Alienate

According to Marxist theory, the problem with working for wages is that workers become alienated from their labor, i.e. You don't own your labor anymore. (See Webster's definition 1 below)

I think this is can be a helpful analogy. For example, a Marxist analysis of prostitution would say that because a prostitute has sold her sexuality, she has become alienated from it. She has made it into a commodity and it is no longer hers, it belongs to the marketplace. (I'm not saying this is my opinion, but this really is a Marxist analysis of prostitution that I've read.)

This would also sum up nicely the problem I have with Amway and other pyramid scams and multilevel marketing schemes. Their basic premise is that you should exploit your friendships and familiy ties to sell things. Which means you are turning your human relationships into commodities. Which means they aren't yours anymore. And since your friends and family stop talking to you because you're always trying to sell them stuff, I think I've made my point.

Al"ien*ate (#), a. [L. alienatus, p. p. of alienare, fr. alienus. See Alien, and cf. Aliene.]

Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign; -- with from.

O alienate from God. Milton.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Al"ien*ate (#), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Alienated (#); p. pr. & vb. n. Alienating.]

1.

To convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.

2.

To withdraw, as the affections; to make indifferent of averse, where love or friendship before subsisted; to estrange; to wean; -- with from.

The errors which . . . alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart. Macaulay.

The recollection of his former life is a dream that only the more alienates him from the realities of the present. I. Taylor.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Al"ien*ate (#), n.

A stranger; an alien.

[Obs.]

 

© Webster 1913.