The old ways are to be preserved from abuse, and the new ways are to be protected.
The quaint and noble air of the opening track of the Kinks 1968 jewel The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society sets the tone for a concept album so tastefully mellow you could butter crumpets with it.
But behind the nostalgic evocations of traditional British village life lie some less appetising truths.
Frontman and writer Ray Davies isn't presenting a biscuit-tin lid panorama of Old Blighty; he's pining for lost naivety.
He sees humankind occupying itself with distractions, for the most part unaware that life's journey will inevitably require the hardening of hearts and the letting go of simple pleasures.
All this is presented in a series of colourful vignettes that are a mile away stylistically from the Kinks' early gritty rockers You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night.
Davies has fully embraced his penchant for observational, satirical writing and is looking to make a musical statement that distances the band from its peers, who were veering off into psychedelic weirdness.
Acoustic guitars are largely favoured over electric, and although there are segments of raw and bluesy rock the songs are mostly melodic, lilting and instantly appealing. Much pleasure is found in drifting through this pastoral scene and pausing for reflection at the signposts along the way.
In Do You Remember Walter? we're reminded that people always change but memories of people can remain. In Picture Book we're told that people take pictures of each other to prove they loved each other. In Village Green we hear that Davies misses the "simple people".
The closing lyric points to how troubling all this musing can be. Davies sings: "How I love things as they used to be/Don't show me no more, please."
