Free Love

Is there such a thing, 100 years back when I was still interested and capable Mrs Fence would only get friendly if I filled up the coal scuttle and bought her home a pint of jellied eels as a post coital treat. That used to cost me 2 and 6 plus of course an allowance needs to be made for the Izal toilet paper clean up.

I think if you practise free love then the child would be a member of the community rather than belonging to anyone.
In practise there would be a greater communal element to raising children and its parents would decide everything else. Whether the parents are practising free love, married or whatever they would need to talk about what is necessary and arrange it. You obviously wouldn't have things like maintenance and you wouldn't need to pay for things (so for example they would probably be able to each have a bedroom for the child if they lived separately.

Free love is pretty much whatever you want it to be. As long as people are honest and open then they can do what they want. If you're talking about changing the conception of sex and relationships then there's quite a lot to do, disassociating the two and replacing ideas of monogamous bonds with strong permanent relationships within the community with sex not treated as currency within them.

Pasquale the Anarchist

"You obviously wouldn't have things like maintenance..." could you elaborate on this point? what do you mean by maintenance? also your saying that this would be the case if the child was raised by the community?

In a society without money and capitalism you obviously wouldn't have to pay child maintenance, whoever raised the child.

Noah Fence

Is there such a thing, 100 years back when I was still interested and capable Mrs Fence would only get friendly if I filled up the coal scuttle and bought her home a pint of jellied eels as a post coital treat. That used to cost me 2 and 6 plus of course an allowance needs to be made for the Izal toilet paper clean up.

LOL! Best comment yet

Pasquale the Anarchist

I have been an Anarchist for quite a while and have not spent much time thinking about the Ideas of free love. Do any of you practice free love? What's it like? If two practicing "free lovers" have a child how would they raise the child differently then a traditional marriage? how would raising said child be the same? If the two "free lovers" decide they don't want to be in this relationship what happens to the child? If you notice any misconceptions of free love please tell me.

Are you referring to Polyamory or the original concept of free love which is simply a relationship not sanctioned by the state?

There is already free love since its not illegal for people to have other lovers. Its just that few people take advantage of it, just as can be observed in the nature. Try observe how two (or more?) birds are raising their chicklings.

Free love is a beautiful abstract concept.

In practice I’ve observed ‘love’ to exact a toll on those who experience the phenomenon. Love can be freely given, though there is no obligation for it to be returned. I suspect there are few who would consider this a long term basis for personal fulfilment (with the possible exception of parental love). If a love must be reciprocated it can hardly be called ‘free’.

EDIT:
Love Explained

Guy calls the doctor, says the wife’s
contractions are five minutes apart.
Doctor says, Is this her first child?
guy says, No, it’s her husband.

I promise to try to remember who
I am. Wife gets up on one elbow,

says, I wanted to get married.
It seemed a fulfillment of some

several things, a thing to be done.
Even the diamond ring was some

thing like a quest, a thing they
set you out to get and how insane

the quest is; how you have to turn
it every way before you can even

think to seek it; this metaphysical
refraining is in fact the quest. Who’d

have guessed? She sighs, I like
the predictability of two, I like

my pleasures fully expected,
when the expectation of them

grows patterned in its steady
surprise. I’ve got my sweet

and tumble pat. Here on earth,
I like to count upon a thing

like that. Thus explained
the woman in contractions

to her lover holding on
the telephone for the doctor

to recover from this strange
conversational turn. You say

you’re whom? It is a pleasure
to meet you. She rolls her

eyes, but he’d once asked her
Am I your first lover? and she’d
said, Could be. Your face looks
familiar. It’s the same type of

generative error. The grammar
of the spoken word will flip, let alone

the written, until something new is
in us, and in our conversation.

Jennifer Michael Hecht

at the risk of appearing old-fashioned, or prudish (in reality, i'm neither), to me the term 'free love' is a misnomer. i think 'free sex' would be more appropriate, not that i have a problem with that, it's just i'm not convinced there's much 'love' involved. i'm of the opinion that (romantic) love is highly discriminating, it's something you feel for a select person, not something you spread around. i'm of the impression that 'free love' is more like 'self love', a pretty egotistical position that can only bring emotional disputes further down the line (but then the same could be said about monogamous relationships!). i have some friends (female and male) that have quite a lot of casual relationships (again, no problem whatsoever), but they wouldn't ever consider the idea that there was any 'love' involved. i guess the term 'casual relationships' does not have the same hippy, utopia ring to it as 'free love'.