Nathan Newman has a terrific post on gay marriage and polygamy. He uses his usual intelligence, acumen, and particularly his breadth of knowledge and historical context to take a look at the ‘slippery slope’ argument:
The slippery slope is very real, but the slope is one of repression and violations of civil liberties to enforce a national gay marriage ban against the wishes of states that will increasingly wish to support civil unions and, yes, gay marriage in coming years.In the end, he suggests, “The real solution may be the disestablishment of marriage ...”
Your Humble Blogger agrees.
Now, Your Humble Blogger, being in a stable, monogamous, two-person, two-sex marriage, thinks that most people would on the whole be better off in a similar situation. Also, I think that most people will probably fall in love with one person, who will be of the other sex. Most people. Not everybody. And laws won’t really be able to force everybody to fall in love only with the legally sanctioned.
Marriage can be several things, and usually is. It can be a religious matter. It can be a financial arrangement. It can be a social convenience. In the US at this time, it is a contract between two people and their governments; oddly enough most people don’t actually read that contract (I didn’t; I have no idea what my legal responsibilities are in this marriage, and hope I never find out). It can be about the married couple, or about their children (real or putative), or about their parents (this is more rare these days, fortunately). It can be about the Divine, or the world.
The government can’t give religious sanction to, say, a Catholic fellow’s third marriage. The church can give legal sanction to a marriage, by applying for and getting legal proxy, which is odd in itself. Nobody can give the families’ sanction.
It’s tempting, also, to make a flippant comment about the utility of three or four other adults in the household when attempting to get a toddler ready to leave the house. As the saying goes, it takes a village to dress a child.
Redintegro Iraq,
-Vardibidian.
Strangely, I don’t think it’s flippant to note the utility, advisability, and just plain helpfulness of having the adult-like:child-like ratio be better than 2:1. Just downright sensible when it *can* happen.
Ursula LeGuin’s Birthday of the World has interesting perspectives, as usual.
*smooches* to your toddler, by the way. 🙂 And heck, to you & Your Best Reader (who sent me a happy birthday ecard, too, the wonderful person that she is! Happy 5-days-late Bday to her too, please!)