Against Marriage

Some people argue that homosexuals should not be allowed to marry. That a marriage between a man and a man or a woman and a woman will bring down our society. We can’t know if they really love each other. We can’t know where to draw the line for “marriage” as defined by the government. We don’t want our children knowing about these couples, or seeing them having sex on the street corner.

I argue that these people don’t go far enough. It’s not a question of who should be married. It’s a question of “should we marry at all?”

The Question of “Love”

Marriage was originally intended to be a sacred union between a man and a woman who loved each other. When the government begins to get involved, marriage becomes an encouragement to act immorally.

Think about it. We have no way of knowing whether a man and woman actually are in love. We have no way (short of brain scans and the like) of knowing whether they are faking it, or whether the feelings are genuine. Furthermore, the feelings might -appear- genuine, but -actually- be fake. We can’t know if two individuals are in love, so we will have to take their word when they say that they love each other.

We obviously stumble upon problems here. If government grants special recognition to married couples, they will probably also grant special benefits to said couples. How do we know that the individuals are not going into a marriage solely for these government benefits? We don’t! We have to take their word for it, and as we all know, words are flimsy things people toss around on a whim. “I love you” never quite means what it does in the movies… and even in movies (especially in film noir, or in books like The Maltese Falcon), “I love you” is a sign of manipulation and deceit. Better not to give benefits to married couples. Or, better yet, simply don’t marry them at all.

And why should people be treated differently if they love each other anyway? Is that not a form of discrimination?

Ah, but how about those people who marry for money? Should they not be allowed to marry either? Surely not! Obviously, with one individual richer than another, there can be no other reason besides money that the two would wed! Money is the only empirical evidence behind their union, so it is necessarily the reason for their marriage.