Politics
Today communal living is almost always an activity on the left, a striving for liberté, egalité, fraternité. The political right is generally in favor of preserving what it considers traditional values; to experiment with new ways of life and work is thus correctly perceived as to be more part of the left.
Yet it remains difficult to avoid the emergence of hidden hierarchies. The gender-specific division of labor for example has a way of reaffirming itself in spite of the best intentions of all concerned. Which would not be so bad if there wasn’t also a ranking of important and less important work. The work of men maneuvering some heavy machinery on the land or constructing or renovating buildings ultimately is considered somehow more relevant than the inconspicuous continuous work of reproduction and care, cooking, cleaning, laundry, children – mostly done by women. Covid-19 might have brought a little bit of change into this perspective rendering visible what is ultimately “system-relevant”.