A lot of western communities are designed to stimulate consumerism. A lot of things to do in your free time revolve around buying stuff or drinking (alcohol). Even eating in your free time costs money, sometimes a lot of money even.

I live in a city that claims to have the most bars, cafés, restaurants etc. in the world. A lot of free time here revolves around drinking. I also sit down at a café often.

Recently a new park opened close to where I live. When it was flaming hot outside I went to spent my evenings there at some water pools and had diner there. A lot of people around me were just chilling, chatting and playing games. It reminded me of covid, when everything was closed (bars and shops). Everyone in the city was just outside, vibing in parks, playgrounds and similar places.

It made me wonder how a communist society would effect free time. A lot of lesser capitalistic, more collectivist societies already seem to focus on different ways to spend free time.

What do you guys think about this? Does anyone have some interesting theory to read regarding this topic?

  • Neptium@lemmygrad.ml
    12·
    2 years ago

    That’s one thing I am appreciative of being raised in a muslim household. I eventually did try drinking a few times, and it never really was appealing. It was expensive as well, in that it was an additional expense that you must pay for if you want it.

    I think Engels remarked on the drinking habits of factory workers. I actually found it, under his work The Condition of the Working Class in England:

    Besides these, there are other influences which enfeeble the health of a great number of workers, intemperance most of all. All possible temptations, all allurements combine to bring the workers to drunkenness. Liquor is almost their only source of pleasure, and all things conspire to make it accessible to them. The working-man comes from his work tired, exhausted, finds his home comfortless, damp, dirty, repulsive; he has urgent need of recreation, he must have something to make work worth his trouble, to make the prospect of the next day endurable. His unnerved, uncomfortable, hypochondriac state of mind and body arising from his unhealthy condition, and especially from indigestion, is aggravated beyond endurance by the general conditions of his life, the uncertainty of his existence, his dependence upon all possible accidents and chances, and his inability to do anything towards gaining an assured position. His enfeebled frame, weakened by bad air and bad food, violently demands some external stimulus; his social need can be gratified only in the public-house, he has absolutely no other place where he can meet his friends. How can he be expected to resist the temptation? It is morally and physically inevitable that, under such circumstances, a very large number of working-men should fall into intemperance … Drunkenness has here ceased to be a vice, for which the vicious can be held responsible; it becomes a phenomenon, the necessary, inevitable effect of certain conditions upon an object possessed of no volition in relation to those conditions. They who have degraded the working-man to a mere object have the responsibility to bear. But as inevitably as a great number of working-men fall a prey to drink, just so inevitably does it manifest its ruinous influence upon the body and mind of its victims.

    A south Korean comrade of mine talked about how Soju was used during the heights of the dictatorship by workers to tolerate the terrible working conditions. Maybe drinking now has taken a more cultural value and less strictly as a functional value as in the past, especially in the West, but I think the effect is the same.

    Sometimes I think (this is conjecture, don’t take it too seriously lol) that industrial capitalism could have never taken place ‘properly’ in muslim-majority areas like it did in England because of Islam’s view on drinking. Well, atleast in the past.

    But definitely I think free time will be spent much differently in a communist society. I for one would atleast stop feeling anxious everytime I spend some time for myself and not for the ‘grind’. Didn’t some doctors in the US started perscribing people to visit national parks to improve their mental health?

    I like to end with this quote that one of my lecturers used, taken in the same section as the previous text.

    When a class can purchase few and only the most sensual pleasures by its wearying toil, must it not give itself over blindly and madly to those pleasures?

    • bleepingblorp@lemmygrad.ml
      12·
      2 years ago

      I lived in South Korea for a couple years, have family there, and visit often, so will supplement your input on South Korean drinking habits with my own observations.

      South Koreans definitely ingest a lot of alcohol (many boast it is the most in the world!), and in many cases bosses mandate workers drink together after work most nights. One might argue this would improve relationships between workers… except for the fact that management is nigh always present so workers still need to maintain the mask.

      And in those workplaces that don’t mandate those sorts of things, workers still very frequently drink after work together. Students and friends also usually resort to drinking almost instinctively there.

      While the nightlife, drinking, and eating in Korea is a lot of fun (or at least I loved it), it is a struggle to find alternative ways to spend your time if you wished to do so. There weren’t a lot of parks where I spent most of my time (Seoul), and you need to search a bit harder to find other ways to spend time.

      Outside of alcohol and restaurants, it wasn’t hard to find tea shops, open air markets, and the like, but those all still require the expenditure of money.

      To Korea’s credit though, there were a number of museums and cultural artifacts like old palaces that were interesting to visit all free of charge. And spiritually the Buddhist temples were very beautiful places to spend my time (I’m a Buddhist, so I gravitated there spiritually). With the exception of the temples though, most of those types of things closed after dark, which meant day shift workers would’ve been working during the opening hours.

      Also, workers very frequently work 6-7 days a week for 12 hours at a time, not including time spent in mandatory drinking time. And the hourly wage is absolutely insufficient for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Rents in Seoul are absolutely atrocious, even in slums. Public transportation while I lived there was affordable and reliable, and still is, but now taxi rates have skyrocketed and are approaching levels common in the US. Public transportation shuts down at night, usually from 11pm to 7am), so often during those hours taxis are the only way to get home or anywhere. Of course, pubs and restaurants stay open until about 6am, so many workers spend that time there instead of trying to get a taxi home.

      There is definitely a lot more I could say, but needless to say workers there definitely need more options! And my experience is mostly in Seoul, the most developed city in South Korea. As you get to less developed areas, the conditions only worsen, except rent rates. Seoul is definitely the most expensive for rent.

    • DankZedong @lemmygrad.mlOP
      10·
      2 years ago

      That’s one of the reasons why there are so many bars in this city. It’s a rougher working class city originally. And having a lot of bars where the workers can just drink away the hardships of life just ‘happens’ to prevent worker uprising really.

      It’s one of the things that led me to created this post. If the working class no longer gets exploited, other means of recreation can be found. Means that don’t wreck the health and lifes of so many people (not that I am against alcohol or something, just the role it plays in current day society).

      • Neptium@lemmygrad.ml
        6·
        2 years ago

        Definitely. I would rate alcohol on par with other conventionally banned or illegal drugs, meaning it shouldn’t be illegal (like it is for muslims in my country), atleast in an ‘ideal’ future. Controlled use is completely fine.

    • XiaoFeiJu@lemmygrad.ml
      42·
      2 years ago

      This is why it’s so important to have a good marital life you guys… especially sexual life. Remember that having sex with your spouse costs $0.00 and enriches you and your spouse, but does not enrich capitalism. If your only source of entertainment takes away the money that you just made, you’ll never improve your conditions. I understand not everyone is in the conditions or even wants to get married, but married couples must learn to have fun without spending money.