What is False Consciousness and Alienation?

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False Consciousness
False consciousness is a term used by Marxists to describe ways through which ideological, material and institutional processes are spoken in order to mislead the members of the proletariat and other class stakeholders in the capitalist societies (Gabel, 2018). This conceals the exploitation intrinsic to the social associations between the classes. In this case, the proletariat refers to the class of wage earners in the society whose only significant possession is their ability to labor, which refers to how much they can do with their skills. The term self-consciousness was first used by Friedrich Engels in correspondence with Franz Mehring, which was used to address the scenario where the lower class was willfully embodying the ideologies of the ruling class within the capitalist society (Pines, 1997). This kind of consciousness is false because the class is asserting or believing in ideologies that do not benefit them in any way. Notably, in Marxism, consciousness refers to the ability of a particular group or class to assert or portray certain ideologies, goals, or will. The subordinate class usually plays significant roles in capitalist societies. The class can express or assert its will by being adequately united philosophies and advocacy actions.
Alienation
On the other hand, alienation was another theory proposed by Karl Marx. The theory simply explains the estrangement of the people, class, or group of people from their species-essence due to the fact they live in a stratified society, with numerous social classes (Schacht, 2013). When an individual is alienated from themselves, it is caused by the fact that they are acting as a mechanistic aspect of the social class, which estranges them from the individuality or humanity. In the capitalist society, alienation is exh...