upward in a spiral causing a human being to develop further and further. So this itself is the demonstration of dialectics that man's development has always depended on natures laws of motion and contradictions. Reading further the definition of labor,

"... he opposes to nature as one of his own forces, setting in motion arms and legs, head and hands, in order to appropriate nature's productions in a form adapted to his own wants..... "

an important characteristic of this part of definition is that Marx identifies nature as one of the man's own forces and also that man itself is the highest product of natures organic evolution. Another thing, that through labor man is using natures gifts ( arms, legs ) to convert raw nature in the form which is required to man ! And this is what is distinguishing man form other beings of the ecosystem. lastly from this part of the definition we can also interpret or rather which was already been demonstrated by Engles through his "dialectics of nature ", the inherent unity of man and nature, a unique unity of being and doing ! That from his ' being ' man has always concluded through out history what should he now do and not vica versa.Continuing the definition,

"......by thus acting on the external world and by changing it, he at the same time changes his own nature. He develops his slumbering powers and compels them to act in obedience to his sway....... "

Next we see that Marx have given full credit to the process of labour for the development of man's consciousness. The term slumbering powers refer to the ever rising consciousness and intelligence of the man and this intelligence is awakening more in every next step of human evolution. These slumbering powers when are awaken through labour they can be expressed in the form of science, literature, art, poetry etc.

Hence continuing the definition, in next part Marx thus, declares that it is only this labour that has allowed man to develop from a ' primitive ape ' to a modern ' homo saipen '.

lastly Marx quotes an example of nature of man's labour in his definition,

" ....a spider constructs his cobwebs that resembles a weaver and bee constructs beehive that resembles an architect, but the difference b/w bee and spider from an architect and a weaver is that weaver and architect has raised their structure 1st in their imaginations before materializing them. "

We can interpret from here that Marx has pointed out the mental capabilities of man in contrast to other insects or animals as they construct only through their instinct not thought their mental capacities which man has acquired through his long and painful process of development we call- LABOR.

ALIENATION

Man's capacity for conscious creation is what makes him a human . As was said earlier that man is a man when he creates freely. But this nature of human being is actively reduced to only a means of survival in the capitalist world. Hence this deprivation of man of his own labor of his own creativity which is part of his/her being is what causes alienation. But in spite of cursing alienation Marx has also made a point that it is only in this capitalist system that complete alienation is possible and that itself will become the premises of the revolution and emancipation of working masses. And he noted fairly well 150 years ago that commodity production will rule the society which initially cause individual alienation and certainly today it has created this" Mass loneliness " . Hence the 1st practice and logical solution that nature proposes at this juncture as it has always is - Change in production relations.

 Beginning of human society -

Since as discussed that wage labour is the highest from of alienation and separation, Marx here again makes the point that when a human being is alienated/separated from his creation/product of his labor he looses his connection with his own being. further when Marx deduced the various results of this alienation in the capitalist system he discovered that due to this alienation not only there has been differences between the exploited and the exploiter but also between exploited themselves, for that is the true nature of capitalism and then Marx gave the concept of ' atomization ' of individuals and ' competing egos ' .

Hence contrary to it when Marx and Engles presented the idea of a communist society they laid down the principles and pointed that how the consciousness of man will be raised. The aim of production itself will be different. Production will be for self gratification, for joy and for further self and collective evolution, rather than profit. Hence free production/creation is the celebration of of humanity's true divine nature . But for the time being this Bourgeois society has injected the notion that nothing is real unless it isn't owned !.. i.e Obsession for possession. The replacement of alienated labor by a really human form of production would lead to a fundamental modifications in man's state of consciousness. hence out of alienation and individuation MARX'S concept of communist society is not the abolition of individual but realization of the individual that that he/she is not separated but itself is -whole.