The greed for money, which has emerged, is a substitute for power. In fact more money means more power. The alienation has reduced the relation of the people to the world as one of having, of possession. The starving man has no appreciation of food other than as something he needs in order to survive. The workers lack control over their work processes and over the product so that work itself becomes a commodity to be sold and increasingly lacks satisfaction for the worker. In Marx's view this is caused by the power of the free market economy within capitalist societies. Individuals become separated from one another, because the market is dependent upon competitive activities, and on products being created in ways that don't enable a worker to be wholly involved in production. This leads to estrangement from fellow human beings and estrangement from one's essential human nature. The feeling of estrangement among the people increased considerably with the further development of the Industrial Revolution, the collectivization tied to a machine age and the gradual but definite depersonalization of man. Marx developed the idea that a scientific socialism is needed to counter the alienation of the capitalistic society. The economic base has revealed there have been owners and workers and the way out is to have the workers recognize their oppression, rise up and overthrow their owner oppressors and take ownership of the means of production. .
In contrast, Kierkegaard turned his attention to Hegel's system of philosophy which sought to explain all phenomena and philosophy, including the religious. He thought that such a task is ridiculous as well as logically impossible, because religion is not something you could explain. To Kierkegaard, it was arrogant to develop a philosophy from a detached standpoint, as if a philosopher stood outside of the system that he created. He was not concerned with a system, but with man in the world, especially as an individual before God.
