Ideas 3...A Leisure Orientated Society

In a highly automated society, insufficient job satisfaction and inadequate purposeful employment, will be apparent. The creation of a leisure orientated society which would instil feelings of purpose and satisfaction, thereby maintaining a civilised cohesive entity, is essential if the human race is to survive into the foreseeable future. Creating a leisure orientated society will not only cost an enormous amount of money to establish, but will also require drastic fundamental changes in the way society operates, and more importantly in the way people view work and reward.

Artificial Intelligence and androids will be introduced into the workplace by 2030, although expert systems software is likely to replace jobs in call centres and concessions areas in stores before then. Amazon Fresh opened the UK's first automated concessions system in March 2021 in west London. Just load the app onto your cell phone at the entrance and as you walk out with your groceries you are automatically charged for them. There are hundreds of thousands of people working in concessions (behind the till) in the UK, many of them young with few employment prospects. The pace of change depends largely upon government policy. The policy in the UK is one not of a science based economy, but instead that of a quick fix, where graduates having spent ten years in higher education are employed on a project related basis only, whilst many of them are recruited from abroad. As for the pace of change, it is much swifter in the PRC than the UK, but with the introduction of AI into government and company planning, the pace is likely to pick up just about everywhere. Will the human race be able to cope?

People would still have a job, although the number of hours actually worked would probably be around ten hours per week, and would consist mainly of supervising the supervisors, and attending meetings related to company policy and future planning. The importance of keeping people occupied in order to keep crime rates low, is the fundamental reason for having people engaged in leisure activities. The relief of stress whilst raising the quality of life through active participation in sport, is justification enough for the expenditure of huge sums of money to finance the building of huge sport and leisure centres.

In a leisure orientated society, people would be paid to pursue sport and leisure activities in addition to receiving their company wage, company annual profits bonus, company share dividend and state universal benefit. It was a pity that at this time the British Government was not creating worker co-operatives out of state owned assets, since many of the workers from these once nationalised industries would later be made redundant with nothing but the dole to fall back on. Instead, most of the shares in the sale of nationalised industries, would be bought by wealthy institutions.

At the very least, payments to participants for sport and leisure involvement would be necessary in order to overcome people's resigned acceptance of their otherwise imposed sedentary lifestyle. To be paid for pursuing sport and leisure activities may sound ridiculous, but the reasons are obvious even as I write this. With the growth of television in the 196Os, British society became far more introverted, whilst the increased sale of alcohol in supermarkets coupled with the fear of crime on the streets speeded up this trend. Being propositioned by female and gay prostitutes in pubs and bars, has resulted in people going out less in the evenings, and speaking to one another less, even within the family. Lack of sufficient human interaction is a major cause of mental illness and crime. Advances in information technology will increase this trend if it is not counteracted by the creation of an attractive alternative, such as sport and leisure employment.

Leisure centres and amusement - theme parks have been around for many years in Great Britain and elsewhere. As in many other countries the main stumbling block to their utilization has been afford ability of access by visitors, and the weather. Access would be free. Hopefully technology will be able to solve the weather problem by building huge domes possibly a kilometre in diameter, which will enable an hospitable artificial environment to be created, including wave generators and wind machines for surfing, sailing and parachuting, etc. Similar structures for sport already exist in Japan, Dubai, Germany, etc.

Each sport and leisure complex would serve roughly one hundred thousand people, located where good communications by road and rail existed. Given the necessary encouragement, by government, the necessary finance could be found by private enterprise.

Many sports such as rock climbing, gliding, micro light flying, cricket, football, rugby, baseball, tennis, basketball, squash, badminton, archer, snooker, gymnastics, trampolining, orienteering, camping, caravanning, cycling, BMX, swimming, surfing, wind surfing, paddle boarding, canoeing, dingy sailing, high diving, scuba diving, white water rafting, flying trapeze, parachuting, sky diving freefall, motor racing, stock car driving, scrambling, speedway, horse riding, show jumping, dog handling and ballooning, etcetera, carry a certain amount of risk. Hopefully an enlightened general public will see the long term benefits of such risky pastimes, and consider it justified. In a controlled environment these risks would be kept to a minimum. With increasing age, people become less adventurous and able.

For senior citizens and the disabled, lighter pursuits such as reading, gardening, model making, card games, cooking, photography, learning languages, computer programming, IT graphics, making porcelain/ceramics, metalwork, jewelry, woodwork, glassware, stain glass, repair/restoration and collecting (antiques, stamps, animals), would be considered acceptable alternatives, many of which would be pursued at local authority evening class. Elsewhere there is animal welfare, environmental conservation programmes, archaeology projects, for which monetary reward would be given. Only approved activities involving human interaction and skill would be eligible for financial reward. For those considered physically fit, human effort would also be considered a requirement. A programme of sport and leisure activities would therefore be drawn up to suit each individual, with emphasis on mental as well as physical capabilities and needs.

As IT, AI and short term contracts in the workplace take over, the opportunity for people to converse face to face, and thereby make friends, becomes less. Parliament's social engineering, namely promoting women's lib (prostitution, lesbianism and the right to bring up a delinquent child without tough love from a male partner), has simply destroyed men's incentive to work. You no longer work for the family. For those sick of spending years talking to themselves at home, there are a number of ways to make contact with the distant species. You can go on the internet, and end up talking to someone who only wants your money. Shout at the TV news reader. I scream at that worthless shit, the laptop. You can try conversing with someone in a queue, cafe, pub, organise a party with those noisy neighbours or pub regulars, or simply get a pet. I tried reconnecting with old friends, but at my age they're probably all dead. Not having a car, I find a big stumbling block. HMG and the banks/building societies could set up an official dating agency, which would fix you up with someone of similar intelligence and financial standing, but as with everything else, they just couldn't give a damn. It could all be done with AI, as could the removal of fraud from the internet and telephone systems of the world, but plainly there are governments who don't like the idea of their cities becoming nuclear targets.

There are unfortunately many people who have given up with the idea of finding a companion. Experiencing family life, the noise, the bills, the arguments and above all the stress, with nowhere to hide, is never forgotten, nor forgiven. In a quiet home, decorated to one's own taste, one can focus on self improvement through exercise, diet and rest. Reducing responsibilities makes financial planning easier, less stressful, whilst knowing that most of that is now on the shoulders of your former partner, can be amusing. You can now invite friends around without causing friction, like the time she made sandwiches out of pet food instead of prime salmon. The bitch! And no more mother-in-law interrogating her daughter's sex life, whilst craving to get her nails into your body as she nags you to despair. The bitches!

The average British family watched twenty-seven hours of television per week in the 1980s, whilst the main participating sports were darts and snooker at the local public house or working men's club. As for Birmingham, hardly any pub had games facilities. For the population as a whole, gardening and attending sports matches as a spectator were less actively pursued. Improving the quality of people's lives should be the main priority of any government. At this time British sport was confined to drab Victorian stadiums, since rebuilt, with many of those people present, merely spectators. Whilst Dubai can have a minister for happiness, the average UK citizen gets a one hundred and twenty year old Victorian hovel, and the drab British climate, to dampen any feelings of healthy longevity. So much for twenty-first century sci-fi movies.

Believe it or not, the most popular person on British television is that mass murderer Adolf Hitler. Programmes glorifying war are hard wiring people into being violent. In recent decades HMG has promoted gambling and prostitution. Addiction to both, along with constant interactions with alcohol, mobile phones, washing machines, your car and the constant buying of unnecessary clothes, has been ignored by government and the media. Clearly many people are not living fruitful and meaningful lives. What will happen when AI and androids come along. Will they see the importance of people constantly going to a football match, or the local pub? Just how much tollerance can you program into an android, before it starts nagging you? It will want you to pursue a lifestyle in science, won't it. After all, that's the only thing that aliens appear to be doing. I can't help thinking that when AI comes along, people's outlook on life will totally change, or else. With no direction from a world order, it's impossible to predict what will be the outcome.

In July 2023 the state of Victoria in Australia announced it was pulling out of providing the Olympic games venue due to a cost of A$6 billion. This was quickly followed by Alberta, Canada, due to a projected cost of C$2.7 billion. So why doesn't the Commonwealth Games Federation come up with a mobile games venue base upon prefabricated stadiums and sports halls, with tented villages for the athletes, etc. The tents could either be put into storage between games, or handed to charities for use in trouble spots or disaster regions. Putting mobile entertainment in tents is not a new idea, since circuses have been doing that for decades.

In a leisure orientated society, retirement for the elderly is replaced by reduced working, where the number of hours worked would be only that necessary to give an individual an identity. The replacement of retirement with paid leisure, would add quality to the lives of senior citizens, who under the present system feel rejected and forgotten. About half the elderly population in the UK live alone and don't go on holiday. It's about time HMG set up a state funded and organised dating agency, since they have the databases to make it work. Bringing people together would make more housing available. At the present time most dating agencies are a con.

The failure of HMG to keep visits and residence to EU the same as before Brexit, is likely to result in serious repercussions. There are many UK citizens who own villas in the EU, who either never registered with authorities at Brexit, or have bought villas since, contrary to regulations. Regulations since, backed up by software, photo and fingerprint technology, is likely to result in UK citizens being forced to sell their villas, and receive heavy fines in the process. Of course they planned never to return to the UK, so they would never be interrogated at an EU border. However, not to be left out, HMG has decided to implement a national identity card system, that will probably prevent all financial transactions without one, including pensions. Whether HMG allows applications at UK embassies remains to be seen. Would the EU impede this, or monitor the process? If not permitted, villa owners will be obliged to enter the UK surreptitiously, rather than be interrogated by EU border officials about residency matters at the border. Would the UK border force let them in? And all so that they can receive their pensions.

Of course a happy early retirement has to be afforded. Here is a list of companies and funds that are popular amongst ISA millionaires.

In my youth my brother and I went sailing at the Middle Nene Cruising Club at Thrapston. That club no longer exists. Probably due to people switching to the internet for their entertainment. My brother pursued the sport of gliding in later life, but I, like millions of other people in the UK, do not go out. The last time I went out, one year ago, I was banned from my favourite bar, that I had been going to for 7 years prior to the pandemic, because I had not responded to something the doorman had said to me. I simply did not hear him. I then went to another bar and paid for half a pint of cola with my debit card. Looking at my bank statement a few days later, I learned that I had been charged incredibly, six pounds. You don't need to look any further to see why pubs, bars and night clubs are in the decline. They have had to endure two years of lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic, plus one year of high energy prices, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In addition many elderly do not go out because, like me, they are suffering from arthritis, much of it caused by lack of expose to sunshine. And of course the real price of alcohol is ridiculously high compared to what it is in other European countries. Then of course there is the government's failure to provide people with secure employment and a mate. Most dating agencies on the internet are a fraud, so why doesn't HMG set up their own which people can trust? Their support for homosexuals has spread distrust in strangers across the nation, whilst the influx of illegal migrants, economic migrants stealing our jobs, criminals on the run and terrorists, which is now costing almost £2 billion per annum in 2023, is creating a mongrel nation full of even more distrust and dread for the future. Many people don't even know who there neighbours are. Many city dwellers live in tower blocks, that have become like catacombs. HMG appears incapable of designing a society that works. Their social engineering, which has had absolutely no support from the electorate, because they were not consulted, is a subtle disaster that not even the media has commented on. For reasons I fail to understand, they want slavery through the gig economy, not job security. So it would seem that a leisure orientated society is merely a utopian ideal that will never be fulfilled. This above all is an excellent reason for abandoning multi-party democracy in favour of a world technocracy. Will this ever be debated in the United Nations and then implemented, or will unrestricted capitalism continue to be given a free reign to ultimately trash civilisation? Dream on.

Due to overcrowding at holiday resorts around the MED, I made this comment on Edge browser on 24-09-25: I haven't had a holiday in over 40 years, and I haven't had a holiday abroad since the age of 11. I am now 77 years old, so I don't know if I'm qualified to comment, but I will. Many of these holiday makers in Ibeza and elsewhere, go to a place in the sun because they suffer from arthritis. It's caused by lack of vitamin D3, caused by insufficient exposure to sunshine, and at least 2 years of Covid-19 lockdown. Others go there because they are sick of the UK climate due to global warming. The cyclones in the Caribbean no longer fizzle out over a cold north Atlantic Ocean. Others are sick of unemployment and broken marriages and need cheering up, whilst others realise that the leisure orientated society, with all those industrial robots doing the work, has finally arrived. Only politicians fail to get the message. Meanwhile the EU has prevented UK citizens from buying properties around the Med, due to their 3-9 month rule. And of course, these places are cheap to get to, unionised workers and hackers permitting. Whilst there is no co-ordination amongst travel agents to prevent this. The perfect holiday storm hitting Ibeza and elsewhere.