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A controversial sex/relationship columnist said something controversial about sex and relationships. Quick, everyone comment about the sexual controversy of it!
Galileo postulated ideas that were *not* friendly to traditional religious norms.
Should we always hold so tightly to the past? What are we afraid of? Ourselves?
The past can be a guidepost, for the future...the past is prologue...
If a certain established marriage practice or convention has been in place for roughly 2000 years A.D. and a good chunk of time before that B.C., doesn't it perhaps have a good and valid reason, for having endured so long?
Savage is making excuses, IMO, for morally-unjustifiable behavior. What is it that he's really after? Polygamy? Socially unconstricted open relationships? Unfettered s*xual liberation and expression...physical intimacy without love and commitment first?
Whatever his motives, this guy has an agenda...and one that is decidedly *not* friendly, to traditional marriage norms...
Yes he does have an agenda and no he does not have ideas friendly to traditional marriage norms. His agenda is one where people are more open, honest, and upfront with their partners. Where instead of living in some fairy-tale fantasy land where we all pretend fit into some 1950's stereotype of a happy family, we recognize that we are all deeply complicated individuals. He is not advocating for unabashed hedonism and the end of monogamy.
What he's sick of is people who go out and cheat, lie to their partners, cause painful divorces, abandon their children, live miserable lives, and repress their most deepest and neediest desires. Much of that could be avoiding with some painful honesty.
I would also have to argue if a gay male can truly understand the concept of heterosexual monogamy.
Not being a heterosexual how could Dan Savage possibly comment on the culture of heterosexual sex.
.
Are you serious?
Monogamous relationships are monogamous relationships.
There's no difference between gay and straight as far as expectations of fidelity.
The past can be a guidepost, for the future...the past is prologue...
If a certain established marriage practice or convention has been in place for roughly 2000 years A.D. and a good chunk of time before that B.C., doesn't it perhaps have a good and valid reason, for having endured so long?
That's a really poor argument that I think you should reconsider. Plenty of human institutions lasted 2000+ years that I'm sure you are thankful we did away with. Slavery, public executions, relegating women to 2nd class citizen status, supreme rulers, etc...so yeah the past can be a guidepost all right. A guidepost as to what not to do.
Now is marriage bad like all of those things? Of course not. But it certainly isn't good just because it's been around a long time!
I think part of the problem is this notion that a man should only marry one women and be happy with that the rest of his life. I think men should be able to marry as many women as he wants to. Thats why the divorce rate is so high. Some times people grow apart, and now your stuck in this unhappy marriage. You have cultures around the world were men have multiply wifes, in africa, islam, mormans. It seems to work for those people. Hell even in the bible you had men like Abrahm and King David who had mutiply wifes and concubines. Only in the west do we have this notion that you marry for love, and that love is going to last forever.
The past can be a guidepost, for the future...the past is prologue...
If a certain established marriage practice or convention has been in place for roughly 2000 years A.D. and a good chunk of time before that B.C., doesn't it perhaps have a good and valid reason, for having endured so long?
Since Bible literalists themselves cannot seem to agree on how long the institution of marriage has lasted, I don't think your argument holds.
The Old Testament included polygamy and concubinage in their marriage definition - why then are we not still following those traditions?
And while we're on the subject - why don't we preserve the OTHER traditions given to us from the Bible, like stoning?
I agree that marriage probably predates recorded history, but mere longevity doesn't prove effectiveness.
That's a really poor argument that I think you should reconsider. Plenty of human institutions lasted 2000+ years that I'm sure you are thankful we did away with. Slavery, public executions, relegating women to 2nd class citizen status, supreme rulers, etc...so yeah the past can be a guidepost all right. A guidepost as to what not to do.
Now is marriage bad like all of those things? Of course not. But it certainly isn't good just because it's been around a long time!
Past historical precedents can be either inherently good or benevolent (i.e., marriage), or downright evil and despicable (i.e., slavery, s*xual oppression, etc.). It all depends on what you're looking at.
Just like today, things aren't perfect either, though. War for example, should have already been rendered entirely obsolete, decades ago. But the military-industrial complex wants to persuade you otherwise...is it any coincidence we have a brand new series of wars, every few decades? Likewise, we now technically have the power to stamp out hunger and starvation...but the financially-vested powers that be are not gonna let that happen, either. Ppl are denied life-saving medical care in the United States, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and those who promote universal health care are railed at and maligned as "socialists".
But my point is, we have just as many evils today in modern society, as we have had in past historical eras.
Last edited by Phoenix2017; 07-15-2011 at 07:44 AM..
Reason: Typos
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