Jason’s got some thoughts up on polyamory (I’m going to say polyamory as opposed to polygamy, because I feel that polyamory implies that everyone involved is marrying *each other* as opposed to polyandry or polygmany, in which it’s more along the lines of one person of one sex marrying a bunch of people of the other sex, and if we’re gunning for equality, you’ve gotta get all the polys into one word).
I went through a couple years of serious thought about my sexuality, and about the time I came up with the realization that yea, boringly, I was mostly straight, I also realized I was boringly hardwired for monogamy, no matter how alluring the idea of polyamory was (I have a lot of fun playing with polyamory in my fiction). So I’ve done the research, looked around at places like alt.polyamory and had discussions with a woman who had an open marriage, read about other people’s open marriages, and am always fascinated with finding out how other people negotiate their sexual pairings.
As somebody who’s liberal-minded, I realize that what works for *me* obviously *doesn’t* work for everyone (which, I think, is the typical conservative mindset – “If *I’m* a man who thinks that kissing a man is gross, *all* men must feel that way!”), so I’m really interested in what’ll happen if people do start pushing multiple marriages in this country again (the polys not being anything new under the sun). So far, I don’t have too much of an opinion on the matter, though I tend to think consenting adults should be allowed to enter into whatever pairing they wish.
However, my mind immediately turns to Heinlein and his massive political/financial marriages in Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Friday, just to name two. What you can do with marriages like these is wed not for emotional/sexual feeling but for consolidation of money and power, so all the heavy hitters keep the goods within one family.
If you think there’s a huge rich/poor divide now, think of the day when multiple billionaires consolidate their funds into one huge family-corporation.
Heinlein saw it.