Promiscuity, "domestic abuse", alienation and divorce

Global Civilization through Interweaving Polyamory and Polyanimosity? (Part #3)

These terms merit exploration as metaphors of the nature of potentially problematic bonds between one human and what are variously categorized as "others" in the environment.

As noted in the earlier discussion, it is of course the case that the Western counter-culture has explored relationships of varying duration -- even one-night stands -- possibly held to continue over years as bonds of special friendship or elective affinities. Framed in contractual terms, a contracted relationship may be understood to hold for the briefest of periods to the lifetime of the individual and beyond (as in the case of blood feuds between families). An individual could be usefully recognized as having a highly promiscuous relationship with whatever is framed as an "other" -- whether humans, animals or objects. People switch readily among a set of multiple cognitive bonds, whatever the significance imbued in them in the moment -- and however they are reciprocated or held to be so.

The point is well made in a line of the iconic song Cause, by Sixto Rodrigeuz (Coming from Reality, 1971): I make 16 solid half hour friendships every evening.

Any brevity in bonding is of course matched by frequency of "divorce" -- usefully recognized in cognitive terms. Rather than a marriage contract holding "until death do us part", there is "dissociation" following an emerging sense of alienation from the other. It is however the case that a bond may indeed be recognized over a lifetime, most notably in the case of bonds of honour and respect. These are exemplified by the Japanese understanding of giri -- otherwise found in the lifelong bonds between members of secret societies and those who have shared a traumatic experience.

Alienation from nature has long been widely deplored (Richard Joseph Doherty, The Alienation of Humans from Nature: media and environmental discourse, 2015; Steven Vogel, Alienation, Nature, and the Environment, MIT Press Scholarship Online, January 2016). This could be explored cognitively as a form of "marital violence" or "domestic abuse" -- with its implications for "intercourse" ("Human Intercourse": "intercourse with nature" and "intercourse with the other", 2007). Given current interest in harassment, this also merits exploration in such terms (Beyond Harassment of Reality and Grasping Future Possibilities: learnings from sexual harassment as a metaphor, 1996).