AN EFFECT, NOT THE CAUSE:

THE WINDOW WAS BROKEN IN THE 1960s (George Jonas, February 7, 2005, National Post)

In a recent column, Barbara Kay extends the "broken window" theory of crime to a discussion of marriage. The concept, originally devised by social theorists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling -- and later popularized in Malcolm Gladwell's 2000 bestseller, The Tipping Point -- looks at the relationship between major crime and minor disorder. Breaking the window of a seemingly abandoned car turns it into a derelict, so that a vehicle no one touched for weeks is stripped clean within hours.

"Gay marriage is that broken window," writes Ms. Kay. "Continuing vandalism will see marriage abolished altogether."

Assuming that the Wilson-Kelling epidemic theory of crime can be usefully stretched to cover marriage, is gay marriage the broken window? I propose to argue it isn't. The "window" was smashed a long time ago, and the wreck has been vandalized ever since. The doors, the seats, the wheels and the engine were long gone before gay and lesbian couples started eyeing the hood ornament.

The Canadian state views marriage the way the Chinese state views the meditational exercise Falun Gong (except the Chinese state is more honest.) Marriage creates the family, and the family -- a quasi-autonomous institution, with its own ties, loyalties, and legal immunities -- competes with the state. Limited government can coexist with it, but the family is always at risk in societies of unlimited government. The 20th century brought unlimited -- or at least intrusive or interventionist -- government to many societies. As we entered an era of statism, the family became embattled.

Under crude forms of statism, such as Soviet-type systems, the institution was emasculated by edict. Church sacraments were discouraged. Spouses were pressured to divorce politically unsuitable mates. Children were conscripted to spy on their parents and denounce them to the authorities.

Under more sophisticated models, such as the welfare-statism of the West,
the family was decreed anachronistic. The state supported trends that viewed marriage as stifling and confining, and particularly oppressive to women. Governments funded studies and lobby groups to undermine family values. Bureaucracies offered substitute services for functions traditionally performed by
families. Statist theorists pitted Western virtues, such as individualism, along with universal vices, such as hedonism, against family obligations. Eventually the state all but declared men to be anti-social, and appointed itself as the protector of women and children. This had the effect of depriving the family of one of its main reasons for being.

The initial device used to destroy the family was probably divorce reform.
It was the state's call for "civilized divorce" in the 1960s that served as the "broken window" leading to the vandalization of marriage.

No point stopping gays from ruining marriage if we straights aren't willing to repair the damage already done.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 14, 2005 12:00 AM