government off marriage

Marriage: Politics vs. Society:

Absent the state, the topic would likely still be controversial (or have been so at some point in the past). But that controversy, no matter how harsh, would be far less damaging to society and to society’s component parts (people).

Families, friends, entrepreneurs and mediators/arbitrators would accommodate (or not) changing societal mores over time, transmuting the controversial into the conventional (or not) bit by bit. Good ideas would eventually find widespread acceptance (or at least acceptance in easily accessible niches). Bad ideas would fade away with far less heartbreak for all involved, and for innocent bystanders.

It is the state which brings the equivalent of nuclear weapons — laws privileging some relationships and prohibiting others, both at gunpoint — to what would otherwise be a series of desultory fistfights.

Marriage has existed, in one form or another, for as long as humankind. Monogamous, (theoretically) life-long heterosexual marriage with property equality between partners is only one such form. If that form was truly superior to all conceivable others in all ways, it wouldn’t need a politician with a tin badge and a .44 Magnum to “protect” it from competing alternatives.

Government screws up everything it touches. It’s past time we told it to get its grubby hands off marriage.