In America today, it’s easy to believe that marriage is a social good that our lives and our communities are better when more people get and stay married. There have, of course, been massive changes to the institution over the past few generations, leading the occasional cultural critic to ask if is marriage becoming obsolete?
More often the question functions as a kind of rhetorical sleight of hand, a way of stirring up moral panic about changing family values or speculating about whether society has become too cynical for love.
More often the question functions as a kind of rhetorical sleight of hand, a way of stirring up moral panic about changing family values or speculating about whether society has become too cynical for love.
In popular culture, the sentiment still prevails that marriage makes us happy and divorce leaves us lonely, and that never getting married at all is a fundamental failure of belonging.
What is lost by making marriage the most central relationship in a culture?
When a couple talk about whether or not they want to get married, friends tend to assume that they are trying to decide whether or not they are “serious” about the relationship.
But many aren't expressing doubts about the relationship; many are doubting the institution itself.
But many aren't expressing doubts about the relationship; many are doubting the institution itself.
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