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Arranged Marriages In America & Abroad

Chion Wolf

http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Chion/Colin%20McEnroe%20Show%2002-29-2012.mp3

Maybe choice and autonomy are overrated. We live in a world where the notion of marrying someone picked out by somebody else is damn near terrifying. Autonomy! We have to have it, right? But then, a lot of our marriages don't work out so well. The rate of divorce in the world of arranged marriages is far, far lower, although there are -- of course -- multiple explanations for that. But there really is a chance that happiness can be arrived at by taking a different route than the first one that comes up on our emotional GPS device.

Today, we'll look first at the arranged marriages of South Asian society. Then, we'll turn toward a story we weren't expecting to find when we started work on this show. Some of you may remember the mass weddings performed in decades past by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. We'll talk to a young woman, the offspring of one of those marriages who is now getting married in much the same way.

Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.

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Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. Colin can be reached at colin@ctpublic.org.

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