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?

  • evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world
    10·
    1 month ago

    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”.

  • Nightsoul@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    1 month ago

    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

  • davel@lemmy.mlEnglish
    4·
    1 month ago

    Private property, specifically your toothbrush, comrade.

    There’s always someone who doesn’t know so I’m contractually obligated to say that by property we mean the means of production and not any other personal belongings.

  • Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml
    2·
    1 month ago

    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.