An Obituary for "Alienation"

Abstract

In many intellectual circles, “alienation” has become the all-explaining catchword. Its popularity resembles those previously of “progress,” “evolution,” “trends,” and “identity.” It helps formula-peddling counselors rationalize their services. It becomes a device for convincing the individual that he alone or even working with others can do little about his social situation. Many assertions of “alienation” are simply and accurately translated as contentions that members of some “problem” group are at odds with the spokesman's value orientation or conception of societal legitimacy or ideas about appropriate social-action procedures. Some of the phenomena interpreted as “alienation” are more precisely seen in other lights that require greater knowledge of societal processes and of social history. Such terms as “relative isolation,” “relative deprivation,” and “marginality” explicitly suggest process rather than the static “alienated” category.