It's all fine that the forum is here, and that we can share with each other, but this forum will have its cycle like all others before it have... it won't last forever. Right now it's very very active, it won't stay that way. Kind of like your typical marriage...
but UNLIKE a marriage, this is a very equitable place, and all benefit from that. This thread is talking about modern marriage. If I were for example living in ancient Athens, I may be more inclined to enter into such an arrangement, where basically I get handed a woman whom I can fuck whenever I want without losing my freedom to fuck whoever ELSE I want, she does the housework for me, and never even leaves the house without my permission and an escort. What would I have to lose?
Anyways, I'm not one for telling other people what to do. Get married if you want, fuck a chicken, fuck a goat, inject your veins with lighter fluid, whatever gets you off.
We could get into a pissing contest here and I could post reams and reams of quotes from famous people, both contemporary and historical, that would more than match your billionaires and athletes, saying that the typical domestic lifestyle is anathema to any true spirituality and/or creativity. For every successful married person, one could find a dozen or more who rejected marriage partially or most often completely! In the end, this is an argument that has probably been going on as long as this failed experiment we call "civilization" has come into being. I for one am very clear which side I stand on, and make no apologies for it.
I have no interest in China, as China is a very collectivist society. I've picked the one country on the planet where I see invidivualism as still being alive and well to settle in, and have no regrets.
I don't want to veer this thread into politics, that would be inappropriate, but take note that the world's big polluters and most miserable places to live have ALWAYS been places with very collectivist cultures, usually accompanied by very strong centrally planned economies, justice systems etc, and general environments of government intervention (better to just say opression and slavery). To me 99% of the problems we have are not because of lack of government but because of government ITSELF.
I personally have my friends' backs and I hope they'd do the same for me. I'd IMAGINE they'd do the same for me, but IM NOT COUNTING ON IT. If my last friend leaves me stranded at the worst possible time, I know deep down that I'll still be capable of survival, and later on taking brutal revenge on everybody who has it coming! THAT to me is the ESSENCE of alpha-ness.
I'm not a fan of gold-diggers and don't condone that sort of thing BUT ultimately I personally have no problem with them. I think a man who hooks up with a gold-digger and loses his shirt has NO ONE TO BLAME BUT HIS OWN DAMN SELF for his troubles. Owning up and facing your problems and admitting when you've fucked up is another hugely important alpha trait! Any man not wise enough to deal with a gold-digger gets no respect or sympathy from me, no sir!
Making assumptions about my personal life is arrogant an inappropriate IMO, but I'll take the bait this one time. I was raised in a two-parent "stable" household, by Christian parents. They taught me many good and important things, but a good part of what they taught me was by NEGATIVE example (watching shit blow up in their faces). Like many other examples in this thread, they have turned into glorified roommates since decades ago. And I have been married and divorced twice, once to an American and once to a Colombian here in Colombia. Both times, I have lost money, but it hasn't ruined me and at any rate I have nobody to blame for it but MYSELF ultimately. I have since learned from my mistakes and they won't happen again