For Better, For Worse

Hello, apologies for my absences this week - it all got just too much. But back to work now - here is what I hope will be a helpful little resource or snippet.

I found this material on the Open University/BBC site - Open2.net - well worth a look - they have some great stuff.

This particular article is has some interesting background/context material about how the legal system has tackled divorce. I’m sure pre-nuptial agreements have been in the media elsewhere this week?

There are some good links here - including a discussion of the French system - good - sociology students need to look at comparative data.

Given the background in this article and the high profile of pre-nuptial agreements, I think it’s worth thinking about whether the Marxists aren’t right after all. Not in terms of the standard points trotted out in every A level text. No, I’m thinking of the idea that in capitalist society, everything is turned into a commodity.

Isn’t that what pre-nups actually do? Put a value on the marriage (or the partners participation) and then make it into a legally binding contract?

Isn’t this rather a sad state of affairs? Or would a cool, logical, functional approach be better? That is, just to see it as an inevitable and necessary outcome of the increase of individual freedom - the freedom to divorce.

Discuss.