Upon first glance, David Brook’s recent piece in The Atlantic appears to be an attack on the family and an unexpected take from a voice typically associated with championing conservative family values.
“For many people, the era of the nuclear family has been a catastrophe,” Brooks writes. “All forms of inequality are cruel, but family inequality may be the cruelest. It damages the heart.”
Dive into the lengthy article, however, and it becomes clear that the argument is much deeper that it appears. Instead of an attack, it promotes the family ideals many Americans hold dear.
In a series of parts examining the shift from families that deeply relied on extended relationships, Brooks describes how a family that is detached from extended members has weakened modern society by providing less resiliency and support when troubling times arise:
“If you want to summarize the changes in family structure over the past century, the truest thing to say is this: We’ve made life freer for individuals and more unstable for families. We’ve made life better for adults but worse for children. We’ve moved from big, interconnected and extended families, which helped protect the most vulnerable people in society from the shocks of life, to smaller, detached nuclear families (a married couple and their children), which give the most privileged people in society room to maximize their talents and expand their options. The shift from bigger and interconnected extended families to smaller and detached nuclear families ultimately led to a familial system that liberates the rich and ravages the working-class and the poor.”
While the nuclear family appeared to make sense for a long time, examining why it may be time to turn things around is where Brooks makes a compelling case for “forged families.”
There’s no question that the family has always been a foundational unit of the United States. But as times change, redefining and examining what kinship means could lead to strengthening and reinforcing that foundation.