dagblog - Comments for "TNR.com > Mark Schmitt > Age Gap"

Never said you did. Just

cmaukonen — Sun, 22 May 2011 16:10:56 +0000

Never said you did. Just stating my experience. Of course YMMV.

Que?I did not state a

EmmaZahn — Sun, 22 May 2011 15:53:00 +0000

Que?

I did not state a preference. I merely observed a perceived difference in social arrangements that are still basically the same. Humans are mutually dependent or interdependent -- except for Mountain Men like Jeremiah Johnson. :)

Since you assumed but did not ask, I do not view the isolated nuclear family or clan/tribe as an ideal but they are proven survival modes.

Ideally yes. A couple of

cmaukonen — Sun, 22 May 2011 15:38:59 +0000

In reply to It is one of those Big Lies

Ideally yes. A couple of things though. My brother who is 4 years younger than I is more centrist (conservative) than I am. He fully bought into the "Middle Class American Dream"™ . Where in I did not. The only extended family situation in my family was my cousins on my fathers side where my grandmother lived with them.

My mother could not stand her parents and my father tolerated his family. A some what different scenario than a generation before.

It is one of those Big Lies

EmmaZahn — Sun, 22 May 2011 15:24:12 +0000

In reply to Reminds me of Sharon Astyk's

It is one of those Big Lies that if repeated often enough begins to sink in. We early boomers have certainly fell for more than our fair share of them.

The difference of this lie is that it is going up against literally millenia of evolution and the key to human survival and predominance. Except for the very privileged who can either hire or enslave support people, families depended on one another across generations.

In many ways our Affluent Society makes all of us more like historic privileged ones. We depend more and more on the kindness (or greed) of strangers for our most basic survival needs.

Not saying that is necessarily a bad thing but it is something we all should keep in mind when talking about economics, politics, etc.

Reminds me of Sharon Astyk's

Donal — Sun, 22 May 2011 11:54:38 +0000

In reply to TNR.com > Mark Schmitt > Age Gap

Reminds me of Sharon Astyk's predictions that there will be conflict between age groups. I've seen little evidence of that so far, but I keep looking for signs.