3 Comments

I haven't been "legibly" in the world of employment out of the home since 2015.

Being "under the radar" has been a blessing, giving me a freedom that's been incalculable.

Although I had caregiving responsibilities for a good number of those years, they have lessened since then, and it's been wonderful.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm answerable only to God, myself and my family, and nothing is more important than these.

Expand full comment

I spent three years as a stay at home mom with my second child. With my older child, I didn't have that luxury. I remained "legible" to the state as somebody who went to well-child doctor's appointments, but on the whole I was much less controllable than others. Being at home enabled me to invest time in my family (my children, my parents, my in-laws) and my community (I had a mommy-and-me group, I got to know moms and other people from my neighbourhood), my own network of friends - so being more illegible to the state made me more legible to my community and I wove a web of quite durable social connections, so to speak.

Being legible to the state is necessary to some extent and has some justification - but in this age of better surveillance systems (-> see Chines social credit scores) and state overreach being legible to the state means being subjected to its current whims. Which scares me badly.

Expand full comment

"It strikes me as ironic that the very thing the Communist Party tried to achieve totally failed, all while that exact same thing happened in the free West. People had big and shiny kitchens from the 1960’s onwards, but used these kitchens less and less. Sharing a daily meal together is not the norm for families anymore, let alone growing, harvesting and preserving food together. Mom and dad take off to work in the morning, the young kids go to nurseries, the older kids to school. Even in the weekends there are sports events, dates, other outings… to go to separately.

Perhaps freedom isn’t just about being able to do and have everything you want."

This is all about the good ol' American value of "rugged individualism". Naturally when a culture values that, the more single people and smaller families it will have.

Regarding womens' illegible work, that's one reason why so many women struggle financially in old age when they become widowed or divorced.

How do women who homeschool their kids get paid? There needs to be a system set up for that.

Expand full comment