Voting for same-sex marriage

The recent vote in Australia on same-sex marriage shows that one cannot depend on the masses to bring sanity to this world. It also proves the point that politicians will do anything to buy votes and one cannot depend on politicians to lead us to improve the mental health of society. Yes, whoever said “The voice of the people is the voice of God” in my mind must have been a politician.

You see, I have nothing against same-sex marriage. Yes, as far as I’m concerned, same-sex couples should have the same privileges as straight couples. But they should use a different label for their union. Why? Because the way we use words in our minds has a direct effect on our mental health and the way we feel.

The word ‘marriage’ implies the union of a man and a woman. If we include same-sex couples in this definition, we are redefining marriage and creating a contradiction. Now, contradiction is always bad for our mental health. It distorts our perceptions. It is like a bug in the computer program that causes the program to crash.

Let me explain how words affect our perceptions.

Now everyone knows what the word ‘accident’ means. It is an unhappy event that can happen to anyone at anytime and anywhere, no matter how much care and precaution can be taken. In fact, it is never a preventable event when it occurs. Therefore, all accidents are unavoidable. However, in hindsight, all accidents are preventable.

So when we use the term ‘preventable accident’, the words instantly distort our perceptions. And we can respond with ‘You shouldn’t have done that.’ However, the person who was involved in the accident knows that she should not have done that and is left with the consequences. It really was an accident.

Let us give you another example in today’s society of how the word ‘self-regulation’ has been corrupted and distorted the perceptions of medical professionals and others to include regulating oneself on behalf of the government or some other higher authority. Self-regulation in my mind means regulating oneself from within without outside help or coercion. How can someone protect his own professional interest if he is going to work for an outside agency that does his dirty work for him? There is clearly a conflict of interest involved. It is a mentally ill role of Porky Pig who sells pork chops and pork sausages on behalf of the government. Do you consider it to be an acceptable position?

So, can I appeal to all my learned friends and politicians, if you care about improving the mental health of society, don’t create any more contradictions? Why not use a different label for same-sex marriage and I’m sure most will have no objection to what is being proposed?