Bertrand Russell, writing almost a century ago about English divorce laws, wrote they are based on these assumptions
- that sexual intercourse outside marriage is sin;
- that resentment of adultery by the “innocent” party is a righteous horror of wrong-doing;
- that his resentment, but nothing else, may be rightly regarded as making a common life impossible;
- that the poor have no right to fine feelings
On women and childbearing, he writes
Very large numbers of women, when they are sufficiently free to think for themselves, do not desire to have children, or at most desire one child in order not to miss the experience which a child brings. There are women who are intelligent and active-minded who resent the slavery to the body which is involved in having children. There are ambitious women, who desire a career which leaves no time for children. There are women who love pleasure and gaiety, and women who love the admiration of men; such women will at least postpone child-bearing until their youth is past. All these classes of women are rapidly becoming more numerous, and it may be safely assumed that their numbers will continue to increase for many years to come.
What are you are thoughts on these two issues, divorce and childbearing?
Jumping through hoops should not be a requirement for a divorce.
Having children, or not, should be a personal choice, & nobody else’s business.
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I agree with you on both counts
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If Bertrand Russell’s assessment of English divorce laws is accurate, then they are exremely dated. Adultery hasn’t been grounds for divorce here for decades. In fact the only grounds for a dissolution of a marriage is living apart for at least 2 years, or if living together during the last 2 years, no single period was longer than 3 months. This is so attempts of saving the relationship do not cause delays if the attempts are unsuccessful. Perhaps the separation time could be shortened to one year, but otherwise it think we have it about right. Perhaps what is more important is how property is divided once the marriage is dissolved. Here it’s divided strictly 50/50 unless it will cause undue financial hardship to one of the parties (a very rare situation).
As to choosing to have children, it’s a personal decision only if no one else is required to help raise the child.
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On raising children, he said the burden should be on the state. For two reasons; to allow parents pursue other interests and so that the population of Europe does not fall/ stagnate
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Why don’t the poor have a right to fine feelings?
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They can’t pay.
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I’m confused
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The poor can’t afford divorce, that’s the only consideration in divorce. So they shouldn’t do anything that wold lead to divorce proceedings
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Ah. Insightful.
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I’m still confused. The cost of an aplication for a dissolution of marrige is $211.50, and if you can’t afford that you can ask the court to waive the fee. There aren’t any other costs.
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I think when Russell wrote, the Church of England had a lot of say in the affairs of men and women. I think now it must be wholly different
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Well, I got divorced cause my ex-wife was an idjit. We call that idjit-dolitry here. As for having kids, if I had to squeeze one out of me, I’d most certainly choose not to. Thus, it’s entirely up to the woman if she wants to have a kid or not. If someone doesn’t want to, it would be far better if they don’t. Many people have kids who shouldn’t. Funny that you need a license to drive, but any ding-bat couple can get together and produce another human being who will require ALL of their positive care and love if they have even half of chance of not growing up to be a ding-bat like the people who made him.
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Somehow, that all makes sense… and, it’s funny too! 😀
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There are no tests required to bring a child into the world, and this, my friend, is a tragedy.
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Mak, old bean, Bertrand Russell died almost 50 years ago. 🙂
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That your country man wrote on so many topics. If in my life I can write just on one topic as well as he did, I will be content.
ION, I haven’t seen any new offerings on your wonderful site in a long time
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Thanks Mak, just in case I wasn’t making myself clear, your opening line says, ‘Bertrand Russell, writing almost a decade ago . . .’ Yes, Russell was a fearless thinker, unafraid to change his mind over time. I’ve been reading a lot of Virginia Woolf recently, with whom he had a friendship as you may know. I’ve taken a break from putting stuff on my own site, though I like to keep contact with good folk such as yourself. John Zande seems to be doing the same, doesn’t he?
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That was such an oversight on my part since the essay was written in the war years, almost a century ago.
Yeah, it seems JZ is writing another book or mentoring a student.
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He’s ghost writing SoM’s new book: “A View From My Prison Window.” It should be out next year.
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What happened to SoM. That dude was an annoying person. I have met uncouth people, then there was SoM
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Haven’t seen him anywhere in some time. Warden must have taken away his internet privileges.
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Mr. Russell’s assessment of divorce may have been true and accurate in his day but I think divorce is less traumatic and is easier to obtain in the contemporary society. As for women and childbearing, it seems to me that more women are opting for the single motherhood route, which is fine if that is what they want.
Childbearing is an individual choice that each woman makes on her own without society, family and belief system forcing the role down her throat.
Naked hugs!
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How often do poor people divorce?
Childbearing should be indeed a personal choice. No one should be compelled to have one
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Poor people divorcing? Maybe the same proportion as the other socio-economic stations. I really don’t have any statistics to reference. That’s simply a guess.
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Well, statistically speaking, poor people do not get married as often to begin with.
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Here I was thinking the rates among them was much higher, marriage rates, that is.
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