[2021] in Depressing_Thoughts
Re: marriage & divorce
celine@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (celine@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Tue Apr 2 08:04:49 1991
ckclark:
Seems to me you're protesting the media's portrayal of "romantic" love as
being unrealistic, and the protest you have against the institution of
marriage is just an offshoot of this.
It seems to me there are more substantive protests against marriage in
particular. One of which is it is an outworn, ago old tradition promoting
monogamy (gasps from the audience). This ideal (monogamy) is another that
I think has been emphasized over time that might one day be dispensed with.
There were good reasons for it in the past, and there are again with AIDS
and such. But no one (or very few, anyway) seems to question the idea of
monogamy itself. There is the issue of stability for child-rearing.
That and taxes seem to me to be the only reasonable motives for marriage,
that I can see, anyway.
Marriage as a form of precommitment to a relationship is the classic
formula for an unhappy household. People get to thinking "I want now to
commit myself and so frustrate any future self who might want to break off
the relationship. I wouldn't like that person, anyway." Of course, your
future self will have the benefit of additional experience, and be older
and quite possibly wiser. Cutting off the options of such a self isn't
usually such a good idea.
Just a bunch of opinions, flame if you will.
