A Matter of Contract

Mellow-Drama linked to an article today by John Coleman, arguing for the privatization of marriage.

I suppose that your view on this depends on what you think the purpose of marriage is. If your view is that traditional marriage is a contractual relationship that allows for property to be divided in certain specific ways, and that's all, then privatization isn't a huge deal, because it's just contract. If you feel that traditional marriage is a social good, that the union of a man and a woman in a commited relationship and their bringing up children together is a fundamental part of basic human society, something that should be encouraged as a matter of morality, then privatization doesn't look good at all, because now marriage can mean anything. Morality is simply not a consideration of (most) contract law. I'm not sure I understood his whole argument. To be honest, I'm not sure what his argument was, other than we should call for privatization of marriage... because government will screw it up... because back in the day they used it to degrade women, among other things.

Mr. Coleman makes a reference to a quote from President Bush which ends "Self Government relies, in the end, on the governing of the self." Privatization means that instead of governing the self, we contract out the exceptions and loopholes we want. So he cheated on you, and you want out of the marriage? What if clause 12 stipulates an open relationship? Now there's NO BREACH. No breach means that if you want out, you've got to be the one to break the contract. So he's an immoral, backstabbing, lowlife scum. And now YOU have to pay HIM damages, because you a) were an idiot in love, and didn't do much negotiating in the contract, b) didn't have the negotiating power to make real changes in the contract, or who knows what?

Private contracts are not made to last forever. Marriage, however, will not survive that kind of thinking. You cannot enter a committed relationship under an escape clause. Marriage should be a committed relationship between a man and a woman. Commitment. Fidelity. Service. Love. Honor.