> That, I think, is the primary tension: not between the family and the state, as Boyle argues, but between individual and collective ambitions.
I guess I don't see much difference? It would be hard to describe a family as anything other than an individual ambition in this country. The state certainly provides very little support to most people.
This in effect seems like a long-winded way of blaming people for wanting a family in the first place.
Edit: mod-limited so responding here: Sure that part I get, but isn't this also trivially a "family vs state" matter in addition to an "individual vs collective" manner? I don't get what is gained by ignoring the former interpretation.
Starting a family means giving up a lot of personal autonomy for the sake of a collective. A small one, compared to a company or a government, but a collective nonetheless.
Sure. But to characterize your own struggle as "you vs the family" as opposed to "the family vs the state" (edit: or "you vs the state") is... incalculably alien
I guess I don't see much difference? It would be hard to describe a family as anything other than an individual ambition in this country. The state certainly provides very little support to most people.
This in effect seems like a long-winded way of blaming people for wanting a family in the first place.
Edit: mod-limited so responding here: Sure that part I get, but isn't this also trivially a "family vs state" matter in addition to an "individual vs collective" manner? I don't get what is gained by ignoring the former interpretation.