Forced Marriage?

The government is bringing in laws to prevent forced marriages. I suppose forced marriages should not be confused with arranged marriages.

Marrying the person you actually want to marry is a relatively new thing as far as the humanity is concerned. Throughout the vast majority of civilisation, partners for one's children have been carefully selected on the basis of status, wealth, family ties, mutual alliances and the like.

When you think of it, marriage is one of the most important decisions of your children's lives - so should it be left to mere children with no experience of life to make - especially at a time when their brains are flooded with oxytocin, which alarmingly prevents them from making informed decisions and blinds them to the unsuitability of their choice? Oxytocin can make even a haddock seem a good choice of partner.

No wonder the divorce rate has shot through the roof - left to their own devices children have a habit of choosing the most unsuitable of partners for themselves, as evidenced by Western divorce rates! It's said that divorce rates among those whose marriages have been arranged are under 4%, while so-called 'love matches' have a rate of 10 times that.

Mind you, it could just be that those in arranged marriages are just too shit scared of their parents to even contemplate divorce...