Max: In the same vein, it's not simply about economic provision, but about the values one would impart to children and the ethic of responsibility (both individual and communal). In a less positive vein, it's implicitly about breeding for the nation. On the whole, the pro-family advantage remains something that the left needs to appropriate. ricardo: I would agree, Jim words the family as if it were a matter of economics, so he misses the crucial defining element, which is the emotional attachment between parent and children. The family is not something that can be "appropriated" by either the left of the right, since the bond between mother (and father) and infant is *basic* to our very sense of self. It is this bond which sets the tone for other relations later in life. Insects and reptiles have not need for attachment. It all starts with mammals and gains in importance with primates because they have a much longer period of dependency on the mother. (Besides, if we mean political "appropriation", the left has a long history in this area, of which the writings of the Frankfurt school on "authority and the family" are quite important.) Left-wing economists who are critical of "economic man" should know that one of the most effective challenges against this "man" is the obvious, primary ways in which our very self is initially formed within the family. Neoclassical theory conceives human relations as interactions between pre-formed selves; selves who are rational maximizers *before* they interact with any human being. Selves who are already formed before any intersubjective action. But Sstudies have shown how crucial family socialization is to the whole formation of the human personality. I would even agree with George Herbert Mead that our very own sense of self, our self-awarenes and self-image, *develops* only through interaction, and that family interaction is the key agent in this. What we think of ourselves is what we think others think of us, beginning with our parents, moving on to the schools, our peers, and society at large. So, it is totally wrong to think the family is a right wing issue. After all, what else is feminism? ricardo
