What is our motivation for trying to change our government and our society? Woodrow Wilson said he was fighting World War I to make the world safe for democracy. Many progressives want to make the world safe for alternative lifestyles. Many conservatives merely want to make the world safe for themselves.

The need is not for social conservatism, but rather social conservation. Just as we protect natural habitats because of their complex interlinking which we don’t fully understand, we should respect human ecologies, equally complex and equally misunderstood. If we fear the environmental impact of a new factory on a town, why don’t we fear the social impact of a new pastime on that same town?