> You're describing pervasive dysfunction, not a "new normal".
New normal can easily be pervasive dysfunction. When dysfunction becomes pervasive, it is also perceived as normal by people inside that society.
> The notion that social anomie, abuse and violence is a simply unescapable "fact" about late modern societies is baseless.
These were not so much anomies as taboo to talk about if it is happening to you. They were seen as private issues that should have stayed private and if you did talked about it, you was the bad one. Nevertheless, some statistics are available - for example domestic murders. Those went down. Some anonymous statistics. People who went through it in the past and did talked about it, their children remembering and talking about it later. The way domestic violence is portrayed in media - whether it is shown as something justifiable and ok or not.
When I was child, there was no domestic violence around me. Then I grew into adult and people started to talk more openly in front of me. Turned out, there was in fact domestic violence among adults I knew as child ... except I was protected from it.
The question remains. Do you think that the Western upper middle class are being willfully blind to some sort of domestic violence epidemic happening all around them, the way you describe previous generations as acting? You're relating isolated anecdata, that tell us nothing about whether some behaviors might have been common in the past.
Yes, Western upper middle class were willfully blind to domestic violence around them. Just like Eastern upper middle class. Or like lower class, really. It is not even that difficult ... you just don't talk about it. It was not crime. Most of it happens at home when no third party is around. If you did not wanted to be blind to it, you could talk to the aggressor and that was about how much realistically could be done. Shelters were not a thing at the time.
Whether it qualified as "epidemic" I don't know.
Seriously, people of all classes were also willfully blind to sexual abuse for years and that includes abuse by priests.
> Seriously, people of all classes were also willfully blind to sexual abuse for years and that includes abuse by priests.
Not really. This was a big part of why people were so vicious during the Protestant Reformation. You don't just have people buried up to their necks and then trampled by horses because you disagree about points of scripture.
New normal can easily be pervasive dysfunction. When dysfunction becomes pervasive, it is also perceived as normal by people inside that society.
> The notion that social anomie, abuse and violence is a simply unescapable "fact" about late modern societies is baseless.
These were not so much anomies as taboo to talk about if it is happening to you. They were seen as private issues that should have stayed private and if you did talked about it, you was the bad one. Nevertheless, some statistics are available - for example domestic murders. Those went down. Some anonymous statistics. People who went through it in the past and did talked about it, their children remembering and talking about it later. The way domestic violence is portrayed in media - whether it is shown as something justifiable and ok or not.
When I was child, there was no domestic violence around me. Then I grew into adult and people started to talk more openly in front of me. Turned out, there was in fact domestic violence among adults I knew as child ... except I was protected from it.