Salient. Special. Vol. XVII, No. 17. September 1st, 1953
Marriage
Marriage.
A minority among us can find standards, not ready made, but inherent in our religious principles To this group I shall return later. Most of us are guided by little more than social convention, family background personal inhibition and our innate sense of decency. How far do they get us? I don't know. I believe that, religious principles apart, nothing but sound common sense based on adequate knowledge of sex and of the needs of society will give any Individual an adequate solution. The knowledge of sex required is more than technical physiological data, but involves an understanding of the physical, emotional and psychological effect of sexual relationships on members of ones own and the other sex. Such knowledge will. I believe, confirm our instinctive belief, that puritanism. i.e. virtual abstention through repression, is likely to lead to more harm than good. It will also show us that complete license is disastrous from more than one point of view. There is a middle way we must determine for ourselves. Personal factors aside, a knowledge of social needs in our community will teach us to respect the insatution of marriage. When we do consider personal factors, that respect will be strengthened. The Communists tried to abolish marriage after the revolution as un-natural, but soon learnt their error. And so in our personal conduct we must set in such a way that marriage is safeguarded; those of us who are married by making a success of our marriage (the "how" of which is not within the scope of this article) and those who are not by doing everything to prepare for a round marriage, and nothing to disrupt its future basis, in society or between two people.