A few thoughts on labour, Marx, and alienation

I was reading Marx's Alienated Labour earlier for my political thought course, and thought that his thesis was quite interesting. I've had a quote by Marx on the subject of production on the sidebar of this page for some time now, but this essay goes further in depth as to how and why we are alienated from the commodities we produce, to the point of becoming no more than commodities ourselves.

The idea that struck me the most in the text, however, was how we give up ownership of products that we manufacture. This applies for almost any type of work except for academic work, in which you can still feel somewhat attached to what you are producing. The point is that work tends to make us miserable and unhappy because our labour is forced or coerced. Instead of being a need in itself, it is a means to satisfy other needs. Marx looks at the question of who production belongs to, then. He concludes that, in ancient civilizations like Mexico and Egypt, production often belonged to gods to which were dedicated pyramids and other buildings. Men would build palaces for kings or gods, but live in hovels.

Today, however, Marx believes that production belongs to other men (besides the worker). What is the torment for one man is often the source of pleasure and life-enjoyment for another. This is just the surface of the argument, but I found it to be profoundly interesting.

To close off, here is an unrelated quote from the same essay.

"The more man attributes to God, the less he retains in himself."