[matthest]

Marx was half right about it.

What he got wrong was that this alienation results from capitalism.

It actually results from civilization. The people who built the pyramids across every continent, for example, performed assembly line-like work. Any large-scale project requires it. And large-scale projects are fundamentally necessary for most societies.

Capitalism was invented in the late 1700s.

[thrance]

For the pyramids specifically: their architects and builders were skilled artisans who got to own their craft from top to bottom. As such, they were well-paid and pretty respected. Very much not alienated, under Marx's definition.

I don't think Marx said that worker alienation was specific to capitalism, rather, his work was in describing the economic system of his time, and what that would entail for people living in it.

> It actually results from civilization.

I disagree, I can't think of anyone in Medieval Europe as alienated from their work as a modern sweatshop worker. Not that serfs had it better, but you get me.

[matthest]

The pyramids took 20k+ people to build, which inevitably requires division of labor/specialization. Some chunk of that population had to mine the copper, which was probably an absolutely terrible job with ancient technology.

Serfs were essentially slaves who had effectively 0 ownership over their output, so I'd strongly disagree with that sentiment.

I think the best argument for a time when there was almost 0 alienation of labor was when we were all hunter gatherers. Where every activity was closely connected to something necessary for survival.

As soon as we built larger societies, greater division of labor became necessary to efficiently support the society. And thus alienation of labor became much more pronounced.