Revolution #3

[H2O Man]

60. That's a great question.

I'm going to think about this, before attempting to provide a meaningful answer. But a couple thoughts come to mind immediately.

The first is that we really do see the strength of people in times of tragedy. That's true when there is a natural disaster, or a 9/11, or -- for a smaller example -- in the community response to something like when my cousin and his son were shot in October, 2014. And by "community," I definitely include the DU community, as well as the local towns people.

That basic human goodness was a feature common in most of human history, when people lived communally. And all of humanity has roots in communal, or tribal, life. In that setting, such human goodness was not limited to tragic events. It was the every day experience.

By the time that Europeans reached the Americas, their social structure was distinct from communal, tribal life. This includes the basic family structure, and it was the result of economic features.Still, the extended family defined much of the social structure. Obviously, not in every instance, but by and large, it did. Hence, we still find older towns, villages, and hamlets named after an influential extended family that settled there.

The industrial revolution began to change the social fabric in significant ways. The impact upon the basic family unit really would change after WW1 (and the changes came faster after WW2). People were able to move from the family farm, for instance, to the city for a job. The extended family would get together less often. Some holidays, weddings, and/or funerals. And that had an impact upon the support systems of the children of those families.

By the 1950s, family life in America -- for the middle class -- was marked by that nice house with the white picket fence, four well-behaved children, a stay-at-home mom, one or two cars, and, of course, a mighty nice television.

When the hi-tech revolution came, there was a demand for employees who would invest long hours at work. Those long hours of overtime didn't enhance the dwindling amount of time for family life. The best way for a corporation to attract people to be willing to spend those long hours at the office/ work place is to encourage affairs. And, of course, this type of behavior does not enhance those "family values" that the Newt Gingrich types love to talk about.

This isn't to suggest that all human relationships are the direct result of labor. But it is not a coincidence that corporations prefer single or unhappily married employees. Or that the single-parent family -- the most barren in terms of providing a solid support system for family members -- has found fertile ground in our high-tech culture.

Family systems provide the foundation for the type of social compassion that is far too often lacking in our country today.