Arranged Marriages

Opinions and thoughts people :o) ???

i come from india where 70% of the marriges are arranged.as long as the marriage is arranged and not forced its okay according to me.there is no sureshot formula for a successful marriage so it doesnt matter if its an arranged marriage or a love marriage.as long as u can live happily ever after,its all good.

Ugh... just the thought makes me shiver.

~Ciao Lipton

I TOTALLY disagree with them...
You cant be FORCED into love can you!!! it seriously sucks!!!!

yeah...arranged marriages are a sad part of history. It's banished in Norway, at least.

Well, I'd say it's not a totally bad idea.

With all the divorces these days, seems like people don't care about marriage anymore. People complain that they married the wrong person, that it doesn't work out, and what will happen to the children after the divorce? In some aspects, arranged marriages can be good.

But I still tend to be against it. I, and I'm sure a lot of people will agree, would like to find my own true love instead of someone else finding him for me.

Dorothea - I do not think that an arranged marriage is less likely to end in divorce, than others. In fact, I think its the other way around.

Enslavement,

Yes, nowadays. But when arranged marriages were still really popular (like in India), I doubt they were allowed to divorce. Nowadays, arranged marriages would probably, like you said, cause divorces more than normal marriages.

we agree then:)

It depends how the marriage is gone about.
Some people define arranged marriage as a union between people who have never seen eachother or have desire to marry, that's usually not the case.
usually two families come together saying their son would be right for their daughter, bla bla bla, and they decide to have them meet. When they do meet and the son and daughter decide they could have a proper marriage, they usually have a few dinners before announcing that they've decided to marry.
Of course these marriages are more like a business rather than love union, but I see no harm in that. in fact, it's probably why they're not as high in divorce rates, because theres really no emotional attachment. It's more like meeting a decent person who you could befriend, correspond, and raise children with. However for the same reason the marriages don't work out because hardly knowing one another when married, one of the partners could end up abusive or unfit to contribute to the marriage.
For the most part however as long as there is no force involved I see no harm in it.
(however there are exception, much of the time children refuse to marry the partner but families force or pressure them to go through with it, which is not right in any case)

If so many marriages fall apart how could an arranged marriage make it better? I don't understand that.

Well natalie it depends how is it gone about. Usually an arranged marriage is in fact arranged to the best interests of the bride and groom, meaning picking out someone decent that would be fit for them to spend their lives with.
Also, there is usually no real emotional attachment, it's more like a business, which makes it an either life long or relatively good amount of years to work.

The moral obligations both parties have to their families in arranged marriages often makes them last longer, even if happiness is far from achieveable. In the cultures where this still occurs to come home from such a marriage - even if you are unhappy for several reasons, brings shame upon your family.....

What are your opinions on this statement above.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to share their point of view with me - much appreciated :o)