Thursday, September 29, 2005

Already?

This is where liberalism gets you. Last Friday, the first ever civil union between a threesome took place in the Netherlands.

Viktor de Bruijn "married" two women in a ceremony before a notary who officially registered their civil union. At the moment, only a civil union rather than a marriage is recognised, but who knows when this will change.

Viktor described the events thus: "A marriage between three persons is not possible in the Netherlands, but a civil union is. We went to the notary in our marriage costume and exchanged rings. We consider this to be just an ordinary marriage."

It was only a year ago that I wrote an item on Alastair Nicholson, the very respectably liberal former chief justice of the Family Court of Australia. In arguing for homosexual marriage, Nicholson claimed that the traditional understanding of marriage had been superseded, to the point that "it is difficult to argue that a modern marriage necessarily excludes all others."

Once you begin to see marriage as any kind of arrangement which individuals contract to, there is no logical reason to limit it to two people - so it seems inevitable that liberal societies will move toward a recognition of polygamy. I just didn't think it would happen so quickly.

The lesson? We should think very carefully before moving from a traditional view of marriage as an exclusive union between a man and woman. Once marriage becomes liberalised into nothing more than a state sanctioned contract between individuals it loses its particular character and begins to take any form - including a polygamous one.

4 comments:

  1. I still fail to see what exactly is wrong with that.

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  2. I'm with you, Karena. The state should not mandate civil unions based on religious ethics... let the churches decide whom they will marry, in the eyes of the law, an consenting adult should be able to marry any other consenting adult.

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  3. Hurrah for liberalism. And libertarianism. And personal freedom. And love. And bald guys. And redheads (plural)! And freedom of choice, religion, and from state sanctioned oppression or favoritism.

    We *all* deserve the right to marry the person(s) we love. Period.

    It ain't "conservative" to want to control or impose your point of view on another, when that other person's actions in no way harm you or anyone else.

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  4. I believe, that the state has no right in interefering in the personal relationship of consenting adults. What adults do in their bedroom is their personal business.

    However I think twice before modifying an extablished institution having a legal and societal basis. What next ? Recognise unions between Humans and pets ?

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