As for Rome...yes, I do think there's a lesson there for us. But it has nothing to do with family structure. It's the economy that determines family structure, not the other way around. Rome fell due to economic reasons, and we are certainly not immune.

The economic problems were a symptom of deeper cultural problems. Sure, the economic problems contributed to the overall chaos -- just as our economic difficulties have the potential for doing today.

But the economic problems followed the fundamental changes in people's attitudes towards basic matters such as marriage and personal morality. Not the other way around.

When the dam starts to give way, then everything else begins to fall apart.

The economy is merely a societal support structure that is eaten out by other forms of deep cultural rot.

Once again, I am put in mind of Detroit -- and other such shining examples of destroyed nuclear family units.

I don't know if it takes a village to raise a child or not. Didn't read the book, and I'm not going to. But anthropologically and historically speaking, there's no denying that humans evolved to live in extended family groups. The nuclear family is a recent, transient development. Holding it up as "natural" is ridiculous. Closer to natural are those Italian family compounds you still see around here. Several houses on one large farm, each with several families, all related. Often, it will be a different generation on each floor. The advantages are easy to see. There's always someone to watch the kids. If someone loses their job, there are other adults who can contribute economically to the group. If someone gets sick, there's always someone to take care of him. If a kid is having a hard time with his parents, there are other adults he can confide in.

Extended families are a wonderful thing -- as are close personal friends.

But extended families are merely -- as the term "extended" indicates -- formed from the building blocks of nuclear families.

Detroit.

Or maybe you have cause and effect reversed. Gaugin was inclined toward depression, and therefore unhappy in his society. He went seeking a better place, but since the problem was in himself, it didn't help. Like all depressives, he had a mental filter which screened out the good and highlighted the bad.

Yes, he was a depressive.

But his black depression was driven to crisis by his discovery of the primitive paradise that didn't exist.

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