by culicomorpha » Sat 13 Feb 2010, 17:50:26
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'P')eople would do much better to chuck the "traditional patriarchal" family arrangement and build their own extended families of non-blood-related individuals working together for mutual support (aka "neo-tribalism)". I keep hoping people won't feel compelled to return to some "traditional ideal" which has few if any benefits. But I guess if people insist on being idiots, there's not much we can do about it.

I think that's what many better-informed people are already doing. Finding people of like mind who they can build community with, regardless of family ties. Mainly since there seem to be rather dramatic generational differences, with many older people insisting on a way of life that can't continue.
I don't see a return to patriarchy at all. I'm not sure where that's coming from, given that men are losing their roles as primary breadwinner all over the country, and often have little to offer women or their children without an income. The recent
Atlantic article is telling in that regard. Furthermore, from what I can tell, extended families are more like matriarchies, not patriarchies. When the eldest members are almost always women, it flies in the face of reason to assume that men will be the ones in charge.
As for the rise of social conservatism that Last_Historian mentions, I think this will be different by region. Here in the northwest most people are much more open-minded and far less fear-oriented than folks seem in the southeast, where these hyperconservative views are prevalent.