I’m not talking about creative activity, I’m talking about paid slavery, which is exactly what work is, like it or not. Actual physical slavery requires that the slaves be housed and fed, whereas economic slavery requires us slaves to house and feed ourselves. It’s a clever trick and of course there are incentives, reasons to turn up for work everyday; bonuses, promotions, company cars or just good old fashioned affording the rent. And that’s the way it’s always going to be as long as money makes the world go round. But wait a minute, I don’t think money does make the world go round, in fact I think it hinders our evolution and if we can live without money then what’s left to work for?

I hear them say, like it’s a bad thing! Why do we defend this system that steals the fruits of our labour and obliges us to buy them back? The Post War Consumer Boom is finally coming to an end. The need to accumulate crap is subsiding. Man is finding himself in the golden years of his life and wants to put his feet up at last. We, and our ancestors, ancestors have toiled long enough, the time is nearing when our work will be done.

We’ve all heard stories about blokes being laid off from car manufacturers because they invented a machine that can do the job, and this technological progression is seen in a negative light because it puts men out of work. Which is a brilliant case in point; why can’t we invent machines that put us all out of work? Technicians have never dared to take labour saving devices too seriously, for fear of exactly that, the loss of labour. But look around you, everything you see is man-made, except for the natural things which are here by the grace of “God”. This computer, your chair, the building you’re in, the car you drive, your cooker, the carpet or whatever; all were initially conceived in the human imagination - it’s nothing short of incredible. We have within us a problem-solving machine of such brilliance that if it is not kept busy it will invent problems to solve. Our brains are our greatest tool in this life and yet we only use 10% of them, what’s going on with that? By subjecting ourselves to the life of a wage slave, we are not fulfilling our potential. Who knows what we could invent, if only we dared to.

When we were asked as children what we wanted to be when we grew up, we were expected to answer with a profession. My childhood aspirations saw me as a firewoman, it was never going to happen but I was allowed to dream, when I got to high school however, they wanted me to choose for real (at 14? I mean, come on!). It looked like I might go for the arts, acting and such, I was a bit of a show off, big gob; you know the type. School didn’t really cater for rock stardom, which is what I believed I wanted then. Eventually Sixth Form Performing Arts taught me what I didn’t want to be and I soon learned that rock stardom took as much hard work as any other profession (Yeah right, try telling that to my Mum and Dad).

Soon I learned I didn’t want to be a rock star either, certainly not a celebrity. But that is what kids today think they want to be; glamour models and WAGS or whatever. I think they just don’t want a proper job and I can totally empathise with that. Here I am almost 30, not a qualification to my name and happy as can be. I’ve no pension, I’ll probably never afford a home of my own and I couldn’t care less. The old norms are beginning not to matter, we’ve seen that life goes on without the newest fangled gimmick on the market and we know damn well it’ll be obsolete in a month. We’ve lost interest, at least some of us have.

I’d like it if our days we’re spent educating the children with all of the skills of their families and neighbours; crafts, medicine, languages, natural beauty and wildlife. In the evenings we’d gather with our community on the local green and share food and home-brews; singers would sing, children would play, actors would act, and nobody would have to worry about anything because they haven’t got work in the morning. Life could be about families again, help would always be at hand and nobody would be too busy to care...
Ferris Bueller was right; Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.