Commitment-Phobia in the First World

What follows will probably be a largely disorganized mess. I have a lot of thoughts and a lot of links that I want to present, to I'm just going to organize them by "theme" below and then sum up what I think the commonality is at the end.

Marriages and Relationships:

39% of Americans think marriage is becoming obsolete. (Compared with 28% in 1978.) To quote some stats:

"Census data reflect a declining percentage of married adults: 54% in 2010, down from 57% in 2000 and 72% in 1960.

At the same time, the median age at first marriage increased in 2010 to its highest ever — 28.2 for men and 26.1 for women, according to Census. That's up from 26.8 and 25.1 in 2000. Among those ages 25-34, the percentage of those who are married fell below unmarrieds for the first time in more than a century."

Anyhow, continuing...

A bourgeois opinion on WHY Americans think marriage is obsolete. According to this article, some experts believe that, even now, least 75% of existing marriages in the U.S. are unhappy ones.

European opposite-sex couples are increasingly going for civil unions rather than marriages. This is the "in-between" marriage on the one hand and non-romance on the other.

Casual sex is increasing in the United States.

The main source of divorce: the semi-happy marriage. Quote: "While most of the women Haag interviewed said they felt lonely in their semi-happy marriages, men told her that they felt "trapped" or "penned in." It didn't seem to matter if they married "too young" or waited until they were older; what mattered was what people expected from their marriages. And for many, the traditional blueprint that their parents followed is simply no longer a good fit." The basic problem, the article contends, is boredom in marriage. The new generation is seeking more adventure, more excitement, so argues the author of Marriage Confidential: The Post-Romantic Age of Workhorse Wives, Royal Children, Undersexed Spouses, and Rebel Couples Who Are Rewriting the Rules. We will return to this note later, so bear it in mind.


Religion:

Experts predict that organized religion will eventually go extinct in at least nine First and Second World countries. Take note of this, quote: "[The unaffiliated are] not necessarily atheists or non-believers, experts say, just people who do not associate themselves with a particular religion or house of worship at the time of the survey."

The article also (in a bizarrely skeptical fashion) describes the views of others who have long predicted the development of this trend in First World attitudes toward religion thus:

And Abrams, Wiener and Yaple are not the first to predict the end of religion.

Peter Berger, a former president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, once said that, "People will become so bored with what religious groups have to offer that they will look elsewhere."

He said Protestantism "has reached the strange state of self-liquidation," that Catholicism was in severe crisis, and anticipated that "religions are likely to survive in small enclaves and pockets" in the United States.

THE COMMON THEME: BOREDOM PRODUCES COMMITMENT-PHOBIA

So why are the populations of exploiter countries so bored that they need a constant supply of new adventures? Could it be because they have so little real work to do? And could that be because they are living off the backs of others? Hmmm.....! Yes, such (being lazy exploiters) is the basis of d0-nothingism in revolutionary circles as well, I strongly suspect. It is a parasite mentality.

...Yeah, this was probably my worst article yet. Oh well, I hope I made some interesting points anyway.