Many people assume that polygamy ought to be illegal. Even the United States Supreme Court (in a notorious nineteenth-century case involving Mormons, who fled populated areas to practice their religious beliefs in their frontier community) has upheld the constitutionality of laws prohibiting polygamy. Paul Gross notes in his article that true libertarians oppose antipolygamy laws, just as they do other nonvictim 'crimes.'

Of course, merely to advocate that consensual adult conduct (e.g., gambling, prostitution, etc.) should not be subject to criminal-law sanctions is not to be confused with either the advocacy of engaging in such conduct, or support for the moral propriety of such conduct.

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Utilizing in his discussion well-known characters from Ayn Rand's magnum opus, ATLAS SHRUGGED, Gross offers a provocative analysis of the morality, and practical problems, of the polygamous marriage.

In many libertarian circles the novels of Roberts Heinlein and Rimmer have gained considerable popularity—partly because both authors take rationalist-libertarian ideas seriously, and partly because both are literary Romanticists who use solid plots and themes and portray life 'as it might be and ought to be.' And, just possibly, because some libertarians are intrigued by the idea that monogamy may not be the only morally proper system of marriage.

In PROPOSITION 31 [1] Robert Rimmer eloquently makes the point that antipolygamy laws create 'crimes' without victims. This goes over very well with all true libertarians, who philosophically are in favor of legalizing polygamous marriages. Their reasoning is: just as people should be free to mess up their own lives with liquor or gambling or drugs, so they should be free to mess them up with polygamy.

Whether or not a person can rationally and morally choose to practice polygamy is another question, to date unanswered. To answer it is the purpose of this article.

POLYGAMY FEELS RIGHT

Strangely enough, the principle which gives a moral and rational basis to polygamy was perhaps best stated by a staunch monogamist, Ayn Rand. In ATLAS SHRUGGED, she wrote:

'Francisco, I did love you—' [Dagny] said, and caught her breath, shocked, realizing that…this was not the tense she had wanted to use.

Anna Lebaron The Polygamist Daughter

'But you do,' [Francisco] said calmly, smiling. 'You still love me—…I'm still what I was, and you'll always see it, and you'll always grant me the same response, even if there's a greater one that you grant to another man. No matter what you feel for him, it will not change what you feel for me, and it won't be treason to either, because it comes from the same root, it's the same payment in answer to the same values.' [2]

Consider the implications of this: Emotions, including love and sexual desire, are the result of each man's basic value-premises. They are the automatic response he makes to particular values on the basis of their perceived position in his hierarchy of basic values. [3] (I distinguish between basic and particular values thusly: basic values are abstractions—qualities such as rationality, independence, self-esteem, etc. Particular values are the actual people or entities one values.)

But if one's responses to particular values are derived exclusively from abstract, basic values, then one will necessarily respond in the same way to all the particular values that one perceives to equally meet the terms of the abstraction, the basic value.

Thus there is no interference between what a man feels for one person and what he feels for another, because he responds to the same values of character in both of them. In short, it is psychologically possible for one person to be deeply and romantically in love with two others (or more) at the same time.

BUT… Once his basic values are chosen, a man's emotions are set. He has no further choice of which particular values he will emotionally respond to. From then on, his only alternative to responding to all particular examples of his basic values is repression, or some other mental sleight-of-hand, which will usually give him such a host of new problems that he may no longer notice the original one. [4] But assuming that a man is bright enough to face his desires openly, his real problem is to decide whether or not the desire he feels is worthy of achievement.

Emotions and desires are not in themselves reasons for engaging in the behavior that satisfies them, nor are they proof that it is in one's actual self-interest that they be satisfied. Emotions motivate behavior, but they are not tools of thought with which to judge the wisdom of the behavior they motivate. Only the faculty of reason can judge that.

Thus to determine whether or not polygamy is morally proper, it is necessary to look beyond the natural desire for it, to see if it is in fact desirable.

POLYGAMY, PRO AND CON

Polygamy does have certain obvious advantages: In the event of the death of one spouse, it offers increased financial and emotional security—which is particularly advantageous for the elderly and for children. It offers opportunities for increased division of labor within the family and per capita reduction of expenses like homes, cars and home appliances. Best of all, polygamy offers a variety of intellectual, emotional and physical contacts, through which needs left unsatisfied by one spouse may be met by another.

On the less rosy side of the picture, polygamy entails increased opportunity for personality conflicts: all the squabbles, major and minor, that beset monogamous marriages will be multiplied. Social ostracism or hostility from monogamist parents, friends, employers—and Big Brother—will be a special handicap to pioneer polygamists. Even their own children may put pressure on the marriage, when taunted for the way their parents live. Polygamists who have been raised by monogamous parents are likely to find sharing their spouse uncomfortable: the biases learned in childhood are strong and pervasive. Polygamy also raises questions to which there are no ready-made, culturally tested answers: Who has the right to discipline which children? Who sleeps with whom? Who is responsible for those bills? Who takes out the garbage? (Oh my God!) These questions are hardly insoluble—but they must be solved. And solving them without experience or guidance won't be easy. [5]

But at worst all the problems mentioned above present only contextual obstacles to polygamy—not inherent moral problems. That is; for specific people in a specific social situation, one or more such problems may make polygamy unworkable—but the obstacles may be eliminated by such measures as moving to a more permissive neighborhood, or learning to recognize—and eliminate—one's psychological hang-ups. Such problems do not affect the basic morality—or immorality—of polygamy.

INHERENT PROBLEMS?

The one essential quality that differentiates monogamy and polygamy is the exclusive intimacy granted to one's partner in monogamy. A polygamist may have the highest moral standards in his choice of marital partners—but his love is not the exclusive property of anyone.

Thus the one basic moral question which must be answered to determine the ethical standing of polygamy, per se, is this: Does one person's sharing of intellectual, emotional and sexual intimacy with two or more other people logically entail any conflict of interests among them?

I have heard two different arguments used to answer this question 'yes,'

The Polygamist&#39;s Daughter PDF Free Download

The Polygamist's Daughter PDF Free Download