That is where the NYT article augments efforts to make marriage obsolete. Guised as seeking an answer about marital happiness, the author is not providing a solution for difficulties in marriage, but instead contributing to its redefinition.

Daniel, whose story of agreeing to adultery is detailed in the article, says, “As our culture becomes more accepting of choices outside the norm, nonmonogamy will expand as an acceptable choice, and the world will have to change as a result.” I wonder if Daniel’s mother or father never asked him, “If everyone else was jumping off a cliff, would you jump too?” The prevalence of a wrong does not make it right.

The author also cites sociologist Andrew J. Cherlin, who says the tradition of marriage is at odds “with the country’s emphasis on individualism, a tension that leads to high rates of divorce but to also remarriage, with worrisome outcomes for finances and children. Openness in a marriage, for better or for worse, would seem a natural outgrowth of those conflicting cultural values.” If our individualism is leading to marriage’s demise, could it possibly be the problem lies with our individualism rather than with marriage?