June – July 2022
Line marriage is a multigenerational marriage which can last for centuries as young people opt in and older people pass on.
Line marriage is the strongest possible device for conserving capital and ensuring the welfare of children – the two basic societal functions for marriage everywhere – in an environment in which there is no security, neither for capital nor for children, other than that devised by individuals. Line marriage is a remarkably successful invention to that end.
A line marriage has the advantages or financial security, the fine home life it gives children, they simply could not be orphaned.
Line Marriage as presented in Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is one example of how older and younger persons can share their lives together. In the real world, we may find an older man married to a younger
woman supporting her in finding an outside lover or even a live in one who joins them in a triad—providing her with both sexual activity he may not be able to provide and with someone she can share her life
with after his passing. It sure beats being a lonely widow. For her older husband, the younger man can provide support both physical (from taking out the garbage to helping him transfer from bed to
wheel chair) and emotional which might have to be provided by moving to a rest home under other circumstances. He continues to have the loving company of his wife as well. I have seen this myself and the bond between the men involved was as close and beautiful as the one between the wife and either of those men. More younger people involved in a truly multigenerational group marriage make this even better as everyone involved from children who are very unlikely to be orphaned and have lots of adult role
models and nurturers to elders who do not have to spend their later years in depressing people warehouses being cared for by strangers.
The concept of Sharing Water as presented in Stranger in a Strange Land is one form of Expanded Family created in part as a way to replace the kind of security extended blood related families no longer give in today’s society which may scatter such families all over the country or even the world as job requirements and other things cause changes of location.
The Extended Family of the past might live together or only in close proximity to each other. It may provide anything from grandparents who help care for the children which can be a real strain for a young couple in nuclear family setting to Grandparents who provide a large caring home for that young couple (which may eventually be their own) instead of having them live in less-than-optimal housing with their money going down the drain on rent. The younger people reciprocated by taking care of elder family members in years ahead.