28 November

The ‘cost of living crisis’ and problems with domestic violence are really the same problem. They’re the social model of the nuclear family under strain. The nuclear family is the expectation that children will move out and establish their own independent households. Historically this wasn’t the model, families often lived together throughout life, and status and wealth in societies was concentrated in family ‘lines’, like you can see in the picture. What broke up that old model was actually the Catholic Church, with its targeting of incest. There was significantly more incestuous inter-breeding in history than we have today, but as I posted yesterday, still 10% of all global marriages are between blood relatives. This splintered the old extended families into multiple nuclear units, the model we use today. That also removed some of the safeguards against violence, with an extended range of people overseeing each other’s welfare now replaced by couples isolated in independent homes. Why I react against modern social media gender wars and their Star Wars concepts of ‘toxic’ this and toxic that. There are material, social explanations that are much more nuanced. This kinda works while every nuclear family can afford to live independently. But as we’re seeing now, when decades of debt that supported that model are coming home to roost, the extended family is making a comeback. Kids often live with their parents well into adulthood. They can’t afford anything else. Wealth is heavily concentrated with parents (and particularly grandparents now), returning us to the old family line model. Agatha Christie novels are so often about these family battles for a share of the family wealth. Those are the times we’re returning to. This isn’t a better or worse way to live, it’s just a different way, which we miss with nonsense ideas like ‘the economy’.