I think it has lots to do with RESPECT. Not just for yourself, but for your partner. There is love, but I would put respect first. I have always said "you can always find someone to have sex with", but to find someone to respect and love you is another thing.

In my lifetime I have been polyamorous for a time and I have been monogamous for a time. The real issue for me is the depth of the monogamous relationship. If it is based on jealousy, insecurity, and someone's need to control my behavior, it would not fly. If it's a real soul bonding, a spiritually robust sexual and creative relationship, then that is awesome.

People who have lots of sex with different partners are often really hungering for more depth and would be happy to have that experience with just one person if they could find that person.

Well, monogamy is a completely social construct and, from a certain scientific perspective, there's really no such thing as promiscuity. After all, the harsh reality is we're just vessels designed for gene propagation. An individual who might be seen by society-at-large (whatever that means) as 'promiscuous' may be simply better at reproducing their genetic code. Sure, they might also be a "bigger germ farm than that monkey from Outbreak", but nobody ever claimed natural selection to be perfect - or moral.

Sorry to come over all 'Richard Dawkins'. I'll be back later with some dick jokes.

But where have our ideas that form the basis for our respect or lack there of come from? Do you ever question why we feel as we do?

Well yes, I mean clearly they come from somewhere. You only have to look at communities within the great ape families to see that they tend to have a similar, if cruder, system of mutual co-operation. I'm in the camp that believes this to be a logical evolutionary process. The understanding that helping your fellow man (or chimp, if you're than way inclined) will aid your own survival is probably hardwired into our psyche. Of course, by extension, it's those pesky genes that are driving the whole operation. They're just trying to ensure we're nice to each other so that they survive and get passed on to the next generation, ad infinitum.

Wow, I don't know about you but all this talk about chimpanzees and evolutionary biology is making me horny.

You are always horny, Infinte.

So, are we no better than the next species? Can we not rise above our hardwiring and rework our thought process to meet the actual needs of the here and now?