At CBS, Marriage is 'Unnatural'
This is one of the most depressing things I have seen in a while. My friend Paul Wilson from Media Research Center reports on this is as a growing trend in news coverage on this issue. CBS had a panel earlier tell their audience that marriage is basically obsolete. My favorite part is when Matt Titus says this:
''Think about it. Men are supposed to run around the forest and propagate the species and do it multiple times a day. Do you think that we're supposed to be with one person for the rest of our lives? It's unnatural, and if it was the case we probably would not be sitting here right now.''
Somebody please pull the irony alarm and evacuate the building before you laugh yourself to death. Whenever someone suggests that homosexuality is "unnatural"- a view which I don't necessarily endorse- the left cries foul at the intolerance of the right. Lots of other things are probably appropriate to the term "unnatural," a term these esteemed scholars don't seem to need to define. We could include television news in the unnatural category, but somehow I don't think the folks at CBS would care that much.
More disturbing is the use of the word "supposed" I've highlighted above. Don't you see? We don't need marriage because it's supposed to restrain us from doing something we're "supposed" to be doing. Obviously since we feel very strongly motivated to do something, presumably by our genetics, then that is what we're "supposed" to be doing. This would then mean that other "natural" behaviors- they must be natural because people are apparently strongly motivated to do them- should be condoned. This would include such niceties as child abuse, rape, and murder. All they have to do is read the Wikipedia article titled "appeal to nature" to see why this doesn't make sense.
As someone who hopes one day to be lucky enough to perpetuate this ancient institution, socially constructed or not, this whole segment makes me angry in ways I can't describe fully. This is one of those things that leads me to think my invitation to western civilization's funeral got lost in the mail.
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Re: At CBS, Marriage is 'Unnatural'
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Foxman: The problem here is the idiot idea that natural is good. In nature the young, the weak, the old and the sick are killed. Poison ivy is natural; do not rub it on your face. Toad stools are natural; don't eat them. The same goes for blow fish livers (unless prepared by a skilled chef) and South American tree frogs.
The whole point of child rearing is to make the child unnatural, meaning unselfish, considerate of others.
No, monogamy is not natural; it is good. · Oct 13 at 9:39pm
A thousand thank yous for this. I have such a hard time translating when people try to sell me on something by arguing it's "natural." I have to remember -- again and again -- that they think that word speaks in favor of the thing. · Oct 14 at 12:17pm
This is a large part of the reason I posted this. The "natural = good" fallacy drives me up the wall.
Re: At CBS, Marriage is 'Unnatural'
Apparently he is actually married, and according the MRC piece, he has acknowledged that his infidelity was a low point in his marriage.
Aug '10
Re: At CBS, Marriage is 'Unnatural'
I am amazed
that people still watch CBS.
Unnatural things are called natural, even if they're dangerous.
It's dangerous to mess with marriage, as it sustains humanity.
It's dangerous to normalize sodomy, as it's practice still kills with AIDS.
It's dangerous to watch CBS, that kind of stupid can get you killed in traffic.
Aug '10
Re: At CBS, Marriage is 'Unnatural'
I find it striking that we live in a society where arguments regarding the positive good of "natural hedonism" are taken seriously. For as much as Cicero deconstructs and shows the weakness of Lucius Torquatus' arguments in De Finibus, even Lucius and other followers of Epicurean philosophy understood that a wise hedonist didn't seek "titillating fancy" as a positive good. To quote Lucius:
"The pleasure we pursue is not that kind alone which directly affects our physical being with a delightful feeling,—a positively agreeable perception of the senses; on the contrary, the greatest pleasure according to us is that which is experienced as a result of the complete removal of pain. When we are released from pain, the mere sensation of complete emancipation and relief from uneasiness is in itself a source of gratification."
A good marriage is a blessed removal of many sources of pain, and the adder of none. It removes the pain of the dreads associated with loneliness, uncertainty, despair, and mortality. A good marriage is a companionship of certainty and joy which demonstrates the beauty of life and often leads to the creation of new life.
Jun '10
Re: At CBS, Marriage is 'Unnatural'
Nathaniel Wright:
A good marriage is a blessed removal of many sources of pain, and the adder of none. It removes the pain of the dreads associated with loneliness, uncertainty, despair, and mortality. A good marriage is a companionship of certainty and joy which demonstrates the beauty of life and often leads to the creation of new life. · Oct 14 at 2:22pm
Beautiful. I wish I'd said exactly the same thing.
Jun '10
Re: At CBS, Marriage is 'Unnatural'
Mollie Hemingway, Ed. ...
I have such a hard time translating when people try to sell me on something by arguing it's "natural." I have to remember -- again and again -- that they think that word speaks in favor of the thing.
I started eating natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes...
Makes you think, doesn't it?
Jun '10
Re: At CBS, Marriage is 'Unnatural'
I remember this incident well and have told this story for years. I think it might have been on The McLaughlin Group. Mona Charon is another of our national treasures.
Edit: Please watch Dennis Prager in these videos on the subjects of marriage and on male sexuality. These are 5 minute spots from Prager University. Superb stuff. Dennis is often contacted by people who claim that he has saved their marriages because he discusses this subject so openly. He has also helped move men off the dime and show them why they should propose.
Edited on October 15, 2011 at 1:57amApr '11
Re: At CBS, Marriage is 'Unnatural'
Does Dan Savage think "natural" infidelities should be consensual? Wouldn't it be more "natural" to just run about like an animal and just rape whom - or what - ever one pleases? Asking for permission just seems like an unnatural social constraint on one's inalienable base impulses.
Good lord. And these people mock conservatives for wanting to "go back to the 1950s."
A civilized society where sniveling leftists who produce nothing of value are free to speak out in opposition to the core values of the community at large is not "natural." It only exists because others maintain an unnatural level of self control required to suppress the barbaric impulse to smack such morons upside the head.
Dec '10
Re: At CBS, Marriage is 'Unnatural'
"She (rightly) retorted that it was women, rather than marriage, that civilize men. ..."
Me n my bear ain't been civilized yet. Maybe my wife didn't have enough time.
Edited on October 15, 2011 at 5:13amAug '10
Re: At CBS, Marriage is 'Unnatural'
tabula rasa
Nathaniel Wright:
A good marriage... demonstrates the beauty of life and often leads to the creation of new life. · Oct 14 at 2:22pm
Beautiful. I wish I'd said exactly the same thing. · Oct 14 at 2:32pm
No kidding, thanks Nathaniel.
Jul '10
Re: At CBS, Marriage is 'Unnatural'
removed
Edited on October 15, 2011 at 2:44pmDec '10
Re: At CBS, Marriage is 'Unnatural'
Overeducated morons looking to rationalize hedonism possible only in a wealthy civilization. There are good biological reasons for marriage. The survival of the species requires that successive generations reach child bearing age. Marriage promotes this efficiently. While the male may be biologically driven to spread his seed liberally, the logical extreme condition absent competing biological interests is polygamy where only the strongest males coputlate. Makes for disharmony and instability not conducive to protection of the young and helpless. Furthermore, until the last hundred years or so, it was damn near impossible for single women to, particularly in large numbers, to support both themselves and their children by their own efforts. Still would be absent state subsidies. Pairing a man with a woman was and remains an efficent solution to numerous survival problems.
Sep '11
Re: At CBS, Marriage is 'Unnatural'
If you view man as just another animal of course marriage is unnatural. If you view mankind as unique and much more than simple wildlife, then an institution like marriage is consistent with raising a civilized family versus breeding.
Unnatural is expecting or trying to force equal distribution of intellect and talent. So is expecting or forcing equal representation of physical appearance in the workplace compared to the proportion seen in society at large.
Unnatural is expecting people to work equally hard while watching larger proportions of their income be confiscated.
The appeal to the "natural" is looking selective. Progressivism is unnatural and seems to me to be utterly dependent on coercion.