Human Relationships in a Habitat

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "ANTIcarrot"
wrote:
> > From: victoriatangoman [mailto:tango_dancer@h...]
>
> > Does everyone in your town have a commute of 10 minutes? Do you
work
> > with your neighbors? Do you socialize only with people from the
> > town? Do you do all of your shopping in the town? Does nobody in
> > your town commute out of it? Do all of the children go to the
same
> > school? Do you go to any cultural activities outside of your
town?
>
> Does everyone in your town use the same street? Even on a small
colony there are going to be lots of places to go and not everyone
will go to all of them. No, I work in exterior maintinance. My
neighbor works in hydroponics and administration respectively.
Actually I do most of my shopping on-line for non-material goods. If
every in a colony brought a 1m shelf and books to fill it the total
would add up to 500 tons. Aside from food, buying 'things' is
largely impractical. Schools? Oh, you mean the collective education
farms? Oh, no-one's used those in ages...

Let me be more explicit in my point because I think you missed it
entirely.

For those high pressure personal scenarios that size of community or
distance away may solve, a small Habitat may become a pressure
cooker. Al Globus responded that he lives in a small town and these
dynamics aren't at work. I questioned whether his small town
experience is really limited to the small town, or does he have
access to the environs of a larger community.

On Earth, you may live in a small town of 10,000 people, but if your
little hamlet is 50 miles outside of NYC, then NYC is available to
you as a resource. People can work there, socialize there, shop
there, etc. Your life isn't confined to the environs of the town.
You have options available to you.

That isn't available to you at L5.

Now tell me the point of your response, because I missed how a book
shelf, books, 500 tons of total books, buying things,
and "collective education farms" support a coherent point. What is
it that you're trying to say?

>
> > I tend to think that modern life, with its long commutes to
work,
> > with neighbors that are strangers, with its suburban sprawl, is
the
> > safety valve of modern life. If you are confined to interact
with
> > only those 10,000 people your life becomes less varied.
>
> Because of course this colony would not have any telephones or
internet access would it? Or zero-gravity sports? Or television?
Presumably everyone in it also comes from exactly the same culture
and shares the same beliefs and values you do?
> And I imagine that intereacting with all of those 10,000 people
every day must get rather monotonous, not to mention tiring.

Your attempt at sarcasm isn't working very well.

> > I don't think the first Habitat will have the options of
commuting
> > to work or socializing with people who are 250,000 miles away.
>
> I disagree about the last. A second's delay would be barely
noticable on phone lines, and would make interactive gaming
impractical, but wouldn't affect other forms of interaction - like
the one we are currently using now.
>
> ANTIcarrot.

There is more to socializing than playing an online game or
participating in a discussion forum. It's nice to actually be with
people, to get away from "shop talk", to go to concerts, plays,
movies.

On Earth, even if you live in a small town, all of the features of
big cities are available to you.

If, in your small town, your wife takes up with your best friend,
you make a complete ass of yourself when you're drunk, you have a
feud with your neighbor, coworker, boss, or some other disaster or
embarassment falls upon you, you can spend a lot of your time away
from the town until things cool down, or actually move. These
options aren't available to you at L5.

Some people handle these issues better than others. They're not the
ones I'm curious about. Some guy may have no problem with his
cheating wife living across the street from him with his former best
friend, and seeing them every day. Other guys may go ballistic at
the sight of them every day. It's the latter situation that I'm
pondering.

My post has nothing to do with day to day life where everything is
hunky-dory and you can interact with your amiable neighbors and
coworkers and you're mostly satisfied with the lifestyle and range
of entertainment available to you.

My post was addressing what happens when things go wrong in the
personal relationships of people. This is usually what drives people
nutso. I don't hear too many instances of violence stemming from a
disagreement on whether the transfer shuttle should be solar ion, or
mass driver, propelled. I read about violence stemming from personal
relationships, jilted lovers, anger at not being promoted, drunken
brawls, etc.

You seem to be saying that if a person on the Habitat wants to avoid
people he should lock himself into his house and play video games,
watch DVD movies, or log onto the internet. This seems to me to be a
move in an antisocial direction and I'm not sure that such isolation
is the best medicine for the sour mood the person is in. On Earth,
they could always seek solice away from the environment that caused
them grief.

Any psychologists on this list want to offer an opinion?

TangoMan