As a social institution marriage is an adjustment of the individual to the social order by which a certain field of activity, with all its tasks and requirements, is assigned to him. Exceptional natures, whose abilities lift them far above the average, cannot support the coercion which such an adjustment to the way of life of the masses must involve. The man who feels within himself the urge to devise and achieve great things, who is prepared to sacrifice his life rather than be false to his mission, will not stifle his urge for the sake of a wife and children. In the life of a genius, however loving, the woman and whatever goes with her occupy a small place. We do not speak here of those great men in whom sex was completely sublimated and turned into other channels—Kant, for example—or of those whose fiery spirit, insatiable in the pursuit of love, could not acquiesce in the inevitable disappointments of married life and hurried with restless urge from one passion to another. Even the man of genius whose married life seems to take a normal course, whose attitude to sex does not differ from that of other people, cannot in the long run feel himself bound by marriage without violating his own self. Genius does not allow itself to be hindered by any consideration for the comfort of its fellows even of those closest to it. The ties of marriage become intolerable bonds which the genius tries to cast off or at least to loosen so as to be able to move freely. The married couple must walk side by side amid the rank and file of humanity. Whoever wishes to go his own way must break away from it. Rarely indeed is he granted the happiness of finding a woman willing and able to go with him on his solitary path.
I have not yet read Mises’ Socialism. I obtained this quote from Jörg Guido Hülsmann’s excellent biography of Mises (PDF here). For the context, which is Mises’ own marriage to Margit, see page 520.
There is an easy explanation to why the marriages of geniuses fail.
ReplyDeleteGeniuses tend to rely too much on the so-called sentiment of love. They think that the bond of love will last forever and keep their marriage intact. But love is like a bright spark of light. It shines brightly for one moment and then fades away forever. Once the sentiment of love fades away, there is nothing to hold the individuals together and they drift apart.
Whereas the vast majority of the morons in the world, have no conception of love. Their union is mostly the result of contempt; contempt for themselves, for their husband or wife, and for rest of the society. Contempt is a much stronger adhesive than love can ever be. Why? Because it is the feeling of contempt that allows one to compromise and bring oneself down to the level of his partner.
Love is like beauty, it is short-lived; contempt is like ugliness, it is eternal and everlasting.
People should never get married unless they can find someone for whom they can feel a very healthy dose of contempt. Geniuses are too self obsessed, they have a gigantic ego, they can’t feel contempt for themselves, and hence they are incapable of compromising. That is why they perform so badly in the marriage market.
We can translate these ideas into the field of politics as well. Only those politicians succeed who can evoke the “contempt” of the electorate; those politicians who are upright, usually fail at elections. There is a reason why politicians are vile and leftists, because only leftists are capable of evoking the feeling of contempt from the electorate and thus gain their vote. People love to vote for the most contemptible politician that they can find.
This is the ugly truth about human nature.