[UUPoly-L] [RE] By the way...

["Desmond Ravenstone" <gentlemonster@lycos.com>]

   I just think a lot of polyamorists have blinders on when it comes to how
   big

   a change multi-partner marriage would be for our society. In fact, it's a

   new structure that our society is just not adapted to manage. While our

   society can certainly adapt to accomodate multi-partner marriage, to do so

   with reasonable control over the human and financial costs of the change

   will require planning and hard work--politically, legally, and socially. I

   just haven't seen that kind of planning or hard work happen yet. So I
   don't

   take the legalization of multi-partner marriage that seriously, yet.

   In my book "The Principled Libertine" I suggested that state-issued
   marriage licences be replaced by details contracts, which can then be
   registered/recorded in much the same way as a will.

   Most people would rely on the same general template for a marriage
   contract, much as many people today rely on a template form to draft a
   simple will. Different marital arrangements - including but not limited to
   open, plural and trial marriages - would have suitable adjustments in the
   contractual arrangements.

   Most importantly, the power of the state would be curtailed. Instead of
   government officials telling people whom they can marry (gender or number)
   and for how long, partners could determine for themselves, and government
   could only intervene when they could establish an overriding concern
   (principally when one party is being coerced).

   Desmond Ravenstone

   ********************

   http://www.lulu.com/gentlemonster
   http://www.myspace.com/desmond_ravenstone

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