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Bourgeoisie Vs Proletariat

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Introduction
A renowned philosopher, sociologist, revolutionist, historian, economist, and journalist known as Karl Heinrich Marx was seen as the most influential figure in the 19th century. Marx, born on May 5, 1818, came from a middle-class family background in Trier, Germany, and died in North London on March 14, 1883, leaving a legacy to his name as the greatest socialist thinker as quoted from Friedrich Engels eulogy on March 17, 1883 during Karl Marx’s funeral: “His name will endure through the ages, and so also will his work.” With an inquisitive and idealistic sociological thinking coupled with devotion and commitment to witness a radical social transformation and understanding real humanism in the society, Marx argued that the only …show more content…

Bourgeoisie, also known as the oppressor or capitalist class, consisted of the minority group but having the most wealth, power and authority in control of the production and labour; whereas the Proletariat, which consisted of the masses lacking in wealth, power and authority are mainly addressed as the working class or the oppressed. As a result, this differences in the classes led to exploitation, unfairness, inequality, and alienation. In Marx’s dialectical materialism perspective, he views class conflict as the catalyst for social development, and society is composed of dynamic processes which could be prominently seen through the technology advancement in historical economic production systems leading to an increase in scale of production and more effective production methods by the usage of complex machinery. Marx went on to explain capitalism as a system of private property and ownership, where it is a free trade society involving the commodification of material goods and human labour, ultimately to gain profits. Marx reinforced his theory of capitalism by the fundamental influence of the superstructure of society, which is religion and the German Ideology. He illustrated with “the religion is the opium of the masses” (A Contribution to …show more content…

However, he mentioned that the capitalist society disrupted this cooperative process, giving the example of an office setting whereby the workers, in order to survive and sustain their career, are being forced to compete with one another and even resulting to conflicts just to gain additional rewards or to satisfy the capitalist in terms of their working performance. Furthermore, the technological advancement has resulted to isolation and little social interaction among workers in an assembly production industry, whereby the variable of productivity is dependent on the performance of the workers in the use of machinery. This hostility and isolation among workers created the alienation between fellow workers.

Own Human Potential
Lastly, the alienation of workers from own human potential is derived from the notion that workers do not feel themselves during work. With the advancements in technology such as machinery, the individual capability of workers are being compromised, such that they rely heavily on the use of machines, and their human nature are being manipulated, orchestrated and scripted. Therefore, the workers are alienated as they are incapable to demonstrate their individual human qualities in the nature of

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Karl Marx’s Communistic View The differences between bourgeoisie and proletariat, according to Karl Marx, was that the bourgeoisie owned property and controlled all aspects of the society and proletariats owned nothing and were wage-laborers that sold their labor for a wage. The terms bourgeoisie and proletariat do exist in the American society with slightly different terms and variations. The bourgeoisie would represent the upper class of American society; these individuals own property, businesses, and comprise a small majority of the population, much like the bourgeoisie. The proletariat would be representative of the middle and lower classes of the United States; however, the difference here is that the middle and lower class citizens

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When man confronts himself, he also confronts other men. What is true of man’s relationship to his labour, to the product of his labour, and to himself, is also true of his relationship to other men, and to the labour and the object of the labour of other men.” (Marx 1844) We have evaluated the four types of alienation labor in relation to the worker: The estrangement of the worker from the product of his work, the estrangement of the worker from the activity of production, the worker’s estrangement from species-being or human identity and the estrangement of man to man or the estrangement from our fellow workers.

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Marx explains that the third type of alienation is self-alienation. This explores the alienated relationship between the worker and himself. As a producer, the worker is directed how to perform each task is has no freedom of choice (Misina 2015). “It alienates from man his own body, nature exterior to him, and his intellectual being, his human essence”(McIntosh 1997:20). Marx argues that workers must follow orders and aren’t given the opportunity to innovate and use their own ideas.

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This alienation arises in part because of the antagonisms, which inevitable arise from the class structure of society. We are alienated from those who exploit our labor and control the things we produce.” (Marx). Karl Marx explains in his Theory of Alienation that isolation of an individual is the result of living in a society stratified by social classes. According to Marx, there are four types of alienation; alienation of the worker from their product, alienation of the worker from the act of production, alienation of the worker from their Gattungswesen (species-essence), and alienation from other workers.

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The main concept of alienated labor was developed by Karl Marx in his early work Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts from 1844 - First Manuscript [Estranged Labor]. As defined, the concept of alienation is profoundly embedded in religions and social and political theories, the possibility that some time in the past individuals feeling like foreigners in the world, however, sooner or later this distance would be overcome and humankind would again harmony with itself and Nature (Encyclopedia of Marxism). Formed from Private Property, the political economy that is Capitalism divided society into two classes¬ - Property owners and Property-Less workers. By exploitation and estrangement, these classes become further designated as masters

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This is capitalism. In the Marx Engels writings, we can see how capitalism aids in workers alienation from the product of his labor. From my understanding, nothing is his. He can have it in his hands laboring all day, and then in an instant it is out the door to the person (owner) that paid for the goods. Goods that the worker often cannot afford for himself

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Marx’s definition of alienation was when the workers felt isolated and didn’t have a connection to their labor or the products they were making which led to the feeling of being controlled and exploited. He presents the concept of species-being and how workers are alienated from that due to

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In Karl Marx’s “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844”, Marx writes, “The worker puts his life into the object; but now his life no longer belongs to him but to the object… The alienation of the worker in his product means not only that his labour becomes an object, an external existence, but that it exists outside him…” (148). This passage from Marx’s work explains his view of the condition of alienation, where as a result of the capitalistic system, the worker has become detached from their labor, the labor process, themselves, and other people (“Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844” 147-150).

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He found that capitalism, an economic system which deals with the production of goods and services, was dividing the population into two major classes: 1. The bourgeoisie – owners of property and factories. 2. The proletariat – people who provided labour which was necessary to operate factories and productive enterprises.

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Although alienation affects everyone in capitalism, it doubtlessly affects the working class the most. Lacking control of their product, the worker only produces for the benefit of the capitalist. Thus, all of their intellectual and physical effort is for naught, as the worker never experiences the satisfaction of owning the method of their creation, which the capitalist dictates. This product is grotesque to the worker, an abomination formed only for the consumer.

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Alienation involves individuals’ feelings of separation or estrangement from a social structure or social institution (Johnson 1996; Seeman 1959)—it involves the feelings that interactions with the social structure or social institution in question will be unpleasant and unfavorable (Krishnan, Bhatnagar and Manchanda 2009). (1989a:9) George Ritzer , by generalizing five characteristics of McJobs, he theologized the consequence for the laborers alienated not only by their own workplace, but also from the entire society. From the article, “ New Technologies and Alienation: Social Critical Reflections” by Douglas Kellner clearly and distinctly illustrates the idea how Mcdonaldized works bring people to isolation. (Kellner

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All four types of alienation still remain in today’s society. It is because the creation of the artists, the products of the artisans, and the services of the workers have been taken away from all the workers in the end as well as the workers are exhausted at the end of the day by doing things that they have no interests. Most of the people in the world today live in capitalism, and it is difficult to abolish the system immediately in order to get rid of alienation. Therefore, they need to cope with this situation to make the most out of it for their satisfaction of the work as well as of the establishment of a better relationship with other workers and within their

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Bourgeoisie, which gains the power, defines superstructure “including all social and legal institution, all political and educational systems, all religions and all art” (Bressler, 162), and articulate the ideology which is based on profits of bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie ideology leads to alienation of individuals, especially proletariats. This bourgeoisie ideology creates the clash between the two classes. Marx supported the working class and their victory over dominant class. Marxism believes in providing equal opportunity to the working class as that are available to the

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Karl Marx and Max Weber both agreed that capitalism generates alienation in modern societies, but the cause for it were both different. For Marx it is due to economic inequality in where the capitalist thinks that the workers worth nothing more than a source of labour, that can be employed and dismissed at will. This causes the workers to be dehumanised by their jobs (in the past, routine factory work and in the present-day, managing demands on a computer), which leads to the workers finding slight satisfaction and feeling incapable of improving their situation. It was noted by Marx four methods on how capitalism alienates workers. The first, is alienation from the function of working.

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A Marxist sociologist is a materialist and a sociologist that follows the ideas of Marx. Marx’s main concern was that of capitalism and class conflict. In the words of Giddens and Sutton (2013), capitalism is ‘a system of production that contrasts radically with all previous economic systems.’ It was Marx’s belief that all societies, including capitalist societies, are divided into classes, with one being the dominant class. In the case of capitalism, there are two main classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

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