Alienation in a Modern World

There is a philosophy that all people will have an encounter with in their life, whether they witness it in popular culture or exercise it on a daily basis. This philosophy plays a part in how people interpret the world they live in, why they believe in the things they do, and how they react to a dehumanized world. There is no single definition for Existentialism, but there are a set of principles that adhere to the philosophy. However, by no means does someone have to agree to all to be an existentialist. Of the six themes of Existentialism, I will be focusing on alienation and its causes. In order to fully understand the theme of alienation, a briefing of history that leads up to Existentialism is necessary.

The Scientific Revolution brought about the idea of reason. Old world believers and traditions were put to the test of reason and science. If they didn't pass the law of science, they were discarded. Religious beliefs were challenged by science because they didn't satisfy the scientific method. Later in history, German philosopher Freidrich Nietzche proclaimed, "God is dead" (Perry 377). He attacked Christianity because he believed it gave man a sick soul and blocked the free and spontaneous exercise of human instincts (377). The use of science also allowed for the creation of machines. Thus, the Industrial Revolution began and a modern world unfolded overnight as factories opened. The daily life of every person changed in the Industrial World, and it is how we know life as today.

The above information set the stage for Existentialism, but it wasn't until after WWII that it experienced popularly as a movement. The war had caused anxiety and despair and a rejection of the idea of reason and science. Technology in the war (gas chambers, armored tanks, etc.) made it possible to kill more people than ever, and it caused people to re-evaluate what they believed in. Existentialism was an answer to people in a society who either no longer had a God to believe in, had a loss in the confidence of reason and science, or had an overwhelming sense of anxiety caused by the changing world. The question to be answered was, "If the universe lacks any overarching meaning, what meaning could one give to one's own life?" (461).

I believe alienation should be addressed because our society is saturated with sources that alienate people. The modernism of America was the change from innocence to disillusionment. In fact, the events of the twentieth century, two World Wars, the Depression, the Cold War, McCarthyism, the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Movement, the Holocaust, the Atomic Bomb, and Vietnam were cause for Americans to feel alienated in this dark time (McCoppin 47).

Four ways man can experience alienation are as follows; from God, from nature, from other men, and from his own true self (Bigelow 173). From the combination of science and philosophers, like Nietzsche, religion and the idea of a higher being were destroyed for some people. Without a God, people must choose their own morals and purpose: "If God is dead, then we must create our values, we must guide ourselves, we must become little gods. We are finally free to make a choice Ð'- to act decisively." (McCoppin 51). In my own experience, I don't believe in a God because of science, so this part of Existentialism is very much part of my life. For awhile, when I was a teenager, I did ponder the meaning of life and why we were here. I never found an answer to a meaning, but just like an Existentialist would, and I decided I needed to live to my own values and desires. Nietzsche's describes my personal stance well when he claims that an individual must rise "beyond blindly accepting the traditional structures and constantly searches for a Ð''truth' that fits his or her own, unique definition" (48).

Additionally, mankind is alienated when they are separated from the earth and simple things in life. The Industrial Revolution gave birth to a society that is focused on production and money. Pre-industrial people were their own bosses, worked out of their homes, did their work whenever they pleased, and experienced more connection with the land because they lived in the country. We now live in a time where we must compete with others in order to make a living and we spend more time than ever trying to balance all the necessary requirements in society with little time to enjoy the simple things. Another Existentialism philosophy, again Nietzche's:

When people find life blank or pointless, they tend to look for big concepts to rescue them: Ð''Progress' or Ð''God'Ð'...even Ð''Truth'. They are looking in exactly the wrong direction. There is more support to be found in the humble things that fill our everyday gaze when we get up in the morningÐ'...if you really try to notice the movement of those curtains in the breeze, or the hum of the coffee machine, then you will begin to awaken to the texture of life (50).

Even if we live in an industrialized