The Forum in Rome (and the agora in Greek cities) was the total opposite to malls...
Small producers with unique offerings and shops (as opposed to chain franchises), directly integrated within the city (as opposed to an isolated space existing outside of it), a vibrant place for social and political interaction (as opposed to a place for bored teens to shop and eat fast food where nothing political ever happens and citizens are isolated consumers), plus each was unique to the city (as opposed to finding an identical (or nearly identical) mall, with the same shops, in every town in the states...
So the irony is misguided to say the least...
Not to mention that 2000+ years later one would think we could do better than Rome...
The uniqueness was an artifact of the lack of advanced manufacturing and standardization was far lesser period even with things like munition armaments. It is kind of like complaining soldiers soldiers aren't as good at tetsudo formations, aren't as good at swinging swords and spears, and they don't buy every bit of gear they use in spite of being citizens.
Technically we did so much better than the Romans for goods availability across broad distances - aluminum used to be more expensive than gold and platinum (once it was judged as anything but worthless). The Washington Monument being aluminum tipped was showing off US production capabilities.
Now it is used for disposable drink cans which to denormalize things a bit to how /weird/ that would be - it would be like alchemy made gold so cheap that if you dumped a sacks of coins in a beggar's container they would be upset about you pouring garbage on them".
Materially about the only thing we lack in comparison are slaves and in most places legalized prostitution.
The lack of a social space is a valid complaint as my previous paragraphs highlighted the society in which they served changed vastly. Launching your own forum as a mayor wouldn't work as it did before as the nature of transit, employment, and communication changed around it.
Malls did serve as a pedestrian stagnant oasis in a desert of unwalkable road networks. They may not be that great but they were better than many alternatives.
>The uniqueness was an artifact of the lack of advanced manufacturing and standardization was far lesser period even with things like munition armaments.
We still had uniqueness in city stores and shopping arcades far after the age of "advanced manufacturing and standardization", e.g. well into the 70s.
In towns like Manhattan they in fact took pride in their variety of shops, restaurants, etc. and culturally resisted malls and chains and same in several places in Europe. So it's not like "advanced manufacturing and standardization" automatically translates to malls, and bland cookie cutter one's at that.
Besides, my point wasn't that the ancient agora/forum was different from malls because of some virtuous choice - just that it was different, period. If that was out of necessity, that's fine too.
“it’s massively popular but I think it’s dumb so I’m not going to try to understand anything more” is kinda how I read the comment I was replying to. Sorry I got snarky, I’m somewhat surprised I wasn’t downvoted to oblivion.
I’m not a fan of malls personally, but that attitude seems overly dismissive of a phenomenon that engaged a significant portion of the population. Clearly there is something important going on there, even if we might not like it.
Well, I started the thread responding to a snarky one-liner that added even less to the conversation, so there's that.
I replied in earnest with a sizable comment comparing the two things (forums and malls) from several aspects (uniqueness, social function, etc), so that surely added something.
And, no, I'd say "signaling disapproval" does add to the conversation. In fact "signaling disapproval" is a large and necessary part of human conversation, and essential for forming social conceptions and hierarchies...
