The Traditional and Virtuous Pre-Marriage Programme
From the stylistics of the writing, one might think one is reading an "instruction" written in the 1930s, in keeping with the understanding of that time about scientific achievements and advances in psychology and sociology. Target audience - average farmers' daughters and lads who have seen nothing beyond the people of their own village, but having reached maturity to escape the routine, have decided to go courting.
The long-awaited "Pre-Marriage Education Programme", cultivated under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice, with the blessing of Justice Minister Dz. Rasnačs (TB/LNNK-VL) and brought into being through the efforts of Astra Vanaga, has seen the light of day. Although previously churches had dealt with marriage themes, offering 10-week, 5-week and individual educational courses, the state felt it important to add its own two cents and offer its own perspective on marriage. And why not, when in the state's eyes the institution of marriage is turning into a rudiment, 53% of children are born outside of marriage, and, under the influence of the absence of life's upheavals and relative peace, the church has lost its authority. People have become clever - not because they have begun to understand things, but because they have found even simpler models which, in their estimation, can explain things and processes.
I have not read the material itself, merely satisfied myself with an excerpt from it [1]. The materials available on the Ministry of Justice website already look, by their very layout, shall we say - senile. In the introduction - naive, infantile, modesty-filled memories steeped in deep morality and virtue, illustrated with old, slightly brownish photographs showing couples who entered the harbour of matrimony back in the 1960s. Above it - a heading with an equally deep thought: What can the grey-haired say to green youth...
At the end of the material, a lengthy list of "recommended literature", which includes V. Rudzītis and Osho.
From the stylistics of the writing, one might think one is reading an "instruction" written in the 1930s, in keeping with the understanding of that time about scientific achievements and advances in psychology and sociology. Target audience - average farmers' daughters and lads who have seen nothing beyond the people of their own village, but having reached maturity to escape the routine, have decided to go courting. The purpose of these "instructions" would then be to indicate that what awaits "out there" might and most likely will differ from expectations. And in life's difficult moments, when things get tough, the family farm, with the barn gates flung wide open, will be waiting to welcome you, our children, home again.
Reading even fragments of it, it cannot be said that it is complete rubbish. For example:
Male sexuality is linear - any erotic stimulus causes arousal; biologically, the male's task is to spread his genes as widely as possible, that is - to sow his seed in any attractive representative of the opposite sex.
Experts advise women to express their desires clearly and directly, and likewise to express their demands and displeasure, emphasising that a man at the beginning of a relationship will not understand, and may not even notice, silence full of resentment.
Where want comes in at the door, love flies out the window. That is because want lays emotions bare.
From what is written, I did lose the thread of thought - why is marriage needed at all, then? Why is such a marriage important to the state? - when marriage is a "solemn commitment", yet the human life cycle is biologically predetermined. - So that in the evening, when the man returns from life's adventures and lies down in bed and is asked "darling, are you still here?", he receives an affirmative answer, as V. Rudzītis interprets it? Somehow it all seems rather primitive.
Until this moment I have not understood the meaning of the concept of "traditional values". Traditional - that is - the way mum and dad did it, the way it was accepted during the first period of independence, the way it was accepted in the Middle Ages, or perhaps the way it was before baptism, or perhaps at the very beginning of baptism?
If a person is not destined to discover the truth, then perhaps it would be worth explaining marriage through more universal models, for example, Christian ones. Namely, God created life on earth and commanded them - go forth and multiply. He endowed humanity with talents - strength, reason, feelings and also the ability to create and care for offspring. The highest goal of life is spiritual fulfilment. The time allotted to each person, which each fills by realising their talents. Among animals, humans are neither the cleverest nor the strongest. Humanity's trump card is socialisation. Dogs and cats also have offspring, but they do not need marriage, because that, just as with humans, is a biological process. There is no rational component to it. The affirmation of trust is needed by a person so that they can grow spiritually, build new and expand existing social structures, without constantly having to return to satisfying primitive needs. That would be the meaning of marriage and the future of a flourishing state! But why would a person want to grow spiritually, if things are already good - eat, sleep and make love? Why would a person want to grow spiritually, if the new social structures are also merely the satisfaction of primitive needs? With what teachings, courses and dogmas can this be taught, and, most importantly, what for?
Such as we are, and nothing can be done about it.
[2] https://www.tm.gov.lv/lv/cits/pirmslaulibu-macibu-programma
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