Explain different ways Marx uses his concept of alienation?

[Ross]

any input appreciated.

[BOBO]

The only alienation that I know of Marx's theories is the alienation that comes from disenfranchised workers get with respect to their employer. They get alienated personally from the subordinate nature of their position and from the products/services that they produce.

[тᴀтʏᴀɴᴀ]

When talking about alienation Marx specifically refers to the feeling of "alienation" from the products of your own work that the proletariat (workers) can get in Capitalism.

According to Marx, the workers can't properly value their work because they don't own the resources required to gain profit, or the capital. They simply do what they are being told in order to make both ends meet and can't afford to give it much thought (remember, this was the earliest stage of capitalism, when the workers had absolutely no rights whatsoever).

Alienation is, all in all, a really ironical situation in which people are being controlled by the factors that they have actually created (such as the capitalistic market or monetary system) and which are now presented to them as some external, even divine factors that can decide on the value on their work.

Marx also mentions another types of alienation, such as the alienation of religion and politics, but to him, the alienation in the sense of economics is the most important one for the society. Because, while religious alienation affects only the mind of the individual, the alienation in economics can create serious social problems and cause the gap between the poor and the wealthy increase greatly.