[p2p-research] Intelligent People Have "Unnatural" Preferences And Values That Are Novel In...

[j.martin.pedersen]

On 04/03/10 04:28, Michel Bauwens wrote:
> who exactly in the West can still be married against their will? and where's
> the power of the Catholic Church?

Combined with protestantism, just about everywhere, embedded in that
thing called culture, self-policed by each and everyone of us, expressed
in common conceptions of sin, guilt, morality in general and, of course,
monogamy (Foucault became quite famous for related observations). Also
embedded in the political and legal systems, expressed in tax-based
incentives, for instance. All connected to the rest of the patriarchal
package deal that capitalists and church fathers have put together. Try
a mainstream romantic or drama movie about relationships to see how it
is perpetuated all the time.

Additionally, the protestant work ethics in great part drives the
economy (see Max Weber on that issue). Euro-America is thoroughly
Christian and has been socially glued by a crusade on "the other" that
has been unfolding with varying degrees of intensity for the last 1000
years - currently "concealed" in the mantra "War on Terror" and the
openly stated in rhetoric about freedom and democracy (i.e. the
capitalist gospel).

Christian power is all around us, inside us and between us.

> so essentially, for most of us, monogamy is an expression of free will,

Monogamy is not about being forced to be married or not. (Besides, what
is "free will"?)

> staying together in the absense of love of course still exists, but probably
> as a complex social calculation involving many factors ...

Monogamy is not about staying together or not, but about staying
together ONLY with one. You can remain deeply, sincerely in love with
and be fully committed to one person for your entire adult life, but
still lead a polyamorous life. What marks the difference between the two
- the moral/cultural force that divides the two (where the "other" could
take a thousand different forms, yet are kept in check by the legacy of
the church, and in fact arguments have been made that tie the rise of
the nuclear family to the rise of capitalism (see especially Silvia
Federici's "Caliban and the Witch" but also many others) - in great part
finds its origin in the christian church.

Monogamy, as derived from the church and from capitalist demands, is a
force that seeks to curb the desire to be attracted to others, causes a
tension because it forbids such attraction, which is pretty inevitable,
deems it morally wrong, incorrect behaviour, leading to internal
conflict. Divided and conquered we stand, or fall, rather. The nuclear
family - the monogamous, stable unit, which must remain stable for the
economy to be stable - is the core of reproduction (the reproductive
ciruit, if you want) in the capitalist economy.

As part of neoliberalism, moreover, christianity is on the rise in
Euro-American culture, because outsourcing of social welfare often means
that it is taken on by the church (you get help on the condition that
you go to church) and in US public policy advice and consultation the
x-tians are gaining strength, running workshops etc. (..see the work on
civil society by Max Stackhouse for proud statements of breaking down
the division of state and church in that respect).

> reading the many messages that social players send out through advertising
> etc... i.e. permanent sexual stimulation, you would rather think that
> contemporary capitalism favours multiple impermanent relationships, and that
> monogamy is a conscious counterchoice

I think this is upside down: monogamy is a culturally enforced
phenomenon, derived from religion and economic demands, and "the many
messages that social players send out through advertising" are more
likely constitutive of a reaction to that oppression, if they are at all
related in that sense. Much more probable is the simple fact that sex
sells and that it sells even better in a culture where monogamy is a de
facto (self-)enforced value, because it plays on internal conflicts etc.

- martin