Search

Friday, March 29, 2013

Stop worrying so much about what other people do...

Location: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
It's been a bit since I gave an update, but I wanted to take a moment to rant.

Something that I find terribly disconcerting in US culture is the increasing imposition of arbitrary morality on the population.  I say this thinking about gay marriage, but this phenomenon can be seen in many aspects of our culture.

To lay a foundation for this it is important to be able to objectively view the issue.  By granting gay couples the right to marry you have not removed any rights from anyone.  Straight couples still enjoy the same rights as they always have.  So you are effectively increasing the rights of the entire culture without impacting the existing rights afforded to all.

By denying gay couples the right to marry you also preserve the rights of straight couples to marry but you deny those rights to gay couples.  So comparing the two outcomes you have an outcome that increases rights, and an outcome that restricts them.  It is important to remind everyone that our country was founded on this idea of personal liberty and freedom, granted by right to all, the same rights in question, the freedom for two people to choose to marry.

So which country are we?  The country that embraces freedom and liberty for all, or the country that likes freedom and liberty, as long as it's not too unpopular?

I personally think it is our duty to protect the rights of freedom for all people, despite our own personal views of them.  I disagree with lots of people, but I would defend with my life their right of everyone to live their lives as they see fit, and I will continue to rage against those who attempt to impose their will on others.  Don't like gay people?  Then don't associate with them.  It's really a simple tactic that has been working for people for thousands of years.

I use gay marriage as an example because it is current, but this phenomenon of imposing our beliefs on others around us pervades many aspects of our culture, and I think it harms us.  If people stopped worrying about what other people are doing and spent that time working on themselves I think we would be much closer to a utopia.