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But the hyper-individualists, who lack awareness of their personal intellectual limitations and think it impossible that they could learn from earlier generations, have had their task made much easier by the half-hearted resistance of the Church of England. It has allowed marriage to be so hollowed out that it is already little more than a few legal rights. Traditional marriage at its best involved accepting burdens. It was above all a lifelong commitment. If your partner became ill or disabled you had to see it through – and not walk out on them. If children emerged, as they do in most cases, you had to take full responsibility for them. And you had solemnly to swear to be sexually faithful to each other.
When divorce was based on fault, it gave partners a reason to treat each other with respect. Marriage provided a regular outlet for sexual needs. Partly for this reason and partly because children were expected to emerge except for the unlucky few, non-consummation of a marriage was a reason for annulling it. Without regular sex, some might seek their pleasures elsewhere and unwanted babies might result.
The legal rights to inherit property, and (in earlier times) to recognition in the tax system, only made sense as a package that included the heavy burdens of lifelong fidelity and dedication to your own children. Now that these obligations are so diminished, it is easy to see marriage as not more than a bundle of rights.
It was the great insight of Hayek to see that the evolution of our institutions over time was the same process that legitimises scientific knowledge. As Mill, Popper, and others also saw, the sole reason for trusting human knowledge and understanding is that prevailing ideas have so far withstood frequent attempts to refute them. So it is with traditional marriage. Many alternatives have been tried and failed. To throw it away because of a political calculation that the Conservatives will gain the votes of LGBT activists and their sympathisers is unworthy of a serious political party. But what else is to be expected of leaders who treat politics as an exercise in deploying mass advertising techniques to manipulate public opinion?
David Green is director of Civitas.
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