Marriage is an anthropological invention and we think we’ve found something better
Some things have stood the test of time, even if they’re decried today. We might think of religions, certain traditional foods or even certain forms of government. Marriage has, so to speak, been considered an anthropological invention. It has brought many benefits: the protection of women, the protection of children (especially infants), the guarantee of the father’s true paternity, the foundation of the family nucleus as the basis of a society and, quite simply, happiness – no mean feat.
The Century Of Rupture
The societal crisis we are experiencing, which has spanned more than a century in most developed countries, is linked to the crisis of the family. There are countless single-parent families in developed countries, far more than in traditional societies where marriage is still an institution. There are several reasons for this change. Women’s work and children’s education at school have loosened family ties. As family members no longer depend on a single activity (e.g. family businesses), they have gradually taken flight, spending less and less time together. This phenomenon can be dated to around the beginning of the 20th century in Western countries, for example. We could even speak of a major anthropological break, as the consequences for the family have been far-reaching.
The Century Of Experimentation
After more than a century of family upheaval, new theories on the family had to be put into practice. Since modern production methods were destroying the family to some extent, this destruction had to be rationalized. With the economy in command, a logical reason had to be found for the destruction of family ties, in the guise of progress. This has led to the emergence of theories that deny the singularity of the biological dimension: we are no longer male/female, we are becoming so. Or theories that gave the individual predominance over the group. The individual is all-powerful, and is not accountable to the group that gave birth to him or her.
The Economy Alone Can Lead Us To Our Downfall
Ironically, the word “economy” comes from the Latin oeconomia, itself from the ancient Greek οἰκονομία, oikonomía (“house management”). Originally, the very core of the economy was the home, a fortiori, the family. Over time, the economy has become detached from the home and linked to the company, the market or society. In this respect, socialism and capitalism have contributed to “taking the economy out of the home”.
When You Denigrate Domestic Work, You Denigrate The Home
What consumes us slowly is the evil we don’t see. Several decades have been enough to destroy the vocation of a house, which is to provide a secure and comforting home for an entire family. Today, a house is mainly a place to sleep and eat, and all social interaction has been reduced, much like a dormitory town: you sleep and eat, but you don’t really live there. By emphasizing our productive identity, we’ve denied what makes us human: our social ties, foremost among which is the family.
Homo Œconomicus
The economic man is modern because he finds his place by serving companies and forgetting his family. He gains access to a consumer market thanks to his purchasing power, but ends up consuming people in the same way he consumes everyday consumer goods. Everything becomes transactional, and he loses the nobility that made him so human. He loses the sense of sacrifice to his community because he has already sacrificed everything for his business. He thinks he’s free thanks to consumption, but in reality he’s bound hand and foot.
The New Century Of Disruption: The One-Man Business
But the world will not go on like this indefinitely. Companies will lay off people on a massive scale, and these swarms of individuals will end up on the sidelines like an object from the past being sold off at a garage sale. The world will become more economically individualistic, but paradoxically, this is what will enable the individual to reconnect with his distant ancestors. The market will continue to need more and more independent workers and creative people who work mainly alone. These same people will form guilds around related skills to be more efficient. They will be linked by ties of interest and mutual respect, rather than by the constrained relationships we see in business when people work together when they didn’t choose to in the first place.
The Future Of Employment Is Already Here
You may not see it, but the avant-garde of tomorrow’s work is already at work. They’re creating personal brands that you’re already consuming (Youtubers etc.) and offering you all their derivative products. This growing mass of people is already showing you that an alternative to conventional work is possible. No market will reach saturation point in this new economy, because the product will be the individual and his or her unique qualities, tastes and talents. This sum of parameters makes it a singular product that no one else will be able to compete with.
You Are The Product
When the service is free, we say the product is you. In the age of the one-man business, the product is also you, because your uniqueness in an ever-changing market. Naval Ravikant said: “There are nearly 7 billion people on this planet. One day, I hope, there will be nearly 7 billion companies”. All change is initiated by pioneers who show the way. Naval is one of them. Tomorrow’s world will be created by the community documenting the whole of human consciousness. This is what we are already witnessing with the creator economy. This phenomenon will become even more pronounced as creation will no longer be the monopoly of man, but AI will also play its part, potentially flooding the market with all kinds of content that can be assumed to be the work of humans.
