Karl Marx was very insistent when it came to explaining the nature of society. That is, he argued that capitalism created a hostile and evil environment in which people had no choice but to trade their souls for survival. Of course, Marx never uttered these words, but the combination of ideas such as alienation and commodity fetishism hints at a harsh critique of capitalism as it was. The central concept behind Marx's theory is his idea of ​​species-being (a theory that places additional importance on social interactions to define an individual's humanity). Marx states that the concept of alienation, which is an inevitable consequence of the application of the capitalist structure, will undermine the existence of the species to the point where a person loses their human individuality. An idea similar to that of alienation is commodity fetishism, the theory that describes the exchange of social interactions for tangible economic values ​​when it comes to defining key characteristics of goods production and employment relationships. Marx believed that understanding these concepts leads to class consciousness – that is, when workers become aware of the “soul exchange” mechanism into which other people place them for profit and start a revolution. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The explanation of Karl Marx's theory of alienation should begin with the existence of the species. It is appropriate to consider this as the starting point of Marx's reasoning. That is, he saw humans in the context of their social environment. Individuality as defined by Marx was derived from the people surrounding the individual and the nature of relationships with these people. According to Marx, the sum total of all social relations either conditions an individual into a vain and empty creature, or forms a strong personality with a definite sense of community belonging. This conception might seem a little too abstract and vague until one reviews Marx's opinion regarding capitalism and its influence on the fundamental characteristics of human nature. In this regard one could even go so far as to say that the existence of the species is a theoretical framework of Marx's criticism of capitalism in general. Alienation, as described by Marx, consists of the loss of meaning of social relations in the workplace and ultimately leads to degradation of the personality or, as Marx poetically puts it, trading of one's soul: “For the worker is alienated from the process of production as well as the product of his labor, he inevitably becomes alienated from himself. It occurs when a worker does not have the power to make decisions regarding their job or their production process; they become expendable cogs in a capitalist-governed corporate machine. This attitude leads to the depreciation of the meaning of work and downgrades it to a mere source of money and other survival goods. Marx's alienation, in other words, has little to do with the literal meaning of the word but rather describes detachment from oneself. Intangible goods such as life purpose, personal expression, and social appreciation cannot exist when you are considered nothing more than an expendable, interchangeable part of the machine over which you have no control. An important note to make when considering Marx's alienation is that it is closely intertwined with commodity fetishism. The latter is an approach to market relations that rejects relations between people and gives priority to relations between money and goods because, as it argues, 2015.