Posted on 11/22/2025 9:09:31 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
David Brooks is one of the best-known public intellectuals in America… I have found him gracious and humble in person and have followed his writing with appreciation over the years.
However, I was more than surprised by the headline of his latest Atlantic essay: “The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake.”
He notes that in the year 1800, three-quarters of American workers were farmers with large families living together. Until 1850, roughly three-quarters of Americans older than sixty-five lived with their kids and grandkids. Nuclear families (a husband and wife living with their children) were surrounded by extended or corporate families.
Extended families…provide resilience when facing hardship and help raise children together. But when factories opened in big US cities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, “young men and women left their extended families to chase the American dream.”
Here’s the foundational part of the essay: “When hyper-individualism kicked into gear in the 1960s, people experimented with new ways of living that embraced individualistic values. Today we are crawling out from the wreckage of that hyper-individualism—which left many families detached and unsupported…
Brooks asserts: “The blunt fact is that the nuclear family has been crumbling in slow motion for decades, and many of our other problems—with education, mental health, addiction, the quality of the labor force—stem from that crumbling.” He believes that “Americans are hungering to live in extended and forged families, in ways that are new and ancient at the same time.”
Let’s close with some good news…
Family trends may be changing. Economic pressures following the 2008 recession have pushed Americans toward greater reliance on family. Today, 20 percent of Americans live in multigenerational homes, up from 12 percent in 1980. More young adults are moving back home, as are seniors. Communal living…is also growing in popularity.
(Excerpt) Read more at denisonforum.org ...
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imho, there’s a lot of merit to this essay.
without a family, the government steps in and...
1. can’t do the job nearly as well
2. charges us all a great deal more in taxes
3. becomes more and more a powerful entity, vis a vis the individual and his.her liberties
^ exactly.
David Brooks is a commie scumbag, always has been, always will be.
Without freedom comes responsibility, too, called obligation.
I happen to be one of the younger in a large family, and I can't begin to tell you all I've done to help out. These past two weeks have been a frenzy of it. But I can tell you that no one can come to live with us, period. I have that freedom.
Conservative in quotes is correct.
He's an actor, playing the role of a conservative, like a gay actor who portrays straight men. Everyone knows it and are surprised decades later when he declares he's out of the closet. They're either surprised that he's still alive or that he didn't come out of the closet years earlier.
O-H
Yes - extended families are a mini-society and actually the BEST mediating institution, and buffer, between individuals and greater society.
I REMEMBER 3 STORY HOMES IN MILWAUKEE:
YOUNGEST GENERATION ON THE 3RD FLOOR
PARENTS OR GRAND-PARENTS ON 2ND FLOOR
FAMILY BUSINESS ON GROUND FLOOR.
“In the 1930s and back, old folks homes were not a thing. Grandma and grandpa lived at home with their children’s families.“
A lot of Asians live this way in large homes. There are big cultural and financial advantages. But you better get along with the in laws!
[...hyper-individualism kicked into gear in the 1960s, people experimented with new ways of living that embraced individualistic...]
I graduated HS in the late 80s. I knew of 2 girls that were kicked out of their homes when they turned 18. They were good girls; not troublesome or rebellious at all. I just thought WTH, they’re getting thrown to the wolves.
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