I never claimed it only occurred among the selfish, I said other than the cases of clear abuse and neglect it is selfishness... And that is not simpleminded, but reality.
My analogy is spot on, and while you may not like it, its true. A child knows inately, and inalienably that abortion is wrong. So to do children know inately and inalienably that in the overwhelming majority of divorces they do not want their parents to divorce. These are fundamental realities, not "lack of understanding" or "fear of change" but flat out inalienable realities of who and what we are. We have to lie to ourselves to come to any other conclusion.
You admit that Children of divorce are TWICE as likely to have problems as those from in tact homes... yet in the next breath attempt to rationalize divorce by saying, well at least its not as bad as the bastards. What a horrifficly low standard you set. You knowingly put your kids at twice the risk, and do so for anything other than real abuse or neglect and claim you are not being selfish???
You young kids in a room from traditional married homes and ask them if they want their parents to divorce and I will lay you to a T that well over 9 out of 10 of them will say no. And when asked why, not a darn one of them will answer "fear of the unknown".
You put adult children of divorce, where the divorce was not caused by REAL ABUSE or NEGLECT and ask them if they wished their parents had stayed together, and I also guarantee you will get about a 9 in 10 response that honestly they wish they had.
This isn't something you can rationalize away, in spite of your best efforts. Other than the rare case of true abuse and neglect you cannot put an argument forward for divorce that does not revolve around selfishness.