Social change is a comp­licated phenomenon. It is weird. Because it brings in its wake an erosion of val­ues you’d have liked to preserve. It is frightening. Because it doesn’t move an inch the system you wish to wipe out.

Why does a society cling so stubbornly to cumbersome, decadent customs while los­ing grip on norms tangible and functional? Does this show a deep malaise, a tendency towards self-destruction?

Perhaps it does. I see no other explanation of the almost pathological perseverance and archaic glorification of the customs that go with marriage.

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