The Destruction of the American Family

There is a concept that has been applied to this subject before but in my quick review not in the sense that it could be developed, at least not in my opinion. The concept is Homeostasis which is the property of a living entity to regulate its internal environment such that it tends to maintain a stable, constant condition though a process of negative and positive feedback’s. This allows the entity to survive environmental conditions that are not optimum to that entity. All life as we know it has this property to lesser or greater amounts and those that favor the later expand while those with the former contract. To some degree this has been applied to social systems including humans with terms like social equilibrium but I think that is a limiting term and that applying homeostasis to the human society in its fullest sense would allow us to make some interesting observations. In the distant past that human unit would have been the tribe not the individual; today a small town might be better.

If we apply homeostasis to a human town (also known as a township or county) and use the definition described in the first paragraph of a stable system then we must have these things: first and foremost the ability to reproduce and maintain the system; then we must have the ability to exist in the environment; and lastly we must have a social system that maintains the family unit. The family unit is the key for the individual by him/her self can not fulfill the first requirement and the town can not exist without stable families. All these systems must work together to maintain the town in a form that resolves differences and promotes behavior that is acceptable to the town, the family and the individual. The highest social unit, the town, is maintained by having stable families and the families are maintained by having responsible individuals. Each must understand its purpose in the social structure and work to maintain that structure while adapting to changes in the environment.

To maintain this system in equilibrium there must be a regulating body or bodies and in this case it’s the town’s government. Many terms have been used for the systems used to regulate and resolve issues but we’ll use today’s terms of a Mayor and a Town Council as the most common. Sub systems needed are a means of maintaining order the police; and education system schools; a way to maintain the health of the individuals, medical services; a system of maintaining roads and bridges, public works and lastly a means of providing utilities such as power, water and waste management. Much more is required but the rest can be provided by the members of the town themselves. In the not to distant past small towns could exist almost completely by themselves, obviously today that is not possible but the principle of the town (township back then) as the key human social unit is the justification that was used to form this country and is what resulted in our constitution which limited the federal powers in essence hands off the local communities. These towns, back then, were in a Homeostasis State.

Those born after the late ‘40s and early ‘50s will not remember the “communities” that existed back then — it was a very different world then what came after. The people in those towns took care of themselves with very little help from outside (this discussion is for the social system not the goods and services that are required today and can be provided from outside the social system without destroying the local social system). The schools the police the town council all had one thing in common and that was protecting and nurturing the community — in particular the children. It wasn’t perfect we are human after all but the results were less strife less crime and a moral people. This system worked very well from the time the first settlers got here till say the late 1950’s which would be about 300 years give or take.

However, these towns didn’t exist in a vacuum larger structures were formed first states and then the community of states the country. The establishment of the U.S. Constitution giving preference to local control was the key to the success of this endeavor and that maintained the stable social system that had been developed in the towns. Alexis de Tocqueville understood this when he wrote Democracy in America first published in 1835 after his visit to America. This book is by far the best work ever done on the uniqueness of the American social and political system. Unfortunately, these larger political structures gave a means for those seeking power to game the system using today’s vernacular. These power seekers did not like the true power to reside in the Towns for there were too many for them to control. But there were fewer states and only one federal government so work was begun to move the power from the local communities to the national level. De Tocqueville saw that this could be something that could happen and it did although not for the exact reason he talked about and it took longer then he envisioned.

Because the system of limited federal power the founders established in the Constitution was so strong it was not easy to move the power to Washington. To move that political power would require a change of the people’s mores and that would upset the stable homeostasis social system of the towns. Some would say this was a planned change by those that wanted to rule and to some degree that might be true; however, my opinion like that of Thomas Jefferson is that the concentration of power is a natural thing and will occur on its own without some sinister master plan. This does not mean it is right it just means that the citizens must be educated and vigilant to prevent it. The one thing, in my opinion, that allowed this power shift to happen was a result of the formation of the movie segment of the entertainment industry about 100 years ago in Hollywood. This means of communications was something new to society and therefore no defense to it yet existed, if it were to be used for other than entertainment, which it soon was. Interestingly the possible corruption of the citizens morals by the arts was a serious concern for Plato and Socrates as discuses in “The Republic” in classical Athens almost 2400 years ago.

The key to rising children is a stable family preferable with a mother that stayed at home at least until the children were out of high school. Obviously that can not be done in all cases and many times the husband could not earn enough to support the family to the level the family wanted and the town expected. So many women did have to work but most took part time jobs that allowed them to be at home when the children were home from school. In this system the Children were under supervision almost all the time either at school or at home with their parent or with other relatives. This method of rising children was not perfect but it was better then any before and certainly much better then what we have now with growing government interference at all levels.

Feminism changed all this in the 70’s and much for the worse as women were convinced they should not have children and they should be in the work place just like the men and what children they did have could be placed in day care. This did two things number one it put more people in the work force so that put downward pressure on the pay rates. Number two it implied that rising children was demeaning work not worthy of a progressive woman. But worse the federal government got involved with equal rights laws that dictated that women and other defined minorities be fairly represent in all jobs. Companies had to report to the federal government how many females and other “official” minorities they had employed.

This was a drastic change in the mores of the people and the entertainment industry went into full support of this mores change. Within a few decades there wasn’t a movie being made that didn’t directly or indirectly have this message embedded in it. Worse these changes helped to break up the family structure since women were now independent of men and no longer needed their support (in the movies). And again the federal government stepped in with programs to support single mothers, Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) was started in 1935 within the Social Security system but it exploded under President Johnson and was soon under fire for promoting women to not get married and have lots of Children. Many poor families split up with the man becoming a “live in” boyfriend and to maintain the scam he would work in the underground economy for cash and often turned to crime. Within a short period of time the entrainment industry picks this up and now it would be very unusual to see a movie with a traditional family structure. Most show single profession (college educated) women living alone with one child from a failed relationship and their working as managers or executives, often in the government. If a man is even shown it’s in many cases in a derogatory role.

We could go on with the current change to define what a marriage is but that is more discussion then we need. The bottom line is that the traditional family structure that has existed for thousands of years in now in danger of disappearing. If that happens then the mores of the people will have been destroyed and replaced with a belief that only the federal government can properly raise children. We are very close to that now and, in fact, the change has gone far enough that homeostasis of the town is no longer stable we have exceeded the feed back mechanisms that allowed a community to exist. What will replace the family is unknown but if these changes aren’t reversed soon there will be no way to go back to what worked so well in the past.

Today many cities have central cores comprised only of poor single mothers as the head of the home. The live in boy friends are gone leaving the children in such horrible living conditions such that few can even get through high school. Most of the boys turn to crime such that it would be hard to find a young man in a central city that did not have a criminal record. Today there is talk of passing laws that would, in effect, hide past criminal records so these neglected children now young adults could find jobs.

This is a sorry state of affairs for a country like America and I place 100% of the blame for this in the elitism of the intellectuals that wanted power so badly that they were willing to kill the American family so all would be dependent on the federal government. And we are almost there right now.