"Under the rule of a repressive whole, liberty can be made into a powerful instrument of domination." Herbert Marcuse Alienation is something that happens between individual and society; between citizen and government, between man and self. When I think of alienation, I think of otherness and how the other ( immigrants and minorities) are demonised by the far right. It also brings to my mind ideas such as tedium vitae and ennui. Alienation has elements of tedious repetition for salary workers who are working to make ends meet and perform the same task day after day. It also has elements of boredom and dissatisfaction that are sure to accompany the false sense of self that consumerism creates. Alienation is originally a Marxist concept. Marx understood alienation as a malaise directly caused by capitalism and prominent in capitalist societies. Marx argued that workers become alienated from the products of their labor, the labor process, their fellow workers,...