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RosaReborn wrote

Many cultures do and it works wonderfully however a large industrialized city type of society will probably not foster the kind of environment where that will work well.

Definitely kids can be raised more collectively, but I can't see completely. This is also something most people of any age should do, have more a communal sense of togetherness, conversations with strangers etc. instead of isolated homes and cubical living.

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An_Old_Big_Tree wrote

As opposed to capitalism's nuclear family?

I don't want to prescribe a way for children to be raised or preclude the possibility of many different lifeways. I think that collective raising of kids is compatible with anarchism though, and will often be a desirable option.

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rot wrote

Definitely helps the parents.

America values a self-contained nuclear family but parents are always online or reading books asking others how to raise their kids lmao

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RedEmmaSpeaks wrote

We're wired for tribal band-style living and raising the kids collectively is a major part of it. The idea is that every person in the tribe, regardless of age, is considered part of it and the main rule of tribes is that you take care of your members.

In any case, it's a good idea for the simple reason of, well, kids may be the future, but that doesn't change the fact that they can be a pain in the ass. Loving someone doesn't change the fact that caring for them is, at times, a difficult and unpleasant job. It would probably do a lot of good for mothers if when they were too exhausted physically and emotionally to take care of the kids, they can let someone else look after them for a while. The understanding is, of course, when the other person is at their wits' end with their kid, she'll return the favor.

A good example of how this would work is with elephants. The whole group helps out with the babies with everyone in the herd serving as parents. Often when a female elephant is around the age of five (an elephant doesn't reach adulthood until they are ten) they'll start helping out as babysitters to the young ones. It gives the babies' moms a break and it helps the babysitter prepare for her future motherhood. "The old take care of the young and the young take care of the old," is a pretty stable cycle that we were fools to abandon.

Oh and RosaReborn, while you have some good points, keep in mind that most anarchists tend to be of the "Small is beautiful" mindset when it comes to our visions of an ideal world. The bigger something gets, the more needlessly complicated it becomes or in other words, the more parts a machine has, the more ways it has of breaking down.

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