Excellent and insightful observations, Max. I had never thought of the issue in this way, and the way you articulated it was illuminating.
Of course, as someone more radically "pre-modern" in my thinking, I think if one follows the kind of reasoning you offer in this post even further (that is, the vacuity of individualistic, Epicurean, and contractual notions of relationships), one ends up with more traditional views of human sexuality, nascent human life, and so on, as well.
In general, I agree with the comparison of Non-Monogamy to Capitalism. I appreciate that you included a definition of capitalism for the comparison, as we know that word means different things to different readers. It's a controversial comparison, but in this framing, I get it!
I think the sentence I take the most issue with is this one: "Non-monogamy treats relationships as temporary agreements between individuals who remain distinct from one another, much like relationships on a marketplace." If you replaced the phrase "Non-monogamy" with "Relationship anarchy", I would be much more inclined to agree.
I'm thinking about the adage of "everyone does poly differently" (or more broadly, "everyone does non-monogamy differently"). In a similar vein - Every [country] does capitalism a little differently.
Anyway, here's a haphazardly thought-out alignment chart this inspired me to create.
Excellent and insightful observations, Max. I had never thought of the issue in this way, and the way you articulated it was illuminating.
Of course, as someone more radically "pre-modern" in my thinking, I think if one follows the kind of reasoning you offer in this post even further (that is, the vacuity of individualistic, Epicurean, and contractual notions of relationships), one ends up with more traditional views of human sexuality, nascent human life, and so on, as well.
Thoughts!
In general, I agree with the comparison of Non-Monogamy to Capitalism. I appreciate that you included a definition of capitalism for the comparison, as we know that word means different things to different readers. It's a controversial comparison, but in this framing, I get it!
I think the sentence I take the most issue with is this one: "Non-monogamy treats relationships as temporary agreements between individuals who remain distinct from one another, much like relationships on a marketplace." If you replaced the phrase "Non-monogamy" with "Relationship anarchy", I would be much more inclined to agree.
I'm thinking about the adage of "everyone does poly differently" (or more broadly, "everyone does non-monogamy differently"). In a similar vein - Every [country] does capitalism a little differently.
Anyway, here's a haphazardly thought-out alignment chart this inspired me to create.
https://imgur.com/a/jWhN1AW