Want more chaos and destruction? Back no-fault divorce
The nuclear family (especially when bound at the top by marriage) is hated by the Left because it is based upon two conservative principles; authority and hierarchy.
The nuclear family (especially when bound at the top by marriage) is hated by the Left because it is based upon two conservative principles; authority and hierarchy.
This institution, as the foundation of society, is far more important than other institutions which relate to, say, law and order or education; without it, all other institutions become obsolete.
It is through the family that we first learn what authority and hierarchy are, and that we are moulded into individual social beings. If we cannot understand what hierarchy and authority are in the home first, it is forced upon us by the state later.
Ironically, those who support “no-fault” divorce are those who are obsessed with equality. Yet, if equality is pursued in the place of authority, then destroying the little esteem left for marriage will have precisely the opposite effect. Destroying marriage permanently will increase inequality.
An ongoing longitudinal study in the USA, called the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, has followed the lives of around 5,000 children of “fragile families” found, for example, that these children were twice as likely to drop out of secondary school before completion, even when economic factors were accounted for.
Note that these “fragile families” were not only children with just one parent in the home, but also those whose two parents were not married, and so were less likely to remain together whilst raising children (however much the state tries to convince us otherwise, with the use of the term ‘partners’ instead of ‘husband’ and ‘wife’).
Boris Johnson’s attempt to further extend the ease of pursuing “no-fault” divorces is nothing short of disgraceful; it destroys not only conservative values but actual life chances.
And even worse, those who will benefit are precisely those who shouldn’t: men who would rather abandon their setup on a whim than raise their children (women do it too, but it is, of course primarily men, or they have custody of their children forcefully removed from them by judges who side with mothers regardless of who is responsible for ending that marriage); greedy divorce lawyers that have finally got what they have devoted years lobbying for; and, of course, the ‘Big State’ that must sustain single-parent families, often requiring welfare state support that society must pay for through heavy taxation.
The above is not meant as a judgement on personal circumstances, the anger must be directed at those at the top who encourage this state of affairs and actively promote it, as Boris Johnson has done with his calls to make no-fault divorces easier to attain.
The events of the last weekend, seeing monuments of our past age defaced and destroyed, show exactly what happens when authority and hierarchy are no longer valued. What replaces our formation by these conservative notions is the unfamiliar, unsettled cycle of ‘progress’, and the longing for something more that is never quite attained.
This cycle of ‘progress’ can never end, with a new battle to be won always in its march, and so everyone is deprived of the stability that comes from a conservative society.
The state’s contempt for marriage, which Boris Johnson seeks to advance, is the antithesis of conservatism. Boris Johnson has ditched the stability of the family and conservative values in favour of radical ideas of ‘progress’. The selfish and the greedy win, and everyone else loses.
