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"In a mechanical and depersonalized world man has an indefinable sense of loss; a sense that life...has somehow become impoverished, that men are somehow 'deracinate and disinherited,' that society and human nature alike have been atomized, and hence mutilated, above all that men have been separated from whatever might give meaning to their work and their lives."-man alone 1962

There is a current feeling in society of an alienation so powerful and widespread that it has become commonplace and accepted. Some trace its roots to the beginnings of the industrial revolution when the workplace became a second home for young and old alike. It does not a take a Marxist or a learned sociologist to realize the role of mass production and maximum efficiency in creating alienation. Any rivethead, phone salesperson, or warehouseman could tell us this. The peculiar part is that man has been the one who created, agreed to, and accepted these feelings as normal. Perhaps in the late 20th century we cannot remember a time without such feelings and that we are now merely inheriting the negative structures which cause alienation. Few can argue with the idea that "Western man (and eastern as well) has become mechanized, routinized, made comfortable as an object; but in the profound sense displaced and thrown off balance as a subjective creator and power"

Human beings act as if they have nothing in common with each other. It is as if we have been brought here to function for ourselves in a way that does not include others. Many philosophers, sociologists, and theologians have attempted to show the ridiculousness of the atomistic, alienated lifestyles we have chosen. While the intellectual community has often shown the ability to see the 'big picture' of how things really are, this insight has mostly been kept to themselves in academic publications and confined to institutions of higher education. The elitism and monetary cost of the ivory towers insure that the number of people entering who suffer under the oppression the professors are so eager to study will remain few.

Repeatedly, however, a group of the alienated will recognize what is happening to themselves. This realization can be based on an active rejection either of or by the mainstream society. These groups can either reject the alienation they see before them or can be unwillingly alienated from the mainstream. Blacks, homosexuals, HIV , the lower classes, ect., all have been brought together by either the realization of hierarchies or forced together by an actively destructive, authority-backed power. It is important to note that the realization of one's own group, or self, being an out-group does not entail the realization of other out-groups suffering under the same treatment. People have too often woken up to see the details of their own suffering while still remaining ignorant to the suffering of others.

Some out-groups greatly desire to be a part of the mainstream while others do not. Nevertheless, "all such out-groups face a certain degree of isolation from society; they are in the community but not of it. As a result, they tend to form more or less distinct 'subcultures' of their own". These subcultures appear to have members who are much less alienated from their own being and are often seen trying to regain their own subjective powers. Members of subcultures, regardless of how oppressed, have often succeeded in finding a solidarity and understanding amongst themselves that is lacking in mainstream society. Members seem to regain a sense of themselves and each other that had been previously lost, forgotten, or stolen.

-THE PHILOSOPHY OF PUNK, MORE THAN NOISE! Craig O'hara