southernpine said:
Well, this is probably why a commune will not work!
Sure, you can take a ride in your iron hulk...for fun, while making noise and spewing out 100x as much pollution than the gentle Prius. But then, if I want to ride my especially loud Harley and puncture your eardrums, that is OK too.
Living communally or even relative close (as in many urban centers) requires compromises......most of them are no big things, but they also should not be taken lightly. As an example, we could not own dogs on The Farm. I really love my dog and make sure she does not disturb anyone, yet it is clear that not everyone does that. Some folks think it is OK to leave a dog bark all day on their one acre plot.
Let's face it - the commune of the 60's (and before) is probably not the future of housing. More likely, a lot of us will live in urban areas, condos, apartments and smaller homes. However, all of them also require compromises. But I think the benefits often outweigh what you give up. For instance, it is more important for me to be close to stores, bank, post office, etc. (less energy and time wasted) than to have a large dog. It is more important for me to have a neighborhood that is clean and looks nice, than to be able to build up my outdoor junk pile to no end.
In any case, I think in many ways we have a commune....many times over....here on the internet. Never before have so many been able to easily communicate and help each other so easily. On the Farm we called that "The Group Head", which meant a combination between the combined intelligence of us all (as opposed to just one of us) along with an emotional intelligence that we might define as consensus or agreement. An example might be this - the Hearth.com community, by and large, came to the agreement - through experience and research - that perhaps we could do better than the old OWBs. We may have a few who don't buy into that, but many have come to the realization that if we ALL want to burn wood, we have to do it cleanly and efficiently using the best technology. Not really too much different than the loud gas guzzler.......
A good modern society has room for all. Even densely populated European countries have a mix of urban, small town and even rural living. If anything, we in the US need less sprawling burbs and more towns and urban centers.....the tighter people are packed, the less energy they use (RI and MA. us 1/3 or less the energy per capita as WY or TX).
