The question of the family now divides our society so deeply that the opposing sides cannot even agree on a definition of the institution they are arguing about.
Interpretation
The definition of family is a source of significant division in society, with opposing views complicating the discourse.
Christopher Lasch highlights the contentious nature of the family as a social institution, pointing out that differing beliefs about what constitutes a family lead to deep societal divides. This disagreement hampers constructive dialogue, as people struggle to find common ground in the face of such varying perspectives on family structures and values.
In practice
In a discussion about family values in a community meeting.
Much of what is euphemistically known as the middle class, merely because it dresses up to go to work, is now reduced to proletarian conditions of existence. Many white-collar jobs require no more skill and pay even less than blue-collar jobs, conferring little status or security.
The reporting of news has to be understood as propaganda for commodities, and events by images.
It is advertising and the logic of consumerism that governs the depiction of reality in the mass media.
Even the reporting of news has to be understood not as propaganda for any particular ideology, liberal or conservative, but as propaganda for commodities β for the replacement of things by commodities, use values by exchange values, and events by images.
It is the logic of consumerism that undermines the values of loyalty and permanence and promotes a different set of values that is destructive of family life.
Propaganda in the ordinary sense of the term plays a less important part in a consumer society, where people greet all official pronouncements with suspicion.
My theory is that everyone at one time or another has been at the fringe of society in some way: an outcast in high school, a stranger in a foreign country, the best at something, the worst at something, the one who's different. Being an outsider is the one thing we all have in common.
Who can say what heartbreaks are caused in a dog by our discontinuing a romp?
Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.
When a stranger comes into our presence, then, first appearances are likely to enable us to anticipate his category and attributes, his 'social identity' - to use a term that is better than 'social status' because personal attributes such as 'honesty' are involved, as well as structural ones, like 'occupation.'
We're all strangers connected by what we reveal, what we share, what we take away--our stories. I guess that's what I love about books--they are thin strands of humanity that tether us to one another for a small bit of time, that make us feel less alone or even more comfortable with our aloneness, if need be.
Marriage is about becoming a team. Youβre going to spend the rest of your life learning about each other, and every now and then, things blow up. But the beauty of marriage is that if you picked the right person and you both love each other, youβll always figure out a way to get through it.
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