x’s contempt for the capitalist society of which he was surrounded in is seen clearly in his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts written in 1844. These focus on the issue of alienated labour of which engulfs the early industrialist society he lives in. For Marx, the link between alienation and capitalism is inherent due to the ‘exploitation and injustice’ within the profit-fuelled structure of capitalism (Pappenheim, 1967: 81). It is important to note that both workers and capitalists are alienated within a capitalist system but for this essay, the focus will solely be on alienated labour. Marx splits this alienation into ‘four progressive degenerating senses’ (Dale, 2016: 91) which this essay will outline before assessing the extent that this concept is strictly linked to capitalism or whether it is present in all of human life. It will then argue that the link between alienation and capitalism can be undermined by Marx’s contradictory assessment of alienation and asses the level that his arguments can be valued today.

Before evaluating the links between capitalism and alienation, one must appreciate that the basis of Marx’s theories are on the Industrial Revolution over a century ago. Therefore, Marx is able to simplify the capitalist structure of society into the bourgeoisie – who own the means of production and capital produced – and the proletariat – who are the labour forced and can be named as the labour here. For Marx, labour should be a ‘use value’, in that it should be produced to satisfy man’s needs (McLellan, 1978). This is clear in his writing: ‘From each according to his ability. To each according to his needs.’ (Marx cited in Conly, 1978: 90) which can be simplified into one should make as much as he both can and should produce. Instead, in a capitalist society, labour becomes a commodity owned and controlled by bourgeoisie thus removing the human nature present in organic production and creating the ‘objectification of labour’ (Marx, 1844 cited in McLellan, 1978: 78). This concept of how the labourer is separated from the product of work is the first form of alienation that will be discussed. As the worker put effort and skills into his products as ‘is necessary and universal aspect of human life’ (Ritzer, 2000: 60), he becomes alienated from his capital as he has no control or ownership of it. Instead, his product ‘confronts [the labourer] as an alien being, as a power independent of the producer (Marx, 1844 cited in McLellan, 1978: 78). This distortion is a product of capitalist structure of society whereby the more the worker produces, the cheaper his labour becom