I have even looked to see whether I am looking under my bed for Commies. But no, I think a lightning bolt emanated from my head that night on the train and it illuminated the truth. America is under the spell of an assumption that parents can t or won t raise their children properly nor deal with their family problems through private means. So schools increasingly function as social service centers, offering breakfast and lunch, before and after school daycare, medical attention, dental attention, sex education. Growing dependence on government programs causes the assumption to be true.
Families weaken as the state grows stronger.
Here, come to our special program for your toddler. Here, send the kids in early so they can have breakfast. Look, it s free. Threats and overt force are rarely needed to bring families in, but they lurk in the shadows, always a possibility for those difficult cases. Parents in the Soviet Union at least knew the score, and Sergei theorized that they were actually freer for knowing.