frankwah wrote:
I think it was Metal_guy who described marriage as a pointless and obsolete affair. While I agree that it might not be good for you or me, it is important for society in general for one big reason. That reason is children. Marriage discourages men from having affairs (although they often do), and breaking up with their wives to start new families. When men do this, they lose half of everything and they have to pay alimony. It forces men to stay home with the wife and kids, which is, in my opinion important. It's very important for kids to know their fathers.
Children need more of a family than
a mother and father. And this society has
tenaciously destroyed that extended family,
in the ideal of the nuclear one. Really, 'tis
THAT which one can look to as the root
cause of many of our problems. Moving
away from that, towards more complicated
structures, offering more support, would be
a real boon.
Marriage just doesn't emphasize this though.
Perhaps, according to what you are saying, what
we really need is a formalization of the full familial
responsibility?