muscleman said:
Somebody cheats.
Every. Single. Time.
Nope. Although that is a comfortable thought for the eternally single man.
In all these years I've never met a truly happy married couple. Plenty of them appear to be so on paper, but once they open up you see a bit of the ugly side.
People in relationships are not truly happy? And men living alone in their fifties are truly happy? No, they are not.
There is no perfection in life, whether as single or married.
Way back in the Stone Age, a few men got most of the women. Let's call them "alphas", not because they were better people in general, but because they could bash in the head of the competition. Whereas the "betas" had to share the least wanted women, if they got any at all. Marriage was a necessity for creating a society, and still is. The "betas" also got women, and since they make up the vast majority of men that meant a lot more children being born. Marriage, like trade, also allowed work distribution, which is necessary for greater efficiency. It also allowed for children to be protected and given more attention (protection, food, training, support) from their father.
There would be those who did not want relationships, but they would not pass on their genes as much as those who did. Those with strong instincts to be in a relationship would pass on their genes. That is why we have "love", that over-romanticized but still very real concept; it is a strong biological reaction, which serves to make a couple stay with each other. Few can live their lives without the strong support and comfort that comes from sharing that life with another person.
Are there unhappy married people? Of course; I expect all people to be unhappy. It is our nature to always want more. But from what I have seen, the ones who are still alone in their forties and later, are the least happy of all. They turn bitter. They turn obsessed. Typically they are all-around failures in life, with no friends and no career. Give them a hobby organization to join and they will obsess over it, claw their way to the top (because they are the ones with the most free time to spend on the hobby) and do anything to stay there, even if someone more qualified shows up - because it is all they have.
They will also always have that bitter undercurrent in their attitude toward people who are married with children and have a social life. They will do anything to drag down that kind of life. In this they act like the male version of feminists.
