I'm not sure what to make of this whole polygamy issue in Bountiful, B.C. A big part of me thinks it's a complete non-issue. If you're nuts enough to want be part of some baseball hat wearing, fat guy's harem, knock yourself out. These women, as far as I understand it are all of legal age. If there's coercion involved or abuse of any kind then yes, certainly, shut the idiots down. But I've not seen any evidence to that effect. I see lots of evidence of dumb, plenty of weird, but no danger to anyone. B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal, who has made this his crusade, has said "most right-thinking Canadians consider polygamy intolerable". Not me. I can tolerate it just fine as long as nobody is harming anyone. Do I think it's ridiculous? Absolutely. Do I find most religious sects a trifle looney, certainly. But I'm not about to lock anyone up for making choices, however weird, that do not seem to be harming anyone. There are plenty of monogamists out there abusing the hell out of their spouses and children but no one is outlawing monogamy. Polygamy is just an idea. It's not any more inherently evil than Long Hair or wearing a Hijab.
I think many things are against the law because the world would be a mess if a lot of people did it.
I'm not sure it would be a good social experiment to allow a few generations of polygamy. I can imagine it would change society immeasurably and I can only see it being for the bad. Any I think there are two reasons why. One is all the leftover dance partners since ratios are roughly a 50:50 split. The leftovers become radicals. Show me a country with polygamy that has done well for itself. The second reason plays into the first. How much quality dad time is Jimmy number 16 getting? Particularly when Greg number 4 beat the crap out of him because Dad spends scores more time with about 35 other siblings. Tell me a descent number of those kids wouldn't be better off with a father instead of a stud service. The charges should be polygamy and child neglect. Want polygamy? I would say alright if sterilization was part of the cult initiation. Freedom of religion has it limits just like any other freedom, snip.
Posted by: Tom Pike | January 09, 2009 at 10:14 PM
I have to agree. They spend piles of dough catching this guy, for what? We cannot legislate a better world. Humans are weird and most of what we applaud is only what we have been programmed to endorse. I know, I am a recovering fundamentalist. And I venture to ask, who could survive more than one wife? Proof positive the guys a glutton for punishment!
Posted by: Ron Potter | January 09, 2009 at 02:23 PM
How about the effect on the children, the many, many children of polygamous relationships? We decry absentee-fatherism in other social groupings but make no comment on spreading one father out over ten breeding pods? What about the environment? After all, there's only one form of polution on Earth and that's us -simply because we create all other forms of polution save for bear stool in the woods. So, what polygamy does is ten-times the whole human race. And Neil, honestly, you see no harm in this? Party on, man...
Posted by: Daniel J. Christie | January 08, 2009 at 07:29 PM