New Review For In Defense of Divorce

This Week
In Divorce

In Defense Of Divorce just got a new review. This one by the inimitable Bruce Hunter.

No one says it quite like Bruce and that’s not surprising. He holds a honors in English Lit, which means he’s spent a lot of time in the words of others. With all his exposure to what’s been said and how, he’s developed an interesting style of his own.

You may not be interested in the book but the review is worth a read.

You can find his review here.

Elsewhere

Fiona Reddan of the Irish Times reported that Ireland, which has one of the lowest divorce rates worldwide, has seen an increase in divorce among those over 60. One very interesting theory for the phenomenon, suggested by family law solicitor Marion Campbell, is retirement.

When the breadwinner retires, problems can start arising when the husband is suddenly at home all the time and the cracks become fissures.

It’s common knowledge that retirement brings it’s own difficulties so it isn’t unreasonable to say soft spots in the relationship are magnified under the added pressure. Add to that the fact that Irish law no longer sees marriage as hardened-in-cement and you can understand why traditional ideas are crumbling.

The elephant in the article was religion. It wasn’t mentioned but the dam of religious control in Ireland is obviously breaking against the tide of disenchantment.

Also.

Channel News Asia reported that more Singaporeans are getting divorced while fewer were getting married. The numbers aren’t huge but still enough to be considered a trend.

And then.

The biggest news came out of China. The China Daily reported a whopping 3.84 million divorces in 2014. To put that in perspective, that’s more than 70% of Singapore’s population. It represents almost a 6% increase in Chinese divorce (approximately 200,000) from the previous year.

One reason sited for the increase was migration. China’s economy is expanding and with it opportunities that were not possible before. People are moving toward the opportunities and rethinking traditional approaches to marriage in the process.

Not marriage. Approaches to marriage.

China was largely rural. Before, children grew up on the farm, married the person chosen for them and lived in their parents homestead.

Things are different now. We shouldn’t be surprised at the changes.

Democracy And Divorce

It is interesting to note that in all three cases, democracy is on the rise. Personal freedoms are increasing and tradition, which is historically limiting and beyond challenge, is giving way.

Divorce is a side effect of people gaining and learning to manage freedoms they never had before. That’s a good thing but not to worry. Love is not lost. Marriage is not fading.

THINK!AboutIt