I'm a little confused as to whether you're addressing issues 1 or 2. On the issue of the needs of the majority, I agree that I think the free-wheeling anything goes pluralistic society is likely to spark social chaos and confusion. I agree also that I think people like structures and categories as means of shaping and defining society, and that these often, although not necessarily, arise out of economic motives. However, women are no longer a primary means of exchange/cementing social bonds between men in the aforementioned young coastal elite American society.
So I'd argue that the social/economic need in the above subgroup currently is for forming supportive communities that nurture the individual and their needs. I think that such a social network will become more stable if there are clearer signs distinguishing members of the group and their relationship to each other, and I suppose I'm offering that as one possibility for resolving the upheaval and instability, because I don't think that the traditional patriarchal heteronormative nuclear family model is working terribly well at the moment.
Indeed I think it's pretty clear that the traditional patriarchal heteronormative nuclear family model is crashing and burning in our generation. Which is why I find the anti-gay-marriage movement so frustrating. I mean, hardly anyone wants to get married anymore, so why not respect the ones who do? I agree with karakara98 that some order is needed, and I think the people who suffer the most from lack of clear family structure are children, who deserve to be protected and nurtured. There's a lot of interaction with that issue and questions of traditional and nontraditional relationships between adults. As well as questions of two-job families, day care, etc. It's clear that the status quo is not stable as a way of raising children, and while I support the feminist advances that have helped lead to these issues, something is going to have to give. It's one reason (among many) why I don't myself have children. I wonder what kind of standard family structure we'll have when the dust settles out.
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So I'd argue that the social/economic need in the above subgroup currently is for forming supportive communities that nurture the individual and their needs. I think that such a social network will become more stable if there are clearer signs distinguishing members of the group and their relationship to each other, and I suppose I'm offering that as one possibility for resolving the upheaval and instability, because I don't think that the traditional patriarchal heteronormative nuclear family model is working terribly well at the moment.
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I agree that clear signals have not yet been established and may be needed.
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