Objectivist marriage vow
2002-12-16 01:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
archershipshttp://victoria.tc.ca/int-grps/books/techrev/bkatshrg.rvw
From Robert M. Slade's review of Atlas Shrugged:
"Marriage vows in an objectivist church would probably run along the
lines of "Do you promise to attempt to dominate and subdue this woman
until such time as you grow bored?" "Maybe." "Close enough. And do
you promise to applaud this man`s production until such time as you
find someone with a bigger ... corporation?" "Whatever." "By the
power vested in me by having scammed you guys out of a marriage
license fee, I now pronounce you man and appendage. May you be
unencumbered by small persons."
From Robert M. Slade's review of Atlas Shrugged:
"Marriage vows in an objectivist church would probably run along the
lines of "Do you promise to attempt to dominate and subdue this woman
until such time as you grow bored?" "Maybe." "Close enough. And do
you promise to applaud this man`s production until such time as you
find someone with a bigger ... corporation?" "Whatever." "By the
power vested in me by having scammed you guys out of a marriage
license fee, I now pronounce you man and appendage. May you be
unencumbered by small persons."
no subject
Date: 2002-12-15 11:16 pm (UTC)On a more serious note, for real-life wedding vows written by near-Oists, there's always ours (http://www.livejournal.com/talkpost.bml?journal=sheeplass&itemid=457051). (Friends-protected post.) It was rather tricky trying to write a wedding ceremony that did not once mention any supernatural being without freaking out our more religious relatives. It was totally successful, though, and worth it.
no subject
Date: 2002-12-15 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-12-16 07:22 am (UTC).
Date: 2002-12-16 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-12-15 11:39 pm (UTC)On the other hand, his points about her view of sex is right on. I've always suspected that Rand projected her... um... personal preferences onto all women as a moral imperative.
no subject
Date: 2002-12-16 07:04 am (UTC)That's hilarious.
no subject
Date: 2002-12-16 12:10 pm (UTC)But I don't believe a defiant statement is helpful, I only wanted to focus on the positive. To give myself a theme, I looked at the tradition of marriage, and asked: If not the traditional reasons, why? And what are the values people traditionally get from marriage?
I decided that, historically, we are at a critical juncture for relationships and marriage. Our desire for a long-term, monogamous marriage has powerful physiological origins that we are not going to overthrow anytime soon. And our scientific investigation into what makes relationships work and fail is just beginning to take off. The theme of my speech became: we are beginning to develop the knowledge of how to succeed in the relationships which we are designed for; we have tremendous promise of hope for a happy, healthy, fulfilling marriage.
And my friends, specifically, are a wonderful couple. I honestly believe they met, fantastically, most if not all of the criteria we can look at to personify what makes a marriage work. So that's what I gave my speech on: We are beginning to understand what makes marriage work; this guidance gives us hope and means for realizing personal happiness; and reflecting on what we know about the psychology of relationships, and what I know of my friends, this is a wonderful marriage.
I felt the strategy and conception of the speech were right on. It was secular, inspiring, optimistic, benevolent, personalized, and gave the strongest justification for marriage that I can imagine; it seems to me the optimal path for any musing in support of marriage.
no subject
Date: 2002-12-16 12:17 pm (UTC)John Gottman's The 7 Principles for Making Marriage Work
and
Passionate Marriage: Love, Sex, and Intimacy in Emotionally Committed Relationships by David Schnarch
no subject
Cheers!