The Economics of
Joussiance
J-A MILLER
Women and Families
ALAIN BADIOU
Moments in a
Love Story
MARIE-HÉLÈNE
BROUSSE
Feminine Jouissance
ÉRIC LAURENT
The Child As Object
PIERRE-GILLES
GUÉGUEN
Persistent Trait
LILA ZEMBORIAN /
MARTIN REYNA
Eating Alone in the
Byways of Smithson
CATHY LEBOWITZ
The Grandmother's Voice
SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK
Martin Kippenberger,
Sigmar Polke
CL INTERVIEWS JA
Women and Families
[excerpt]
translated by Susan Spitzer
At a certain point in the dialogue, when discussing the "guardians," Socrates had advocated a strictly egalitarian life, along with the abolition of private property. One of the young people had then asked: "But what should be done about women and children?" And Socrates replied: "Friends share everything in common." Then he went on to another subject.
Much later, Socrates' listeners still remember that somewhat mysterious answer. And just as he's about to discuss the bad systems of government, they force Socrates to explain what he meant. This is essentially what's at stake in Chapter 8[…]
Socrates in fact just sat there, as though he were far away. He mopped his brow. The silence persisted and the young people, feeling uneasy, didn't dare break it. Finally, Socrates said softly, almost under his breath:
—Your elder brother Plato thought he could speak in my name about this strange, almost intractable subject, the family. He took off, it's true, from a few careless remarks of mine, and he has me say roughly the following—I'm quoting from memory—: "Women will be shared in common by all the men. None of them will live privately with any one man. Children will also be shared in common. Fathers won't know who their children are, nor will children know who their fathers are." Yes, but in that case, what's responsible for amorous encounters, sexual relationships, the symbolic order of inheritance? The answer Plato attributes to me is: the State, always the State, forever the State. You were right to quote Engels, dear girl. But what's happened since then? In the Soviet Union, they abolished private property, but they made the State, which was supposed to wither away, stronger, and the family remained strong enough that the children of Party officials became the beneficiaries of hereditary privilege. And according to your brother's Socrates, in the ever-so-famous "ideal City," private property and the family are abolished, but the State emerges from these abolitions with exorbitant powers. On the basis of the axiom whereby children belong to the entire community, you end up, in line with this Platonic anti-family policy, with what can only be called horrors[…]