Maybe, but the world we live in is characterized by such exaggerated individualism. Can we put the genie back in the bottle or the toothpaste back in the tube and return to a more stable, duty-oriented way of life? Do we want to? And are things really as grim for all as Dalrymple paints them? Perhaps those who languish without the guidance of fixed roles today would have chafed and bristled against the roles that were assigned to them in past eras. It's the same struggle to make something out of one's life -- just conducted in a different setting and against different opponents.
Maybe "duty-oriented" isn't the right way of looking at it. Why not go back to our roots, and ask what is our nature? Do we have one, or can we literally be anything we want to be? If we have an inherent nature, what are our limits? And, assuming one believes in Revelation, what is the significance of "God created them male and female"?