Alienation and Freedom

Abstract

Friends alienate their friends by being unexpectedly cold and distant; politicians alienate their constituents when they support legislation to benefit large donors instead of ordinary citizens; husbands alienate their wives by having affairs. Alienation arises when relations falter, when distrust separates persons who had earlier understood and trusted each other. Relations at work are not as comfortable as they once were. Wider in scope is the alienation of the expatriate who moves abroad because the customs and preoccupations of his fellow citizens differ from his own. Alienation comes between us and other individuals, or groups, or entire societies; but it also distances us from our own life. Simple alienation from specific persons or groups plays a very different role in one&s;s life from that of the global alienation that affects every aspect of one&s;s existence. Simple alienation is caused by specific actions or events.

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