Turning Inward
The malaise, arising from sources outside the family, seems to be mingling in strange and contradictory ways with the attitudinal and behavioral changes set in motion during the sixties. There is some evidence that people are turning inward toward home, family, and private life.
Many of the dissident young people of the sixties are forming committed relationships, getting married, having children. College students of the 1970s, to a greater extent than those of the previous decade, expect family life and individual needs to take priority over careers as a way of retaining a feeling of self-worth, self-determination, and self-fulfillment.
People who think of themselves as critics of society no longer necessarily assume that they must also be critics of the family or of monogamy. Celebration of Family in the Name of Social Criticism One of the surprising themes of the decade is in fact that the celebration of family in the name of social criticism.
A new domesticity of the left has emerged on the intellectual scene. For some, the defense of the family is a new way of fighting an old enemy – corporate capitalism. For others, marching under the banner of family seems to be a means of advancing social politics that can no longer be justified in the name of the poor. Their liberal policy analysis would increase government spending for families.
Meanwhile, conservatives fall back on the family as a way of reducing the state’s budgetary problems: If families would take care of the very young, the very old, the sick, and the mental ill, there would be less need for day care, hospitals, and Social Security and public resources and agencies.
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Comment by A.N. Other — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:22:04 +0100 @ 3:22 am