LORD OF THE RINGS
I hate media, especially movies that try so desperately to shove the institution of marriage and nuclear family down our throat. I saw a part of 'The Imitation Game' in which Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) character proposes to his romantic interest (Keira Knightley) that prompted this post. The proposal is very out of the blue and on-the-spot so Alan has to turn out his pockets, find a piece of wire and fashion a ring out of it. In the next scene Keira's character is shown showing the ring to her girlfriends in a bar.
'The ring' is treated as an important part of a union between a man and a woman that any kind of circle (whether it has to be metal or not is not relevant here) that can be put around a finger plays this ritualistic role. And it is funny to think of having a real-life rituals in the 21st century that have real-life effects, like changing the behaviour of both the persons who went through that ritual and of those who interact with them.
Furthermore, in the movie, Alan is not shown replacing the ring, implication being that she had continued wearing it, further driving home two points: 1) that the ring-giving part of the proposal is an essential part of it and 2) the ring acquires metaphysical qualities by virtue of being used in the ritual (for example, it can act as a way to ground our feelings, thoughts and sources of behaviour, justifying them socially).
MARRIAGE SUCKS
In reality, marriage is nothing more than a contract between you, the other person and the State. The State gives you 'rights', such as the ability to inherit the other person's capital and private property after they are dead (as opposed to personal property being given to someone who needs it, for example). Another right is common custody of your children, after a divorce, only one parent becomes the 'main' parent (pretty fucked up, when you think about it, eh?) You also get some tax breaks, which can be considered financial incentives into marriage (why?) In return, the two people entering the contract give a lot to the State. For one, you become a manageable unit that is then further meme'd, to use parlance of our times, into depending on one another more than the people around you. This has the effect of making people distrustful of others, and dependent on their nuclear family, dividing the people into much smaller units. Interestingly, nuclear family and an individual are the only allowed/legal configurations of humans, I can for example think of dozens of others, making me think that it is too strong of a limitation; you wouldn't want only two flavours of ice cream.
The family is also something that gives a person something 'to lose'. If someone is in a marriage, there are also things to think about like shelter for not just you, but others dependent on you (like children and the elderly) and a way to provide the things that are needed. If you are providing for more than just yourself, you need to make a surplus, and one of the only (legal) ways is a job. A marriage ensures both time is spent maintaining the family and that a person is busy and cannot to do other things, such as care about politics, march in the streets, protest or participate in a revolution.
LIBERALS, GAYS AND MARRIAGE
The liberal LGBT agenda is not revolutionary at all, but actually reactionary. Rather than destroy and replace the institution of marriage, the very institution from which they have been banned!, as if they were not deserving of the same kind of social status marriage affords because they are not heterosexuals or not willing to pretend they are.
The liberal LGBT crowd want gays and trans people to become included in the institution, again confirming and re-enforcing status of marriage as something universal rather than a human invention. They reinforce because they are liberals and only want to strengthen capitalism by making it more 'inclusive' rather than dismantle the institutions that both enable the oppression of people (those who can't marry are of course the oppressed) and perpetuate the capitalist system as the nuclear family is one of the pillars of modern, consumerist capitalism.
FUCK MARRIAGE
To move forward as a species, civilisation and society, we must rethink the family and remove marriage. A more communal arrangement, where children are 'raised by the village' and families aren't necessarily nuclear, but people are welcome to make any sort of arrangement they wish with other consenting adults. Meaning that those who want a nuclear family can have one, but those that want to do something else are also allowed to.