A Temporary Family

The Negation of the Patriarch and Fragility of the Nuclear Family Unit

James, while editing Masculine Axis, I came across a comment from a reader that you might want to address: 'A Young Man Starting Out'.  Your answer connects the nuclear family to America's origin as a plantation of people.  As each member gets scattered to the distance, new temporary families spring up.
-Lynn

Julian writes:

Hi James-

I've been reading your articles on and off for about a year. Could you elaborate on what you meant by these lines, specifically 'temporary family':

"If you just make the money to keep a temporary family and then watch your children dispersed into the atomized world, like I have, you will find yourself standing at the edge of a yawning abyss. I surrendered my sons to the economy, the God of Things, and will likely not get them back.

I will hopefully be able to rescue my grandson."

Are you referring to making just enough vs generation wealth? Or to wealth for wealth sake versus a higher calling? Or something else?

My son is four and I have been blessed since his birth to achieve enough success through entrepreneurism/investing to have left the j.o.b. world behind (seemingly for good, unless something horrible happens). I think often on what his own path might be though, and whether it is possible to stimulate/help him into following that same path as a teenager, so that he can avoid the infinite forms of 'substitute masculinity' and 'substitute sacrality' that permeate our culture today- especially for young people (video games, porn, drugs, degeneracy, self-destruction, victimology, etc). Yet on the other hand the danger of giving too much help rears its head and ending up with him 'r-selected', to use that terminology.

Thank you for the excellent sight and sharing your wisdom.

James responds:

My thoughts on "temporary family" is that that is what a nuclear family has become under the modern system of debt slavery and real estate drift, in which neighborhoods are intentionally blighted to force suburban migration.

The nuclear family, alone, could be maintained as an extended family network under a non-predatory economic system, but tends to be scattered.

For instance my Uncle, a successful man, a millionaire, had five children. He and his wife live in Florida.

His son lives in Pittsburg with his wife and two sons.

His oldest daughter lives in Kansas with her husband, her children having scattered with the shifting career winds.

His next oldest daughter lives in Illinois, with four children, having been abandoned by her husband who moved to Boston.

His next to youngest daughter lives in Baltimore with two sons, her husband having abandoned her for drugs and alcohol.

His youngest lives in San Francisco with her husband and two sons.

How in Hell is Uncle Fred going to protect his family?

What are the chances he will be near in a crisis?

The combination of career drift and real estate blight acting on the nuclear family atomizes all but the strongest nuclear units and these are stretched tenuously.

Also, with the media machine what it is, it is highly unlikely that any given generation of a family will share the same values and outlook as their parents, which stresses individuals immeasurably.

(c) 2017 James LaFond