Well, yes. Taleb's point was that life's basic needs and pleasures don't change. My counter-point (which was in agreement with what you're saying) is that more

Well, yes. Taleb's point was that life's basic needs and pleasures don't change. My counter-point (which was in agreement with what you're saying) is that more people can enjoy those things, and there are more ways for them to do so. Also, I don't think there's a time in history when alcohol/drug use and premarital anal sex weren't common. All of that is ancient. People tend to think of sexual norms in the 1837-1967 era (and even then, only middle-class and higher, and more in polite myth than actuality) as "traditional" but that's not how things "always" were.