Alienation

I will make a strong claim here in this essay, that modern world makes alienated from others, from ourselves, and from the world around us. This is a strong claim in which I will back up with my experience. Of course, I didn’t come up with the idea, I’m just writing about my experience with it.

First, I’ll need to define what being “alienated” means. Alienated is a marxist term, but I will define it for my own purposes. It’s used to describe a specific feeling of being “separated” from the world around us. Abstracted. Divorced.

The feeling of NOT being alienated is to feel connected. Connected to our work, connected to other people, and connected to the world. To feel joy in our work and our play. To feel the warmth on the inside when we spend time with our loved ones. And to feel the feelings of being at peace and joyful in our environment, whether it’s through music or in nature.

I belive, my thesis, is that the modern environment, whether it is capitalism or not, encourages us to be alienated from others. This is not our fault but the fault of our environment! And that, to find true happiness, the most we can do is to ourselves wake up to the reality, and once woken up try to wake up others (but not at the expense of ourselves).

In my writing, I’d rather speak to my experience rather than be philosophical and haughty in trying to say my experience applies to all experiences. But, to quote Ralph Elliot:

Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?

— Ralph Elliot