Good Morning--Today's Question:
I have been thinking for some time that Monogamy in sexual/familial relationships is a key principle of any moral system...with all the many traditional values and standards being debated these days--where does Monogamy stand? Will it soon be seen by many in the USA as unfairly restrictive? Will there be any moral system that upholds it? What is the future of Monogamy?
Comments
There are both plays and films that in various ways advocate "menages a trois" or even more "open" relationships. My own reaction to all I've seen is that they gloss over an essential selfishness that motivates the "openness." And they also fail to treat their subject realistically. Certainly some would accuse me of approaching the issue with my own biases, and of course we all do that. Nevertheless, I still think I may be seeing something people who'd suggest monogamy may be too rigid are missing.
Getting back to the larger point, however, I agree that the "freedom" rhetoric is permissive rather than liberating, and that the erosion of social absolutes has the negative effect of "everything is okay" - when we can see that, in effect, it is not, or open relationships would have swept the world by now.