This kind of Edenic myth is a PRESERVE play that impulsively helps us protect the valuable parts of the social order, even if we don’t know why they’re essential. But in reality, our social order can only decay or evolve. There’s as much a chance of returning to a past version of the social order as there is for a member of the Boomer generation to wake up in their 20s again tomorrow. (And even if we could perform such magic, it wouldn’t be as rosy as we see it in hindsight.)