Social revolution in the wrong direction

[elfs]

"If we give gays the right to marry, what's next, polygamy?" A common refrain here in the U.S. from those who are opposed to both. Interestingly, the United Nations was recently asked by several member countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands to extend employment benefits to same-sex partners recognized by those countries.

Naturally, this has prompted an explosion. Both Islamic and Vatican-inspired states have objected strenuously. But you'll never hear the polygamy refrain coming from these people.

The U.N. already recognizes polygamy.

[EDIT: It's the Washington Post, not the New York Times.]

Comments

Re: Excuse Me!

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I disagree. For all the socialization that occurs among human beings, a lot of who we are and what we like, as men, as women, is seriously hard-wired. (You're welcome to disagree but if you do so you'll be playing into the anti-gay "it's a choice" meme full-time.) From 130,000 years ago until 7,000 years ago, the case as I've laid it out was more or less the norm, the only real pattern for human relationships: polygamy, a strong leader, a small tribe, constant battles against the environment and neighbors. The instincts formed by those who survived through those 8,000-odd generations of human are still with us today; the 300 or so since then have barely begun to change us.

Legalized polygamy (as opposed to social polyamory) would be a step backwards in the evolution of civilization.

Monogamy is a conspiracy among powerful men to affect the fortunes of lower-class men: to pacify them in peacetime and to make effective warriors of them in times of war. In a monogamous society, the lower classes, when they have to go to war, do so with meticulous forethought and utter brutality: they have something to lose if they don't, and comparatively little to gain for battle in the first place.

Legalized polygamy undoes this conspiracy. As much as I admire Flying_Pegasus's success, most women in her condition would much rather have someone look after them. Have this happen enough and you have a shiftless, rootless, desperate population of lower-class men. What happens next is uncomfortably well-documented.