The Politics of Home

-- By MarcusStrong - 15 May 2012

I’ve always wanted a big house, with big windows that let in a ton of light, hardwood floors, a study with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and a few acres of land surrounding it (not for a lawn and shrubbery but for a small farm). It’s probably because my family moved a lot when I as a kid, well into my teenage years, and no place ever felt like mine. But the desire for a home of my own is also part of my inheritance as an American.

The Modern Home

For much of American history, the home has been an important piece of citizens’ lives and goals and identity. They were places of freedom but also cultivated objects in which their owners could take pride. Today, citizens still work for them, but most buy them instead of build them. The home has also been a lever upon which several legal and political battles have turned in this country. Emigrants from England came to this country to freely practice religion in their homes. White residents in early suburban neighborhoods created racial covenants to keep black citizens from having homes next to them. Even now, the home is important for how Americans see themselves and judge wealth in this country. The mortgage crisis was as much about a home to come back to as it was about jobs and finances. Given our history and changes in technology, thinking about the place of the home in our lives will be important as citizens and families recover. Given those changes though, is the home still important? The modern home, like many parts of today’s commercial world, is marked by convenience. The goal isn’t just a home to call your own, but one with all the comforts of automation: automated coffee machines, automated washers and dryers, and constant temperature control. Oh, let’s not forgot DVR. To me, these qualities reinforce complacency, about our own lives and the complex politics of the world outside. As someone constantly thinking about my future, the dichotomy between the lives we build for work and the lives we build for home seems strange. Why can’t the home be a creative space as well as a place of rest? Personally, I’m worried that as my commitments to school and to career deepen, I won’t have any gateway for knowledge and self-exploration. When I’m not relaxing, I want my future home to be as constructive a workplace as my future office. Every citizen doesn’t share the same feelings. Especially in today’s economy, people want to take a break after struggling to keep their job or maintain their family financial status quo. But I think the struggle of today’s economy is an exact reason to create a constructive home. Without any opportunity elsewhere, many people are forced to work from home to create opportunities, especially young people. My classmates and I are fortunate enough to be in New York for law school, but many of our generation have returned home to their parents and were already there in the first place. As good entry-level jobs become harder to procure and education costs rise, there’s a need to able to learn outside of the classroom and the office.

Home Is Where the Heart Is

That may be an argument for leaving the home behind completely. I have friends for whom location has never been important, and for whom being able to function in a globalized economy is more important. But that’s a naïve proposition considering our current political climate. The most intense political debates in the news cycle are domestic, both in terms of the nation and the home. Whatever side of the political aisle, people care less about global work competency and more about who will live next door. Debates over gay marriage and illegal immigration show that many people’s true political values stem from the home. As a child, it’s where you learn and develop your own political and moral views. As an adult or parent, it’s often where you exercise those views or protect them. But even though I value home as a personal workplace, valuing the home as a bastion of political ideas scares me. When I first conceived of this essay, I thought of my future home as my own ideological bunker, where I could freely consider my thoughts and act upon my moral and political values without hindrance. I could cook and eat only whole grains and locally sourced produce, and not consume more than I needed. I could raise kids who believe that gay, straight, bisexual, or transgender doesn’t matter and that all should be equally respected and loved as people. I could invite all my friends, poor, middle-class, or wealthy, to my home together, no matter how big or small. But does that prevent me from experiencing a part of the world? I think back to high school kids I mentored in college, whose goals were to be rappers or athletes because they hadn’t seen other models for them to aspire to. But even though I’ve seen more models of life than them, maybe I’m putting up the walls of a future ideology and forgetting the doors.

A House Is Not a Home

Neither type of home, global and wide reaching or reflective and constrained, is right or wrong. Within and between each one is a myriad of ways to live and to build a home. But any home can be limiting if taken to an extreme. As we recover from the economic crisis and find a path out of our current political crisis, I still want to concern myself with building a home where hard work is valued over convenience. I still want a place for constructive reflection of my work, my ideas, and my desires for the world. But should I procure and maintain that space at the expense of anyone else, or their ideas? My house might be mine, but maybe my home is the place to share.

(Eben, I would like to continue editing this over the summer.)

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