Isn't the decline of the (nuclear) family disastrous for society?

When clans and tribes and extended families began to phase out—a more advanced format took their place—the nuclear family. In turn the nuclear family is giving way to freer more dynamic lifestyles.

It is unrealistic to think that we could have profound changes in all areas of our lives—except in our homes.

Everywhere in the world the trend is away from hereditarianism— specialization—centralization. We are moving toward voluntarism and fluidity.

For thousands of years hereditarianism was pervasive in the world. Our economic structures were hereditarian: when the father died the sons took over as landlords—farmers—soldiers—bakers. This was con­sidered only natural.

Our political structures were also hereditarian. When the father died the son took over as tribal chief—head of clan—lord—monarch.

The last stronghold of hereditarianism is the family. Having one's own "flesh and blood" is biological territoriality.

This narcissistic specialization at the most fundamental level of life became generalized into broader self-serving territoriality (hereditari-anism): tribalism—nationalism—ethnocentricity.

"My own child" and "my own parent"—all too quickly converts into "my own family"—"my own people"—"my own motherland."

To protect territory we have resorted to the most heinous aggressions against others.

Families are not only spawning grounds for territoriality. They are also too specialized. We procreate through mating. Mating in turn per­petuates the same genetic traits of the parents—over and over. The refinement of the human gene pool is therefore slow. We now have ways of accelerating this process through nonspecialized nonmating techniques.

Date: 2015-02-28; view: 807