Quote:
Originally Posted by Still Growing  To create change you have to have a mass awareness of a problem first before people are ready to focus on creating real solutions. |
I would agree. And after reading everything you've said, I still don't have any awareness of there being a problem,* I don't see masses of people being convinced and inspired by your arguments; I don't see any intelligent and convincing arguments by individuals or "the media," I don't hear too many people clamoring for government-institutionalized marriage to be abolished in favor of privatization, and I can't see where compassion is needed for anyone *suffering* from the problem of G.I.M. Who knows, maybe a trickle will become a stream, and two years from now people will look around and wonder how we could have kept such an archaic tradition in place for so long. It seems unlikely, but it's possible!
I just think arguing against having a choice in place (people who enjoy G.I.M., and prefer it to a privatized version) is a good way to create resistance against whatever merit your idea may have. That's why I, and others, I think, were suggesting that it might be more effective to be the change you want to see, and allow old, outdated traditions to die out simply by not participating in them -- or to get better at convincingly presenting the "problem" and inspiring solution.
Not that I'm saying you should stop pushing for the change you want -- I don't care about that. I'm just not interested in reducing choice, and you don't seem interested in the idea that for many people, G.I.M. is a preferred choice (I don't happen to be one of them, by the way, but I'm still pro-choice.) I say that because you argue that people could STILL choose to get married, it just wouldn't be the marriage that they know -- but that ignores the preference of so many people to be able to choose marriage as they know it -- warts and all. As I mentioned, I like MORE choice -- old, outdated ones that don't work anymore tend to fall by the wayside as folks notice they don't work well anymore. But for lots and lots of people, the kind of marriage you'd like to see abolished still works well for them, just as it is.
In fact, it works well for you and your wife, doesn't it? You haven't abolished G.I.M. in your own life, and reverted to a private arrangement, have you?
*except for your problem, of course -- that you want marriage to be other than what it is.