by Paul Embery
Only those devoid of a moral compass could refuse to recognise the devastating effects of family breakdown
THE left really ought to love the traditional family unit. After all, it represents what one might call ‘socialism in action’.
It is within the tabernacle of the family that humans first learn the virtues of solidarity, mutual obligation, loyalty, respect, trust, compassion and sacrifice – qualities that many on the left would claim define their politics.
It is there, too, that the common good prevails over naked self-interest. Ancient trade union slogans such as ‘An injury to one is an injury to all’ and ‘United we stand, divided we fall’ could easily have been composed with the family in mind, for they go to the heart of the collective spirit and what it means to be part of something greater than oneself.
No family unit could thrive if ‘dog eat dog’ and ‘survival of the fittest’ were instead the guiding principles.
The left once understood all this. There was never a conflict between socialism and the family. The early Labour tradition was, in fact, rooted in respect for the family structure.
But then along came the 1960s and the battalions of university-educated cultural revolutionaries with their hatred of existing social norms and anything that smacked of tradition or order.
Suddenly, the nuclear family became a ‘right-wing’ concept. It was here that men were tyrants, and women were oppressed, and children were readied to become the next generation of wage slaves serving the capitalist beast. It was also here that conservative-minded people did tedious and petit bourgeois suburban things like washing their cars and tending their gardens.