>>9682
Modern marriage is broken, but not for the reasons you state.
Marriage, when not broken, is one of the keystones of an advanced civilization. It was originally a contract that consisted of a man exchanging his protection and labor, while a woman exchanged exclusive access to her reproductive capabilities. In fact, originally, in the aftermath of a divorce, a man would get custody of the kids due to them being considered his property under the aforementioned contract.
With a proper marriage contract in place, a man feels more invested in contributing towards a civilization in order to provide for his wife and children. Without this, you get the uber alpha males having 50 wives, with most males being left with nothing, and thus having no motivation to contribute to society. Thus, you get a barbaric shithole "civilization" like Islam, with lots of disposable men willing to blow themselves up to get their 42 virgins because that is literally the only way they can see themselves getting laid. That, or a tribe/race filled with a lot of rapists for the same reason (i.e. the activities of the current immigrant invasion in Europe.)
Modern marriage, in comparison, is a fraudulent contract. Thanks to no fault divorce. A woman can literally break the contract by cheating on you, and rather than getting punished, get everything (your money, your house, your property, exclusive custody of your kids, etc.) while you're reduced to living in an apartment with a friend while giving away most of your income to your wife and kids via alimony. She is no longer obligated to provide you with reproduction or other wifely duties, but you will still have to provide her with labor and security. A lot of men have become hip to this reality, thus the rise of hook-up culture.
Thus it is not marriage itself that is responsible for degeneracy, but the corruption of marriage. Marriage never had anything to do with the equality of the sexes, you can thank Feminism for that.
Marriage is still important for society, and it still should be pursued for the reasons I mentioned earlier on. Nevertheless, due to the state it's in as I outlined, I really can't shake my finger at any man who decides it's a bum rap and is not for him.
The cold hard truth is that if you want to pursue marriage in the modern West, you need to have your shit together in terms of lifestyle and Game, and you need to be highly selective of the woman you want to marry. This is very sad and bad thing for society in the long run, considering as recently as the early 20th century, you could make a marriage work just by being a decent guy and having a stable job.
> Also this whole concept of 'spousal love' is actually quite recent,…
This overall attitude is very Judeo-Christian/Semitic in origin. I think that the "sweet spot" for how women should be treated in society is pre-Christian European in general. Not having the right to vote, yet not being treated like abject shit as they are in the Middle East.