...so I'm gonna tell you something here instead.

I think a future communist society would have more nomads. For the bulk of humanity's existence, nomadic life was the norm. Property and contractual obligation has made settled life mandatory in most of the imperial core, with a slim handful of exceptions.

Here in the states, the contradiction is mind-boggling. We're told the settlement of America was necessary to the establishment of freedoms, that nobody else enjoys as much liberties as we do today. And yet, for those "liberties", we had to stop people from leading nomadic lives. Corralled and marched people miles, so they could be free. Stole babes from families, so they could be free. Free to do what, exactly?

Centuries ago, nomadic life was a fundamental freedom for millions. Maybe it could be again...

~

...not that I know what that nomadic life would look like, or how it would interplay with settled life... just that it seems like something that should be striven for

    • machiabelly [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Being nomadic as an individual rather than as a community sounds terrible

      • Quizzes [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        It gets old pretty fast. It's only viable if you are being held back where you grew up and need to grow. Every time you move, people don't know the old you and you can start fresh with your accumulated coolness and knowledge. But after a few times you've got it down.

        • InappropriateEmote [comrade/them, undecided]
          ·
          2 years ago

          For some reason the OP deleted their comment, but as they described, it doesn't have to be a completely new set of people every time you move about. Especially with seasonal migration, you can have a set number of places that you spend your time at, knowing the people there and having a sense of community that you return to. You can also travel with a small group of people, never having to "start fresh" at all in that sense. I've known people who did do something similar for long periods of time and looked back on it as the best eras of their lives (albeit with an understandable sense of nostalgia).

          It sucks for those who are forced into it out of economic desperation, obviously. But there are endless ways that it could be (and has been) done without the loss of permanent community, and not out of necessity but out of a very human drive to explore. We have the word wanderlust for a reason.