As the middle class declines, the family loses independent strength and becomes administered.

Evidence

Now, however, the admittedly indispensable family has become a mere problem of administrative procedure … Although the form of the family itself is ultimately strengthened by recent measures, with the decreasing significance of the entire middle classes it is losing its independent strength, which was based on the free professional activity of the husband. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 175

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The dual movement — the family is reinforced in form yet hollowed in substance — is the kind of paradox worth sitting with for days.
• XREF: This is the Frankfurt School’s transitional thesis between liberal patriarchy and totalitarian collectivization. — connects to: Decline of middle-class ownership eroded the family’s role and paternal authority; Migration dissolves descent structures and with them household authority — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2378; Decline of the family’s countersocial role made individuals more directly socialized by mass culture — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 416 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Decline of middle-class ownership eroded the family’s role and paternal authority #expands (0.85)
• Even unpaid family members become unwitting inspectors in the panopticon #exemplifies (0.85) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 156
• Decline of the family’s countersocial role made individuals more directly socialized by mass culture #expands (0.80) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 416
• Migration dissolves descent structures and with them household authority #expands (0.75) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2378