The Decline of The American Family
I recently read an article on the decline of the American family.
Let me preface what I’m saying below with this… I believe that there are few "jobs" that a man can do any better than a woman, I just don’t believe that a woman should be forced into doing a job because of circumstances. I firmly believe in equal rights, but to me that also includes people having choices in their lives.
Neither the human male, nor the human female body was built for the pressures and stresses today’s world places on us. In my opinion, the only thing the "feminist" movement did was to give the Corporate World more cannon fodder. Unfortunately we have no one else to blame… we did it to ourselves. We let it happen to us.
Somewhere along the line couples forgot one very important ingredient in marriages, I think. Marriage is a partnership… two people working together as a team. Each has their strengths, and using those strengths together means surviving and prospering. When marriages become a competition to prove who is the "better man" no one wins.
Do I think this was a conscious choice for most of them? Not at all. I think that society in general has forced the issue. Let’s face it… men biologically are hunter gatherers… women are more nuturing. Why should a woman feel that she must go out and kill a shark to be successful? Why should a man feel that he must cultivate his sensitive side and supress his agressive, passionate desire to succeed side to be successful? Certainly a woman should be "capable" of killing a shark if necessary, but why should it be "expected" of her as a general rule by forcing her into a Corporate shark tank? Do we really want, 100 years from now, to have nothing but a bunch of passive and sensitive people running our world, either male or female? Who will step forward to make any decisions or take any action… because after all, passion itself is also declining in our world. In a hundred years, where will the passion and conviction in our leaders come from if society has bred those attributes out of human beings?
Are men and women choosing their mates today based on love and conviction… or on who makes the most money? What happens to a family when the market crashes… do most of them stick together and fight it out through thick and thin… or simply look for a better market?
What was the catalyst for much of this? I believe that in its basic nature it began as a survival technique. Let’s face it, most families can’t exist anymore in today’s world unless both parents work. To give our families what they need by today’s standards anyway. Our societies answer to this was to put both people to work. Maybe what we should have done was to figure out ways for a family to survive as a family, rather than simply adding to our problems.
