“Love and marriage, love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage / This I tell ya brother, ya can’t have one without the other.”
So goes the old Sinatra tune. Frankie was such a marriage fan he did it four times. I’m a huge Frank fan but even in his time, those lyrics were palpable nonsense. People have got married for many different reasons over millennia, and very few of them were for love; most were for land and money. The idea of marrying someone because you liked them is a relatively new phenomenon.
But even that’s an outdated idea; nowadays, people aren’t getting married, nor falling in love. Marriage rates have been plummeting for years, and in the U.K. they’ve sunk to their lowest rates since 1862. And back then, half the dating pool had been taken out by a cough.
In years that featured World Wars, recessions and depressions, more couples were shacking up than are now.
And that’s not even the most worrying statistic. The thing that everyone should be worried about is the growing divide happening between Gen Z girls and boys. Forget marriage and love; it’s looking like this lot won’t even be having sex. Instead, Gen Z retreat to their separate goon caves of celibacy.
Politics is the main issue that seems to be alienating the sexes. What a surprise! Not only is it making people more paranoid and miserable - it’s also making us lonely. So glad I get to talk about politics for a living. Only a short while ago, it was being annoying, being short or having no chat. Now it’s ticking the wrong box on a voting slip. You used to find out someone’s politics after sleeping with them, when you woke up and saw their bookshelf.
