I gave more thought to the set up of marriage as an institution. With its rules of play having shaped much of society, relationships, and, therefore, the family structure. And because there are lots of changes afoot, people talk of a simpler time. Before the ‘nuclear’ family and household was, for want of a better term, blown up. But even that does not appear to be what we thought it was. Basing the ideal of it around our present rules and laws.

And these days, the news is pretty constant about sexual crimes, quite disgusting and abhorrent crimes, littering the news. So, one must consider the mentality of what feeds into that and the social landscape that facilitates it. Or, in the current case, imports it, pays for it, and pretends to ignore it. Something to Consider discussing certain angles on that. And I can see why people might look back to what appeared to be a more ordered time when it came to being ‘catered for’ by society.

A few points of interest around this subject I think are relevant –

Age of consent – in the UK between 1275 and 1875 it was 12, as talked about in my article A Prime Choice. Where it seems outrageous to us now, but was made normal in law for 600 hundred years, and I would have thought took a certain amount of adjustments to change that mindset. If they ever did.

Restrictions of finances – from 1882, women were allowed to own their own earnings and property, but not until 1975 were they allowed to apply for bank accounts, loans or mortgages without their husbands signature, therefore his authority was required until then. It still wasn’t until 1990 in the UK that married women were then allowed to do their own tax returns.

Italy – rules about marrying your rapist didn’t change until 1981. This one is crazy, and I was shocked to learn that it was their tradition. To make a victim marry their rapist in order to restore ‘honour’ to the family and society. Not until 1965 did someone upset that apple cart and refuse to marry their attacker. It caused quite a stir and eventually led to a change in the law around that, as you can see, that still took sixteen years to happen.

UK – until 1991, rape couldn’t exist within marriage because a wife wasn’t allowed to say no. The law had already said yes.

So, it does seem quite odd to seek to add to the population of the UK, but with those of a mentality more aligned with our previous times. But without the manners, etiquette, or civility that was made to go along with our ‘Victorian’ attitudes. Which, all in all, can not help but play a part in Leading to a State of Mind and state of society. As well as perhaps all the other vices that have been introduced and made so readily available. More Than Pain Gets Killed and Robotic Affection being just two ideas of things may be adding an extra layer of suppression or confusion.

With both conditioning and ‘entertainment’ having already paved the way for much of it, and Social Status and stigmas being used to reinforce much else, there are even stranger mentalities to contend with it seems than ever before. At all levels of society and with a will to rule over others. It really does seem as though we are the whim of madmen and mercenaries, and from what we apparently know of the past, we always were…

(c) MKW Publishing