[cal5k]

Ironically the "society is broken" narrative, aside from being unsupported by the evidence, is often used to sell mindfulness products & services.

[FundThrowaway]

I'd argue that the broken society narrative is a subjective opinion and not objectively quantfiable. One man's broken society is another man's utopia, it's all dependent on your personal beliefs.

[collyw]

Its probably as dependent on your position in such a society.

[fastball]

I think there are some measures you can use to say some aspects of society are more broken than in the past, for instance suicide[1].

1: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/22/health/us-suicide-rate-su...

[cal5k]

Steven Pinker's latest book, "Enlightenment Now", has a pretty good treatment on suicide rates and other "broken-ness" indicators. The data-driven conclusion is that on almost every metric civilization is less broken than before, if it could indeed be called broken at all.

[eeZah7Ux]

Where's the irony?