Commune Lifestyle

Photo: http://www.gardenersworld.com/

Could you ever imagine going to a “Bathtub Dome” after you lunch period and taking a group bath with not only your peers but with teachers? Does the thought of this scenario make your cringe or think about how law enforcement officials would immediately raid a high school if they knew this kind of situation was occurring? During 1969, one high school in the Santa Cruz Mountains actually had dome-shaped dwellings where students and faculty partook in communal baths. This concept may sound extremely bizarre, but during the late sixties, communes were on the rise.

Even though protests and violence wrecked havoc during the sixties, some people wanted to seek refuge. In order to escape the “urban life, consumerism, and white-collar life,” (Kirkpatrick 139), many younger Americans decided to live in communes. In communes, people lived together and tried to focus on the simpler parts of life.  One resident of a commune described the mentality of commune residents and stated, “Invest in some land in the country, build a log cabin, grow your own vegetables, forget the future vice-presidency at the local computer programming office,” (Kirkpatrick 139). During this time period, many conservatives and other Americans had a difficult time accepting commune life. Personally, some aspects of commune life does not sound as horrible as most people portray it.

Many people in communes grew their own food and made their own clothes. Consumerism was a major problem during the sixties, and it has even engrossed present day society. From a scientific perspective, the amount of resources available to the human population (such as food) will eventually diminish. The amount of food that the Earth has is so limited, and the human population is drastically increasing.  As a population, we are slowly approaching the carrying capacity of food sources, and our population will suddenly decrease because more people will not have enough food to sustain life. In order to prevent the sudden loss of resources, we need to revaluate the way we consume and think about the resources on Earth. As a culture, Americans are constantly focusing on consumerism, and it is vital that we change our mentality. We need to limit the amount that we consume in order to ensure the survival of not only future generations of Americans, but also generations of populations around the world. Consuming goods is a pleasurable experience, but eventually the most pleasure out of life can be achieved by just focusing on the basic necessities.

The commune life style encouraged younger Americans to get away from pollution and consumerism and to revert to a much simpler life. In many countries around the world, people make their own clothes and grow their own food. Why did Americans found this to be such a hard concept to grasp during the sixties and even today? If we decide to grow our own food and make our own clothes, we might actually experience pleasure. Just think about it, maybe the accomplishment of knowing that your hard work helped produce some fresh vegetables will be such a gratifying experience. Maybe people will realize that doing something by yourself might be more pleasurable then just venturing out to the grocery store to buy “fresh” vegetables. It is something that our society should revaluate.

-Nidhi