Marx 7/18

Marx’s writings over the theory of alienation were very interesting to me. They relate to the way that the real world has become so involved in their work and making a living that they have forgotten about anything, and everything else going on around them. The four theories of alienation were both easy to understand and yet difficult because it was hard to place how they all tied together. I understood that the first one was about how you didn’t own what you made, but the second theory about how you were forced to be with these people and not the ones you chose to be with was to me confusing. To me this reading described that man is 1) forced to work 2) once you work you will slowly lose all freedoms that you had before you worked such as freedom to think, and make your own relationships. This quote to me explained this, "As a result, therefore, man no longer feels himself to be freely active in any but his animal functions----eating, drinking, procreating, or at most in his dwelling and in dressing up, etc.;and in his human functions he no longer feels himself to be anything but an animal." (74). Marx to me related back to Rousseau with this quote and how Rousseau talked about the savage man and the natural state. This to me confirms what Rousseau was saying about how there is no going back to the complete natural state and the Marx proved this by saying that we as man have become so obsessed and into our work that we have lost all but the simple things in life like eating and drinking.