A lot of the things we do on a daily or weekly basis have ways of doing them that can either be private or communal, some of these which we do not think to consider as having that characteristic.
For example, bathing in the Roman Empire used to be communal, but then Rome fell and citizens in the splinter countries began taking baths privately.
Receiving mail is another example. There are countries which don’t have mailboxes and everyone gets their mail at the post office in the PO boxes. It was the United States which pioneered the idea of the modern mail system, which is why we associate it as a private act.
There are activities as well which don’t have any history as jumping between one or the other that might benefit from it, for example I think towns might benefit if internet was free and freely accessible but only at the local library.
What’s a non-communal aspect of life you think should be communal?
Cooking. Let’s all just cook one big meal each week and split it among 6 other people, and receive 6 meals in return.
You know, that’s not a bad idea. I only have to make one meal, but I get more variety in my food each day.
I bet it’s easy to get going to, you only need a few friends / family / neighbours to get started
Step 1. Get Friends.
That seems to be the hardest part. :(
I enjoy cooking; nothing takes the joy out of cooking quite like cooking for others.
That’s odd; I only enjoy cooking when I’m cooking for others. If it’s just me, I don’t give a fuck; pb&j, or I’ll order, or Soylent… Or I just don’t eat, much easier.
I’m with you. I’m perfectly content making myself ramen or some pasta or even just a bowl of cereal and toast.
But if I’m cooking for people, I’m actually putting in effort, dammit.
Exactly! I can cook, I just choose not to most of the time haha!
That’s fine; for me it’s more or less meditative to cook for myself. 3 years of food service was enough.
I’m also fat so I can make things exactly to my personal tastes(awesome) and as much as I want (less awesome if not outright dangerous)
And if i feel creative the only one dealing with the consequences is me
Ah, I’ve never worked food service (which I view as privilege; it sounds like it would be very hard for me as I struggle with sensory overload and emotional overwhelm, even in less busy and stressful environments) so maybe that has something to do with it.
I hear you on the creativity; while I was still young and learning, my ex-wife did refuse to eat my cooking after the second recipe I “modified” “creatively”. But really there was just too much lemon in the lemon chicken, and it’s not like it was mostly lemon. Just very lemony 😂
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This is an ideal space for Steve Jobs to put both his feet into
what if we held hands… in the communal toilets <3
communal commode.
Transportation and gardening.
Communal gardens are a thing in many cities. My experience with them however has been skin to a HOA full of Karens
A couple of ideas:
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Home Ownership. I know condos exist, but it seems to me that we need a solution for home ownership that is accessible and ecologically viable. Traditional houses (and even duplex’s/townhomes) are massively inefficient from a climate perspective, not to mention the space requirements and cost.
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Child rearing. In college, I learned that children were typically raised by multiple neighbors, in order to lessen the strain on parents. I think it is unrealistic and unhealthy to expect people to nearly kill themselves attempting to raise a child for the first couple of years.
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Recreation space. I realize this is mostly an American thing, but lawns are a colossal waste of space. To be of any use at all, they have to be at least half an acre, and realistically, there’s no reason every single family needs their own outdoor recreation space. Plus, a tiny minority of people even use them these days.
I know condos exist,
What’s your objection to condos in this case?
I live in an apartment co-op which in many ways is excellent. Highly efficient in both energy, economy and effort required from me. I’m not sure that I’ll ever want to live in a house, this is probably the ideal state for me.
It may not be the case everywhere, but here condos are kind of a shit deal. They cost as much as a small house, they’re very difficult to sell, and the board can force you to renovate your unit out of your own pocket.
The last one doesn’t sound bad, but a big reason to buy a home is to fix your living expenses for retirement, and being told to tear out your flooring because Shelly upstairs likes muave and all units must now have muave floors can be a real problem.
It’s worth pointing out the difference between condos and a co-op - here condos can be over 200k, which can be prohibive, whereas the buy-in for a co-op apartment is like 10k.
Co-ops are truly the way to go for housing.
200k or more is pretty normal for a unit in a coop here as well. Unfortunately.
Financialization of housing was a huge mistake, one we will pay for the rest of our lives.
Sheesh! What’s the difference between co-op vs condo for you?
That the buildings are owned by the collective of the tenants, which they are in this case.
Child rearing.
Daycare.
Recreation space.
Parks.
Y’'all don’t have community/rec centers?
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In the US, nudity. People get really weird and obsessive of bodies when nudity isn’t exercised at places like beaches, changing areas, etc.
It’s not healthy to only see bodies as sexual because they are always covered up in public and then 100% sexual either in the bedroom or in porn. There has to be a gradient. Everything in moderation.
I feel like people are also a lot more insecure about their bodies because the only other naked bodies they ever really see are the perfect bodies in movies and porn. Nudity wasn’t a big deal in my family growing up and I think I owe a lot of my positive body image to that. I don’t really have any insecurities, even after being pregnant twice.
I agree. Most people kinda look similar. And you kinda tune it all out anyways once it becomes mundane.
Community canneries still exist, but they used to be way more popular. In rural communities where people grow a lot of their own food, people can their own food, but pressure canners take a lot of time for a single batch to come up to pressure, cook, and cool.
Community canneries have much bigger pressure canners where you could feasibly can everything in one batch. It’s also really enables people sharing surpluses, trading, etc.
Many hobbies are better shared, too. If you have 20 people sharing a super high quality “item”, they will have a better experience than if each of those people had to buy their own crappy versions.
Basically, a whole lot of things can be “libraried”.
simple tools like guns, hammers, screwdrivers etc. I still think you should be able to own them in case you need them more often or don’t have the time to get them due to an immidiate repairing. But I’ve read some lemmy post where some guys public library offered tools and I think that’s a great idea
Also look for makerspaces, they provide all kinds of tools but it’s expected that you work on projects there and not at home. Not sure if you can borrow stuff.
We had that where I grew up, but mostly heavier machine tools like stuff to cut firewood, trailers to haul stuff etc. Cost just $10 a year and you could borrow it as much as you needed. Banger of an idea to be honest.
Yeah, no one wants to buy a log splitter and store it for 360 days a year, but those few days you can use it, it’s really useful.
Yeah, it really is a perfect item for communal ownership.
Property of the means of production
The US started using mailboxes 14 years after the UK
In 1849, the Royal Mail first encouraged people to install letterboxes to facilitate the delivery of mail. Before then, letterboxes of a similar design had been installed in the doors and walls of post offices for people to drop off outgoing mail.
In 1863, with the creation of Free City Delivery, the US Post Office Department began delivering mail to home addresses.
The more you know.
Masturbation.
That goes well with my idea of pooping.
I dunno, I’ve seen plenty of J.O. Bro communities. Seems pretty communal already in some spaces.
You mean like what Peewee Herman tried to do?
Public bathhouses need to make a comeback. I go to the spa few times a year and soaking in a giant hot tub is divine.
Wish there was one within walking distance cause I would go like 3 times a week then.
I feel like it’s a waste of water to take a bath in my house because the water doesn’t stay warm and it goes away after I’m done. Plus the tub doesn’t allow me to stretch out.
What’s annoying is that some cities in America have spas or bathhouses, but are “men only” and really mean a place for gay men to hook up
In Canada the mail delivery has shifted to communal mailboxes in new communities as a cost savings measure. Problem is asshole theives who smash them open and steal everyones mail at once.
We have free wifi at our library, as well as a lot of other things like meeting spaces you can book.
More communal transport seems to be needed. After work from home, and occasional bus to work, the time I had to drive to the office to swap equipment and sit in rushhour traffic for an hour was painful. Like there is no way every single person needs unique travel to work
I’d say mail boxes, at least in the area where I live. Around 10 years ago, our neighborhood was mandated to have our own separate boxes for mail/newspaper next to our house, but before then you’d have one group box for the whole neighborhood, with separate sections for each house. It’s much more efficient for delivering that way since you just go to one box rather than door to door, though it can be a bit annoying having to walk to the box every day to get your daily newspaper.
These are really common where I live but I’ve never had one. They’d be a nightmare for my forgetful ass. I’d never remember to check the mail. I already forget and my mailbox is next to my front door.
Maybe it’s being a product of my environment but there are so few things that are currently private that I would want to have to do publicly. I don’t generally really want to contend with other people or shared facilities more than I have to. I definitely don’t want communal bathing. I can stomach public transport, which is already a thing, but then I tend to spurn it where I live more often than not because of the lack of viability and convenience. I guess I would say I wish that where I was specifically that transport was more communal than it is now. I don’t see how it really could be though because of the nature of where I live and the lack of density and the bad urban planning that led to everything being very spread out, but it’d be nice.
