A treatise on monogamy.
A.
Sometimes I wonder if the statistics
for a relationship or marriage’s survival
were the same as the that for something mundane
like, say, eating bread, would we see eating bread as a stupid act?
If, say, 40% of people that ate bread simply didn’t survive,
I reckon humans would scramble in finding an alternative.
We’d say that eating bread didn’t work; that it was silly.
Eating bread would be a calculated risk
and no-one would be under any illusion whatsoever about said risk.
People would probably ostracise people that ate bread,
mocking them for the fools they were.
To eat bread you’d either have to be naive, stupid or desperate.
Industries that promoted the eating of bread
would be branded unethical.
B.
I ultimately think that’s the problem with humans;
I mean, I’m no anthropologist,
but there’s something in our brains
whereby the mere idea of something working
going right, succeeding is almost more appealing
than the actual success itself,
despite the odds implying that it statistically won’t,
which is kind of why mankind is so fucked
because not only do we not learn from our own mistakes,
or the mistakes around us, but we are so easily seduced by risk.
Perhaps it’s embedded in our DNA, from early man—
this idea of risk bringing reward in the form of new land,
food or safety— something we are just simply wired to be receptive to,
regardless of the consequence of said risk.