The recent exposure of Congressman Weiner's juvenile behavior has resulted in a lot of discussion about marriage, much of it seemingly motivated by the desire to excuse him. Hegesias, at Ricochet.com, notes one of the more idiotic arguments:
"Humans aren't monogamous, we need to get over that," says Ken Haslam, a retired anesthesiologist who curates a library at the Kinsey Institute. "We fool around. We do! And if you don't fool around, you want to fool around."More Marriage Advice from the Media - Ricochet.com
I have never understood why this form of argumentation gets a grip when sex is at issue. Consider: “Humans aren’t honest, we need to get over that. We lie. We do! And if you don’t lie, you often want to.” Does this suddenly make you want to rethink your notions of honesty in the way that Bennett and Haslam assume you may now wish to rethink your notions of fidelity? Fill in the blank with whatever vice you like. All things evil, on some level, come naturally to human beings. And so the fact of an impulse is irrelevant, even if we grant that the impulse is universal. The question remains whether it is an impulse we ought to act on.
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