Alienation

Alienation is a feeling of separation and isolation; a distance between you and the world around you. You could see it as depression at the level of society.Marx was big on alienation, describing a worker's relationship with work and the workplace. He described it as an automatic, robotic relationship, where an employer simply buys your labour in order to turn a profit. The worker has no control over what happens there, and cares less so long as pay is the outcome. It is a cold, mechanical transaction. If that description describes how you feel about work, or about your family, your friends or your life as a whole, you are alienated, you are probably not happy, but there are things (elsewhere in the guide,) that you can do to change.