monasteries and convents were often imperfect, sometimes corrupt and even outright abusive. and yet: England and Wales did not have a permanent homeless population until their dissolution. and women's education (which was happening in convents) stopped for centuries after the dissolution

if we have a system that is *basically working* in terms of telling truth from lies (with always work to be done, critiques to be made, ever imperfect), I think it is a bad mistake - and one that we are prone to as a species in information crises - to throw it out and try to start from the beginning