Family is celebrated as an institution worldwide, transcending cultural, religious, social, and territorial boundaries. From slave societies to feudalism, and from the mercantile and industrial revolutions to the capitalist digital revolution, the nature and characters of families are changing but the core of family as a social, economic, and cultural institution has remained largely unchanged. It continues to be organised around property ownership and accumulation, shaping human relationships through various forms of property-based lineage. The “Tinderisation” of relationships, the “Uberisation” of families and the rise of progressive LGBTQ+ movements have failed to dismantle the entrenched patriarchal dominance and parasitic property relations within the family as an institution. The production and reproduction of essentialist and functionalist values of regressive capitalist families contribute to struggles with alienation and mental health issues, as a culture of inequality and exploitation breeds these problems.
As an institution, the family—whether in its progressive or regressive forms—plays a key role in the socialisation of its members, introducing them to concepts of consumption, production, culture, society, politics, economy, and religion. It is one of the most dominant institutions, significantly shaping human lives in all ages. A progressive family promotes the ideals and values of equality, justice, liberty, fraternity, and solidarity. In contrast, regressive families indoctrinate their members with hierarchical structures, normalising and naturalising various forms of inequality, abuse and exploitation based on gender, age, income and sexuality. Regressive families subjugate women, both young and old, to ensure that the family remains under the control of unaccountable patriarchal men who embody values aligned with the demands of capitalism. Feudal, regressive, and capitalist families are repositories of violence against women and Children, and breeding grounds for gender and sexual inequalities.
The emergence of the family as an institution coincides with the rise of class society, which is based on private property. As a result, family relationships are inherently tied to property relations, and property remains the foundation of even modern nuclear families under capitalism. Capitalism promotes the regressive and feudal family as a fundamental unit of labour domestication, where workers are conditioned to meet the demands of everyday life under capitalist systems. As a social, economic, and cultural unit, the family serves as a vehicle through which capitalism transfers its essentialist values to individuals, presenting them as if they were natural human values.
In this process, capitalism has “Uberised” families and “Tinderised” relationships, where narrow individual interests take precedence over the collective well-being of the family. In the name of family, the atomisation of self-centred relationships among its members is a result of unchecked and unaccountable individualism, where some enjoy life like parasites without contributing through work. In the name of morality, religion, culture, and tradition, the family normalises exploitative and parasitic relationships rooted in conservative values. These values are essential for the survival of capitalism. So, conservative individuals, families, institutions, processes, parties and politics promote capitalism as their preferred system.
The so-called ideal families are repositories of all feudal and capitalist values, which are detrimental to human relationships based on democratic and egalitarian ethos. Modern capitalist families are home to privatised, domesticated, and unpaid labour. Modern families today stand on the ruins of the collective foundations of human lives and communities. Such a regressive institution is mindlessly celebrated worldwide in the name of family, which produces future workers for capitalism.
In this context, it is time to reimagine families as free associations of free individuals based on the democratic ethos of equality, fraternity, mutual love, and respect. Parasitic family relationships rooted in feudal structures within a culture of mass consumerism do not constitute a true family; instead, they are based on commodified, purchased, exchanged, and domesticated relationships. The day the provider stops funding parasitic lifestyles and demands accountability, that same day the idealist provider becomes characterless and unfit to be considered an ideal family man according to the requirements of the parasites in the name of family. Such families must be dismantled to create families based on fraternity, mutual support, and solidarity. A progressive family must be founded on the principles of gender equality and the democratic and liberal ethos of free and equal association of individuals, rather than on patriarchal parasitism.
Bhabani Shankar Nayak is a political commentator
