The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake
An animation inspired by The Atlantic's article "The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake" about how the rise of the nuclear family as the idealized American household unit has left us increasingly isolated and vulnerable, a pattern that has damaged society over time. The trend is changing though - people are returning to multi-generational households or living in communal arrangements, reviving the wider support networks that are more essential to individual and societal health than we'd like to admit. As they say, it takes a village. Interesting read.
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David Brooks: "Our culture is oddly stuck.
We want stability and rootedness, but also mobility, dynamic capitalism, and the liberty to adopt the lifestyle we choose.
Over the past several decades, the decline of the nuclear family has created an epidemic of trauma - millions have been set adrift because what should have been the most loving and secure relationship in their life broke. We’ve seen the wreckage left behind by the collapse of the detached nuclear family. We’ve seen the rise of opioid addiction, of suicide, of depression, of inequality - all products, in part, of a family structure that is too fragile, and a society that is too detached, disconnected, and distrustful.
Americans are hungering to live in extended and forged families in ways that are new and ancient at the same time. This is a significant opportunity, a chance to thicken and broaden family relationships, a chance to allow more adults and children to live and grow under the loving gaze of a dozen pairs of eyes, and be caught, when they fall, by a dozen pairs of arms."
--
David Brooks: "Our culture is oddly stuck.
We want stability and rootedness, but also mobility, dynamic capitalism, and the liberty to adopt the lifestyle we choose.
Over the past several decades, the decline of the nuclear family has created an epidemic of trauma - millions have been set adrift because what should have been the most loving and secure relationship in their life broke. We’ve seen the wreckage left behind by the collapse of the detached nuclear family. We’ve seen the rise of opioid addiction, of suicide, of depression, of inequality - all products, in part, of a family structure that is too fragile, and a society that is too detached, disconnected, and distrustful.
Americans are hungering to live in extended and forged families in ways that are new and ancient at the same time. This is a significant opportunity, a chance to thicken and broaden family relationships, a chance to allow more adults and children to live and grow under the loving gaze of a dozen pairs of eyes, and be caught, when they fall, by a dozen pairs of arms."