Marriage:
Love or Stability
If the
individual is the supreme being in a Liberal society, where does that leave
marriage?
A Marriage is a bonding of two people, one man and one woman for
life, or at least that is what it was and it is still how most people think of
marriage. Marriage exists to provide the stability that no other human
institution can provide. A stability that is important to society and the individual.
Of course we all want to be in a loving relationship but that isn’t why
marriage exists. It’s quite possible to have a loving relationship outside of
marriage.
So why is marriage important? Because it announces the seriousness of
the relationship to the entire world, it announces that they are exclusive to
each other, the desire that it last forever as well as the desire to produce
children in a stable family. Marriage is the anchor that secures families,
making the family, the building block of society.
What
marriage is not, is perfection, it is a human institution which means that it
has the failings that humans have. But the first of many Liberal attacks
against marriage was the idea that marriage is primarily about love and not
about the stability of society. Once love is put forward as the primary reason
for two people to get married it implies that happiness is the goal of
marriage. We all want to be happy, but what happens when you find yourself
married but unhappy? Logically you must unmarry.
Of course people being people
life is more complex than that. But life, people and a marriage change over
time and the things that are important today may be less important
tomorrow. Which means that what makes us happy today may
not make us happy in a years time, but might again in the future. Happiness and
unhappiness are rarely permanent, circumstances change and we must live through
those changes. But if marriage is about happiness why would you stay if you are
unhappy?
The benefits
of marriage are discarded, benefits which can include companionship,
monogamous sex, economy, friendship and mutual support amongst other things. Marriage
is a picnic, you go on a journey with a friend and eat good food. Of course
sometimes arguments break out, the food goes bad, ants get on the sweets, you
sit on a prickle all of those things are a part of life. Life happens in marriage and outside of
marriage, it is a mistake to think that the life that happens inside of a
marriage can be fixed by ending a marriage.
Liberalism and it's belief in the individual, planted the seed, that if marriage does not fulfill than it should be discarded.
Upon Hope Blog - A Conservative Future
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