Answering Maggie

In the previous post I gave a skeleton review of Enemies of Eros. The book is notable by its absence of solutions.

Some proposed solutions are implicit:

• Tighten up divorce laws to make it much more difficult to divorce, especially if children are involved.
• Try to rationalize the welfare system to involve fathers.
• She doesn't address this, but it follows from her thesis Phase out all domestic partner benefits.

Unfortunately the biggest problems are social and cultural, and not amenable to simple actions. The cultural elite are unfriendly to traditional families, and you can't just make this entrenched oligarchy change their minds or go away at the snap of your fingers--a real cultural revolution takes time. What can you offer to counter the flood of "sex without responsibility" images that flood the movies, TV, radio, and advertisements?

One thing that can help is to ask "Who benefits from the current situation?" Unmarried men make out very well (pun intended), and business interests benefit from the cheap labor pool that the influx of part-time women represent. Realize that there are winners as well as losers, and ask if it is worth the candle.

We need to be clear what we support, and able to dissect the bogus sociology and philosophy that supports the anti-family forces.

We need to review our approach to the legal standing of families, with an eye to re-incorporating the role of the extended family. The nuclear family should not be the ideal--the extended family has built-in psychological and financial support that we need to recognize.