An American-style Wedding: Love, Marriage and Imperialism

Love, Marriage and Imperialism

by Andre Vltchek - CounterPunch

December 11, 2015

After photographing the new, enormous and undoubtedly sinister building of the US embassy in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, I was driven by a local left-wing politician towards the mountains.

We agreed to have lunch; simple, good local food.

In front of the restaurant, which my friend selected, was parked an indescribable monster: a white double-decker ‘extremely stretched’ limousine with tinted windows.

I had never seen a double-decker limo before.

“An American-style wedding”, my host commented gloomily.

The bride was dressed all in white. She looked rather depressed. The groom appeared to be concerned, scared of something. Some 100 guests were desperately trying to appear merry and positive.

The wedding was monstrously kitschy. ‘So will be their married life’, I thought. It was obvious. Bad taste has lately been penetrating everything, everywhere: from the lives of married couples to kindergarten wards.

I looked at the bride. Our eyes met for a few seconds. I thought that I read in her desperate gaze, “Take me to Patagonia or to Polynesia”. Maybe I was wrong… Maybe she was actually happy… With that stretched limo at the parking lot.

She smiled shyly. I smiled back, and then I went to a backroom to eat and to discuss with my friend how the West destroyed the Soviet Union, and how it then implanted hate, tribalism and extremism in all parts of Central Asia.

***

I have seen hundreds of weddings, all over the world. Almost all of them based on some outdated, depressing monotheist ideology. All offering shackles instead of wings, depressing obligations and prison bars instead of love; consumerism instead of dreams.

Possess, possess; control, control, consume, consume, consume…

Possess the other person, break her or his identity and will, control her or his steps, while consuming what the market tells you to consume. And don’t forget about Jesus, even if you absolutely don’t believe in that gentleman. Because Jesus has been converted into some sort of justification for why you consume the way you do, step on others every day, and fuck (or don’t fuck) at night.

A man and a woman, two loving beings, are now expected to spend, reproduce, pay taxes to some monstrous state, and behave obediently and “morally”, instead of turning their feelings into some positive creative force, instead of dreaming and fighting side by side for a much better society and for a much better world.

After the 1917 Revolution, the Soviets considered abolishing the institution of marriage altogether as something obsolete, religious, oppressive, regressive and grotesque. But inertia in the psyche of the masses proved to be too great. The desire to control other human beings was still deeply rooted even in the psyche of the wretched of the earth.

Love that would be simply based on trust and on free choice appeared too ‘risky’.

Handcuffs and ropes survived.

Even now, in the 21st Century, before a man and a woman are allowed to make love, some sclerotic bureaucrat or child-molesting priest, is expected to slam a stamp on a paper form and declare: “you can now kiss the bride.”

How thoroughly disgusting, patronizing and humiliating… for love! How, actually, endlessly feudal and sleazy!

Isn’t love supposed to be the highest form of rebellion, a fight for something totally new? Its purity should not be based on virginity, but on beauty, trust, determination and courage.

It should be, but as we all know, it is not.

Instead, the monotheist religions and Western cultural imperialism are using the institution of marriage for their own despotic, dictatorial interests. While the weddings, themselves, exactly like Christmas and other religious gaga carnivals, are converted into some pathetic and shameless orgy of consumerism.

The “Bride’s dream” is now mostly that of a Disneyland-style bad taste orgy of consumption and cash burning, designed as an injection of funds into a private sector service industry.

Imperialist and market fundamentalist ideologues love the game – as long as there is no deep meaning left in all this! And there certainly isn’t. The modern marriage institution is not unlike some low Hollywood film or pop tune.

Once rings are exchanged, papers stamped and excessive food puked out in overflowing toilets, what follows is the brutal reality of married life, in most cases broken, forced, depressing, sustained only because of “children”, or “obligation”, or because of guilt, or because of religious idiocy.

In short: married life exists mainly so that many absolutely despicable, and for centuries unreformed societies (including those in the West), could survive intact. Through the degenerate institution of marriage, sadistic Christian dogma manage to persist…

Western-style marriage, now also implanted into virtually all parts of the world, is resting on several mighty columns including fear, selfishness (like putting the family unit above national and other objective interests, which indisputably breeds corruption), submission, lack of creativity and imagination, and yes, lack of love.

Because love, if allowed to bloom, is mostly founded on trust, understanding, generosity, but also on rebellion, freedom, and a desire to live one’s life in a totally new way. All of the above is directly opposed to Western cultural imperialism, Christian dogma and market fundamentalism, read: opposed to the global fascism that is ruling the world.

Global fascism wants married couples to live like slaves, consuming like idiots, erecting a twisted Disney-style “reality” for their children, while following the most idiotic religious and cultural concepts of their parents and grandparents: concepts that already brought our planet to its present pitiful state!

All this – in the name of “morality”! A penis entering an “unmarried vagina” being portrayed as more immoral than murdering millions, spreading nihilist ideological and religious lies, corrupting, stealing from and scaring billions of poor people.

***

One day after our lunch at the restaurant converted to a wedding parlor, we drove to the southern shore of a mighty Central Asian lake. There, several years ago, a Canadian mining company managed to drive a truck full of cyanide, into a river. In order not to pay compensations, the company lied. It corrupted the then country’s President, as well as the local press and several MPs. My friend was heading the investigating commission. He refused to betray his people. One day, a representative of the company came into his office, with a case full of US dollars. My friend kicked them out, and then made everything public.

Until now, hundreds of people are dying from cancer. Until now, children are born deformed. Mining goes on.

“The mining company arranges small events in the village,” I was told.

Village, which lost so many people! Events include weddings. Why?

The entire Central Asia is dreaming about the old Soviet Union. I was told this in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, even in Uzbekistan, and I will address the topic in my future essays.

The West corrupts, steals and supports nationalist and religious extremists. Not only is ISIS now active, but also several extremist Christian fascist organizations had been implanted, like in Indonesia and Africa. Like everywhere in the world!

But smashing countries to pieces is not considered “immoral”. Robbing them is fine. Indoctrinating, brainwashing them – all just part of some daily routine.

While love is being reduced to a filthy market place, while marriage feels increasingly like a prison, while human relationships are mass-produced. There is almost no space left for imagination, the ability to dream, the desire to fight for a much better world!

Like Western porn, mechanical and gym-like, like Western culture, increasingly resembling a supermarket, like childhood that is infiltrated by mass-produced unsavory chemical-colored characters, a union between a woman and a man now consists of pre-fabricated, computer-generated gigs and squeaks. It appears to be toxic, unfit for human consumption.

I say: “screw such unions!” Let’s think about something better. Let’s laugh at morally corrupt preachers and bureaucrats, and at their stamps! Let’s try to bring back poetry, dreams and humanism. And trust! And let’s do it really soon!

Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. His latest books are: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire” and “Fighting Against Western Imperialism”.Discussion with Noam Chomsky: On Western Terrorism. Point of No Return is his critically acclaimed political novel. Oceania – a book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about Indonesia: “Indonesia – The Archipelago of Fear”. Andre is making films for teleSUR and Press TV. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and the Middle East. He can be reached through his website or his Twitter.

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