> my point is that elite rungs of society saying "Start a family and stick with it" is simply going to be irrelevant to a lot of the people the author is talkin

> my point is that elite rungs of society saying "Start a family and stick with it" is simply going to be irrelevant to a lot of the people the author is talking about. Would you disagree? No, I don't really disagree with that. If it were just elites shouting down, then you're right. It was the manner in which it used to be conveyed that matters. The mass media is no longer propagating that messaging in the way it had been for past decades. Pop culture celebrated families, especially in the age of television, from the '50s through the '80s. There were some hangers-on in the early '90s, like Family Matters, Full House, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, but it was waning. The contemporary messaging is very positive about nontraditional lifestyles. The people who control the media are the elite, and the messaging is delivered via pop culture stars. I don't know which way the influence actually flows, but I think this is what the author is getting at, and it not too far out there if you ask me.