If a family with well-defined characteristics is spread out with many distant but very united relatives, everyone having a vivid sensation of being a member of the same family, each member will be supported by a social group independent from the State. The family is a power; as a group, it moves independently from the State and constitutes a cell with which that the State must reckon. Its members do not depend on social welfare agencies. If they become impoverished, the family will help them. Relatives form the circle of their relationships that ensures their social position no matter how they dress, etc. There is not much the State can do about institutions of this nature. If someone was born in a certain lineage, the State cannot do much about it. A defined lineage is a factor in the independence of the individual himself since it creates a barrier against State arbitrarity.
Large family group portrait in front of the Cairns home; on the stairs and verandah, with a large birdcage in the middle, in 1886.
In a society full of lineages, there are very important social groups that the State must take into account at every moment. Today’s society is one without lineages, with only vague or distant ties of kinship and fading families. In the feudal and medieval organisation, lineages were the raw material, but these lineages have gone through one, two, and even ten centuries of historic continuity.
Medieval life of grape harvest and wine press.
Note that historians unanimously agree that there are works that need to be carried out by several generations: founding certain countries, developing certain policies, creating certain sources of prosperity. The family is the institution of natural law that assures the realisation of historic works through generations. Lineage causes a dynasty to carry out a work through generations: a family of bell casters to perfect a certain type of bell, one of winemakers to produce an excellent wine, one of professors to enhance an incomparable didactic system. These are works of generations and are the most profound works in history. By natural law, they must be carried out by lineages.
The Christian Institution of the Family: A Dynamic Force to Regenerate Society, by Tradition, Family, Property Association. Pgs. 21-23.
