Interesting Links for 21-08-2020

[andrewducker]

Communes are bullshit

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1296223571027488768.html
(tags:housing society awful )

'Breed and release' plan to save rare Scottish wildcat

(tags:cats Scotland )

Blast off: Disney drops first trailer for The Right Stuff dramatic series

(tags:TV space trailer )

Trees are awesome

(tags:trees awesome )

Comments

[cmcmck]

I'm always amazed at tree shapes even those they make for themselves without human intervention but living among forest can do that to you! :o)

[anna_wing]

Do many people actually think living in a commune is a good thing?

Collective living arrangements usually only work with an enforceable hierarchy of authority and clear obligations. Basically, monasteries, nunneries and other religious-type situations, barracks and sub-tenancies where the landlord or their authorised managing agent is in residence. I omit prisons and boarding-schools, since entry into those tends not to be entirely voluntary. And also, the happiness and life-satisfaction of inmates of such institutions isn't the main goal.

Arrangements where everyone is supposedly equal collapse remarkably fast, as anyone who has gone on holiday with people they previously thought they liked can attest.

A friend of mine flatshared for a while after graduating. Eventually they hired a cleaner.

[hutchingsmusic]

"Annie Glenn (Nora Zehetner, The Astronaut Wives Club), who struggles with a speech impediment and is uncomfortable being in the pubic eye"
oh dear.

[lyonesse]

i've been living communally since 1984, and in the same one since 1998. maybe this dude didn't like it, but jfc nothing's for everyone.

we pay someone (formerly an outside service, since umm like 2005 a resident who is a pro) to be the cleaner.

[elf]

Communes work when traditionally unpaid labor is considered a valuable contribution to the household. This includes traditionally unpaid labor that's only related to your personal belongings - laundry, keeping your room organized, etc.

This means the group as a whole, has to subsidize enough people to do enough housework to keep the place functional to everyone's satisfaction, not just the people who aren't "neat freaks." (Because, as noted, the not-neat-freaks will not notice mold or bugs or leaks until they're a Really Big Problem.)

For most large modern households, say, 4 rooms 2 bathrooms 6-8 people (some of whom may be children), this could maybe be done with one full-time housekeeper AND a chores roster for everyone. More likely, 1 cleaning housekeeper + 1 part-time cook. (...plus chores.) That's 1.5 portions of rent that aren't coming from those people, PLUS they need pocket money at a minimum, and may also need actual notable income. Those people cannot be students, or at least, one of them can't. Add a garden for veggies and you need a full-time groundskeeper.

Most communes fall apart because they believe that "keep the place clean" is "everybody's job" and nobody wants to do it. Also, most communes today are rented - there's no sense of ownership in the building, and major renovations are not allowed no matter how much everyone wants a new half-bathroom or solar panels or partitioning the big room into two smaller ones.

It's not that communes don't work. It's that American "nuclear family" backgrounds are particularly ill-suited for group living with actual shared responsibilities.

[andrewducker]

This is true. Adults with decent jobs who are willing to invest in communal living can definitely make one work.