The family is a group egoism that repudiates the individual. It is not, as is sometimes said, the product of individualism gone wrong. The evolution of the last few centuries is often seen as the triumph of personal liberty over social constraints, among them the family. But what happens to individualism when a couple’s total reserves of energy are given over to the children? The development of contemporary mores demonstrates, on the contrary, the prodigious explosion of familial sentiment. It is the family that has won out over social relationships, friends, neighbours. The family is Queen. This is not a good sign; it is the sign of a step backward for personal identity, as the media would say. The historian Philippe Aries puts it like this: “Family feelings, feelings of class, and perhaps in some cases of race are manifestations of the same intolerance of diversity, of the same need for uniformity.” In that case, could family be the basic building block of the National Front?*1
We live in a society of ants, where working and reproducing represent the ultimate objective of the human experience. Work is the opiate of the people; will children be their consolation? A society where life consists of earning a living and raising your kids is a society with no future, since it has no dreams. Having a child is the best possible way to avoid asking what the meaning of life is, as everything revolves around that child, who is a marvellous substitute for the existential quest. “My son, my battle,” as Daniel Balavoine sings. That’s all very nice, but if that is your only battle, your life doesn’t mean very much. The philosopher Alexandre Kojève said “the animal defines itself by exhausting its existential possibilities in procreation.” A lot of today’s parents are not far away from that animal state.
To respond to the question of the meaning of life by simply reproducing yourself is to shift the question to the next generation. To not respond at all, or to not even try, isn’t that the worst kind of cowardice? Isn’t that a pretty heavy burden to put on the children? The sight of their defeated parents just dropping the ball is not the best example to set our dear little ones, either. One day soon the children won’t hesitate to sit in judgment on their parents, and their verdict will not be very lenient, especially if those parents have been living a stupid life. A stupid life means being a servile little worker whose big concern is, for lack of anything better, developing his spiritual life; feeling his emotions more profoundly, perhaps delving into Eastern wisdom; going on hikes or taking up running in order to “feel better in his skin”; learning how to relate more “authentically” to other people; “overcoming his fear of pleasure.”
Fortunately, citizens, you can sleep peacefully. Order has been established. Today’s young people are a lot less defiant than those of 1968.*2 No way are they going to be out in the streets protesting that they’ve been handed a load of shit, demanding answers, and upsetting the established order to get revenge. They are far too busy just trying to…fit into society.