Same-sex marriage vow

The recent vote in Australia on same-sex marriage demonstrates the point that you cannot depend on the masses for sanity in this world. It also makes the point that politicians will do anything to buy votes and politicians cannot be depended on to lead us to improve the mental health of society. Yes, whoever said that “The voice of the people is the voice of God” in my mind must have been a politician.

You see, I have nothing against same-sex marriage. Yes, as far as I’m concerned, same-sex couples should have the same privileges as heterosexual couples. But they should use a different tag for their join. Why? Because the way we use words in our mind has a direct effect on our mental health and the way we feel.

The word “marriage” implies the union of a man and a woman. If we include same-sex couples in this definition, we are redefining marriage and creating a contradiction. Now, contradiction is always bad for our sanity. It distorts our perceptions. It is like a bug in the computer program that causes the program to crash.

Let me explain how words affect our perceptions.

Now everyone knows what the word “accident” means. It is an unhappy event that can happen to anyone at any time and in any place, no matter how much care and precaution is taken. In fact, it is never a preventable event when it occurs. Therefore, all accidents are unavoidable. However, in hindsight, all accidents are preventable.

So when we use the term “preventable accident”, the words instantly distort our perceptions. And we can respond with ‘You shouldn’t have done that’. However, the person who was involved in the accident knows that they should not have done it and is left with the consequences. It really was an accident.

Let me give you another example in today’s society of how the word ‘self-regulation’ has corrupted and distorted the perceptions of physicians and other professionals to include regulation of oneself on behalf of the government or some other higher authority. In my mind, self-regulation means regulating oneself from within without outside help or coercion. How can someone protect their own professional interest if they are going to work for an outside body that does their dirty work for them? Clearly there is a conflict of interest involved. It’s a mentally ill role of Porky Pig selling pork chops and pork sausages on behalf of the government. Do you consider it an acceptable position?

Therefore, can I appeal to all my scholarly and political friends that if they care about improving the mental health of society, they will not create any more contradictions? Why not use a different etiquette for same-sex marriage and I am sure most will have no objection to what you are proposing.