In the past, the family took care of everything. It gave the individual what he needed to earn a living. And it looked after him when he could no longer work.

What changes?

Civil society tears the individual out of this bond. The members of the family become strangers to one another. Each now counts as an independent person.

In the past, people lived from the father’s soil. Now they live from society, from its market and its work. Even whether a whole family can survive now depends on society. And so it depends on chance.

A huge power:

Society draws the human being to itself. It demands that he work for it. He is to be everything through it and do everything through it. The family only lays the ground.

What follows from this?

The individual is now a son of civil society. It has claims on him. But he also has rights against it. It must protect him, as the family did before.

Summary: Society takes the individual out of the family and makes him depend on it. In this way, he becomes its son. It has claims on him, and he has rights against it.