Isn't Eric's point similar to one Zizek makes in the movie about him (Zizek, that is), about apparently liberal parents actually utilizing more finessed, slick methods of control? IMO this ties into a post-modernist view -- which I disagree with -- that all relations under a hegemonic society are tainted -- invariably, without exception -- with the tarnish of coercion, and so there can be no "good" way to do things. That is, all relations (family, race, etc.) are predestined to replicate some undesirable aspect of control, and so all structures simply become "mediating structures of oppression" and you can never break free. Even apparently revolutionary organizations in such a society are fucked because they are inextricably enmeshed in the muck, too, and also are fore-doomed to becoming mediators of oppression. Nothing can save you and it's pretty fatalistic.
-B.
Doug Henwood wrote:
"Well what the hell is a parent supposed to do? You make the 'neoliberal' father sound sinister, but what's wrong with encouraging self-exploration and skepticism? This is not a merely theoretical question for me!"