Time : The Neo Creadds Are Born (Ch.14e)

Time

Ch.14e

Jairis Speaks

     A speech, to an audience of the Neo Creadd movement, in an old Maneddonist church, in the centre of the City. Many of the members of the Marta City groups are there. Janus and Xiomondis have arranged for it to be filmed by a crew who make documentaries and news programmes for one of the live Vidnet channels – Channel 12.

     “It is the next major revolution in our society: – The Time Revolution! It is what everyone wants now. They have all the refrigerators, the protein tablets, the food supplements and replacements for real food, the instant time saving meals. They still do not have time to enjoy their food! They have the invention of the flycar, which few of us can now use, as our skies have been covered up or are too busy to safely use. We have the all encompassing Vidnet with the network of computers into every apartment home, every workplace and every place of education and training. We are all part of it now, but we have insufficient time to enjoy its use fully, and we have become enslaved by it also, in many ways.

      Vid games, numerous live channel entertainment, databases for music, literature, comedy and film, Vidnet ordering for shopping. Even holidays, can in theory be ordered and arranged through the great Vidnet, which few of us can enjoy due to labour rules which have increasingly taken our time away from us.

     Now all we need to complete the new lifestyle of the future is Time! Time to go on holiday more often, Time to watch all the films and series which are produced for us, Time to spend all this lovely money we are supposedly earning, Time to sort out our social and sexual lives, Time to spend all this lovely money we are earning.

     Already we see the young leaving the fast track jobs, the old ‘dinosaur jobs’ of 9 to 7 and well beyond, the ones where you get well paid to be in a competitive and harrowing environment, taking all the pressure you can cope with to the optimum breaking point. The jobs where after work you cannot do much else in your evening apart from worry about the tasks you have got to do the next day. The most intelligent of youth are taking most of the exams, landing the job at a fairly early age and finding out they’re disappointed because the job is dull, it is a stress nightmare, and the work activities they have spent half of their young lives working up to and trying to achieve are just not what they had hoped they would be. Instead of giving them the time to indulge themselves and their new income, to feel that they have arrived where they want to be, they are tired and despondent and not able to enjoy their new wealth. So they’re leaving these jobs, settling for less on lower pay in exchange for some freedom in the evenings, a chance to find or be with their partners if they are lucky enough to have one, or to indulge in some kind of hobby or relaxation.

     The ‘New Economics’ has been hailed by some in the government and the media in recent times. Employers were to be encouraged to headhunt for top employees by offering better ‘holiday packages’ and shorter working hours, as an inducement to the best staff. But I have not seen it yet, have you?”