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The Future of the Family in Society Got to pondering social trends coupled with modern technology, and I recalled the very first research/term paper I ever had to write. (To this day, one of the best, and most eye-opening, IQ raising classes I ever took was second semester English at my local community college, way back in 1974.) My assignment was "The Future of the Family in America." I may even still have this packed away in some boxes of old college poop I saved. But I'm not gonna dig it out to refer to it here. After a lot more education, and living an additional 39 years, I'm confident that it would be very silly today! But with current social trends, coupled with the advances in science and technology, I'm fascinated to ponder the possibilities. I think all of us have our own notions as to what a "family" should consist of, but not all cultures have recognized genetic-social connections the same way we do in Western Culture. So I'm going to try to write this blog entry leaving out personal bias and value judgments as best I can. With new views about what constitutes a family, a recognition arises that (like it or not) the traditional "nuclear" family is not so "traditional" anymore. For instance, today it's commonplace that a very large portion of live in single parent homes. And now families are becoming recognized based on the union of same sex couples. Some early interest in wider acceptance of polygamy is showing up on tv, and one may assume a correlating interest in polyandry may arise. And questions regarding age-appropriateness for sexual consent have been slowly rising to public awareness. (E.g.: NAMBLA) for instance.) But all those are generalized social trends. What really got me going was when I also considered the impact of science and technology. As to procreation, research into cloning has been around for decades. But today, researchers are currently even working on methods to combine the genetic makeup of two people of the same gender. Also, they are contemplating combining the genes of THREE or MORE individuals! Or even improving humankind by combining some DNA of other species! And technological advances will have an effect too! Even way back in the early 80s there were researchers working to create hardware and software to facilitate the brain/computer connection. And in the computer age, the more we learn, the more we speed up in our technological understandings and capabilities! (I recall once hearing that mapping the human genome would not be possible for another twenty years, and about five years later they suddenly announced that they had it completely mapped!) Mankind may be on the verge of a great self-created evolutionary leap. (That wasn't a joke.) There are all kinds of implications, and all kinds of new philosophical dilemmas that keep arising all the time. And what affect will traditional religion have on this process? (And what affect will this process have on traditional religion?) Will all this be good, or bad for civilization? My mind runs wild like a whole series of sci-fi novels akin to what Isaac Asimov might have written! LOL Okay, so here's one "possible" future scenario that our grand- may cope within someday: An entire civilization of homo-sapiens living similar to some insects like ants and bees do, in a hive-like societies. Rather than a family, people may exist within much larger groups or tribes with our relations to each other as closely defined as our current nuclear family concept. AND/OR a hive-like society wherein each person creates his own offspring, either as replacement clones for his own mind, or as extended generations. Sound crazy enough? How bout this one: We manage the brain/computer link, and eventually progress to a point where we become completely non biological, or even existing simply as data with a consciousness that only exists as long as the computers or cyberspace have power. I know this all sounds wild, so if anyone wants to poke fun at it please feel free! But the social trends, modern technology and science are there, and they are growing more and more prominent and advancing all the time! Got any suggestions, speculations, questions or predictions? GBU, Gavin |
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7/2/2013 10:01 am |
Back to the pack, pride, herd social organization? Not such a bad thing as it has meant the survival of many species including early man. Man is a social being and will find a way. We humans are social beings and while the definition and perimeters of family might change some sort of primary grouping and alliance will remain. Giving it a positive spin this is a good thing even if, from out limited perspective we can't understand it. Spiritwoman ^i^
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I know what u mean Freeway. I foresee many changes coming in the future, that (initially at least.) I'm apprehensive about. But while writing this, I tried to be as objective as possible and not let my personal bias in favor of traditional influences take over. I keep hearing that line from Star Trek the Next Generation, when the Borg say: "Resistance is futile. You will all be assimilated." LOL! But who knows? I suppose it's theoretically possible that if such things happened to me in my lifetime, I might find that I preferred it? (Highly doubtful, but there's a one-in-a-gazillion chance I guess.) Thanks for commenting and GBU, Gavin
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Hi Gavin. Having lost my traditional family I must say that whenever I'm watching television, and I see, mostly in advertisements, promotion of products that emerge from within family settings I get very sad and also concerned that this is slipping away in our society. I'm talking simple things, like seeing a mother clean up a mess a child made while doing laundry or a seeing a family play in the backyard or watching a parent put their child on the school bus. The list is endless of the way advertisers unwittingly remind me of holes in my life. This subject is very complex. I do see the family as a central focus of a healthy society and also see many influences that threaten it. One thing I would do to fight back against these forces would be to initiate social changes to create the space where a free society can tend to its ills. One such way is to quickly close the income gap by raising wages at the lower end of the scale. I would like to see standard work weeks reduced to 32 as a means of enabling more job sharing as the transformational economy restructures. I would like to see full retirement at age 60 for the next 5 years to create upward mobility opportunity that flows down the scale to get new college grads into the workforce in decent jobs. I would like weekends to run Sat-Mon and Blue laws restored so that churches had a real chance to mold lives as so many want. Year round schools is another thing that can promote family cohesiveness. Lastly, as a society we have to become far less controlling in our relationships so we stop tearing our families apart. We need political leaders who do not obstruct, who do not act to tip the scales of balance, who do not rely upon the blackmail of corporate interests that compromise their capacity to govern a level playing field. I don't want to get into the gay marriage debate, and I do grasp the equality dilemma, but while the court has done what it has done, I wouldn't have complained had they ruled in the other direction. Thanks for sharing this, cos you gave it plenty of thought and went into lots of detail! I'm sure most of us have some preferences about how we hope society and culture evolves. Yours are very good ones I think. GBU, Gavin
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LOL Mrsjoe! I understand why you may not want to comment, but I regret that fact cos I bet YOU would have some excellent insights! GBU, Gavin
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Yup. Was a fun movie! Took a date to the drive-in to watch it in 1973. My biggest regret at that time, was that I actually SAW the whole movie! LOL (After all, what was the purpose of drive-ins anyway? LOL! No wonder there aren't many of them left!) GBU, Gavin
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Back to the pack, pride, herd social organization? Not such a bad thing as it has meant the survival of many species including early man. Man is a social being and will find a way. We humans are social beings and while the definition and perimeters of family might change some sort of primary grouping and alliance will remain. Giving it a positive spin this is a good thing even if, from out limited perspective we can't understand it. You hit the nail squarely on the head! Gonna be interesting to see what the future brings. But I'm pretty sure humanity and some sort of social order will prevail, and that society will be made up of groups of smaller segments with some more intense connections between their members. Mankind has only ever been able to survive in groups, big or small, with SOME stronger ties between individuals. I can't believe that will ever entirely go away. (Just realized I've been answering all these comments but forgetting to enlarge the font! SORRY TO EVERYONE$!) GBU, Gavin
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Hi Rich! I wrote this blog entry trying to be coldly objective, but like you and Leaf, I share some preferences about what I'd like to see the future hold for mankind. I am not going to worry much about it tho, cos I think you'll agree that God is going to have HIS way, no matter what humans think they can do. Thanks for both your responses and GBU, Gavin
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