Comment by LudwigNagasena

3 hours ago

The sentiment is shared with Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Wilhelm von Ketteler, Louis Blanc and probably lots of other less known people. Marx's theory of alienation is far more developed and nuanced than the generic cog-in-the-machine critique that is explored by many other people of various political inclination, not only Marx.

> sentiment

...

> theory

these two words aren't interchangeable

> Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Wilhelm von Ketteler, Louis Blanc

...

> generic cog-in-the-machine critique that is explored by many other people

literally only one of the names you mentioned were writing post industrial revolution - the rest had literally no notion of "cog in the machine"

you're trying so hard to disprove basically an established fact: Marx's critique of exploitation of labor post industrial revolution is certainly original and significant in his own work and those that followed.

  • > these two words aren't interchangeable

    Exactly. That's why you can't jump from "people don't feel like they own their labor" and "people bemoan their boss" to Marx's theory of alienation.

    > literally only one of the names you mentioned were writing post industrial revolution - the rest had literally no notion of "cog in the machine"

    But the very framing that this is an ill that is unique to industrial society is Marxist. Slavery, corveé labor, taxes, poor laborers, marginalisation existed for thousand years in one form or another.

    > you're trying so hard to disprove basically an established fact: Marx's critique of exploitation of labor post industrial revolution is certainly original and significant in his own work and those that followed.

    I don't dispute that Marx's critique of exploitation of labor post industrial revolution is original or significant. I dispute your claim that people who share similar sentiment have to agree with Marx's theory of alienation.