Homework Blog Post for 11/10/2022


In chapter 8 of Igor Shafarevich’s The Socialist Phenomenon, he discusses the interrelations between and individual roles of each element of socialism’s evolution. One element he focuses on is family, specifically how a family unit can be considered as a threat to socialism and a group’s control over a society. The existence of a strong family unit means that a person would have a support network and people with like-minded ideas around them, making them more sure in their personal beliefs and confident in sharing their opinions since they know there are others who agree with them. This is detrimental to a socialist group’s ability to control others because as seen in the works of Hannah Arendt and others, their control relies on creating instability in people’s lives so that they can only rely on the group in control for support. But if a family unit exists that allows people to support each other, and allows ideas and views that go against the socialist group’s ideals to be taught to younger generations and shared with others, it keeps the party from having total control. Therefore, socialism generates an “attitude toward the family as an institution opposed to the apathy, the class or the statue, and [is] therefore dangerous,” (Shafarevich, 276) to the institution, making it something that needs to be broken apart for the success of the institution, which is socialism. In Graham Greene’s novel, The Power and the Glory, a split family can be seen in Luis’ family in how his mother is still a devout Catholic and wants to teach the religion to her children, despite it not being allowed, and her son rebels against her and her teachings, believing more in the anti-Catholic movements influencing him outside of their home. In chapter 4, when his mother is reading the Holy Book to him and his sisters, he interrupts and the following interaction ensues, “I don’t believe a word of it,’ the boy said, with sullen fury, ‘not a word of it.’ [Mother:] ‘How dare you!’ [Luis:] ‘Nobody could be such a fool.’ … [Mother:] ‘Go to your father.’ ‘Anything to get away from this– this–’ the boy said,” (Greene, 52). That sort of argument, Luis bad mouthing his mother’s religion and her telling him off, is common in their home, highlighting how deep their differences in beliefs are, furthering the wedge between themselves. It actually exemplifies the governing party’s ability to drive families apart through teaching their ideology to children in schools and making them see it in propaganda, which can put them at odds with their parents who may hold more traditional beliefs, effectively eliminating the family unit stability that could pose a threat to the socialist party’s control. 


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