Families are not voluntary arrangements under our authority, to be altered at our evanescent whims and pleasures. The various ways in which the modern family has been disintegrating tell us a great deal about what it was like before it began to fall apart. Once a problem has become glaring, modern conservatives all too often simply want to call us back to the status quo ante-i.e., the way it was right before our problems became obvious. They want to return to that pleasant and tranquil time when the hurricane was still over the horizon, invisible and gathering force. We did not understand our
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