How Did We Miss Out?

In the 1960's and 70's we were told that we would live in a world of eternal progress. We were told that as a result of continuous economic growth we would have so much leisure time in the twenty first century we would not know what to do with it. As we all know these prophecies have proved false. Many lives have been ruined by the economic troubles we have all endured as a result of political incompetence.

The fundamental reason we have been betrayed on this issue is because both prophets and politicians missed the one essential element of reorganisation for greater leisure. All their idealistic vistas assumed that jobs done by humans would continue to be done by humans. How different things might have been if we had harnessed all our available resources.

We have always used working animals. Oxen have pulled ploughs and horses have pulled canal barges. Sheepdogs have kept the sheep and Australians have run pubs. Surely it was a simple enough matter to extend this principle? Ask most people whether they like their jobs and they will say no. Animals would jump at the chance to do the jobs humans do not want to do and are probably better equipped for them in the first place.

Consider the domestic cat. There is a health and safety inspector in waiting. The cat will always find the warmest part of any environment and will leave a place which is continually below the health and safety temperature limit. Similarly a cat will always keep itself clean. If it starts licking itself you know the environment it is in is not up to standard. The paws of a cat are very susceptible to imperfections in flooring materials and cats do not like change. If a drawer is left open with the potential to cause injury the cat will be the first to notice it and meow at it for not doing what it should.

The domestic dog provides further examples. Dogs can hear high pitched noises beyond the audial range of humans. This makes them far more suited than humans to work as internet technicians. The internet transmissions which appear silent to humans do in fact make a noise. A dog would immediately be able to source an internet problem simply by listening to these noises. Dogs would also be excellent radio controllers and spies as they can listen to all transmissions simultaneously. They are already effective parks inspectors as the suitability of a park for all creatures can easily be gauged by how much a dog likes to run around it and how aggravated it gets when it sees nefarious goings-on in its territory. The dog is also a food inspector. If you are not sure whether your food is fresh or properly cooked just give a bit to your dog and their reaction will tell you all you need to know.

Of course the naysayers will complain that animals cannot talk or reason like humans. So what? Animals communicate with each other all the time and those who study these things can understand them. There is no reason why public services should not recruit naturalists to write dictionaries of animal langauges so that humans can communicate with them and vica versa. Similarly animals employ a reasoning faculty in everything they do which is why we observe patterns to their behaviour. It is not the same as human reasoning of course but that does not necessarily make it inferior. Compare the behaviour of animals with anyone involved with the Millenium Dome to take one example and it could easily be argued that the opposite is true.

In the twenty first century many jobs which were once the preserve of one gender are now open to both. There are plenty of male secretaries and nurses and female refuse workers and bus drivers. Was it really so difficult to make them open to animals too? The opportunity has not been irretrievably lost but as ever there are so many vested interests stacked against the employment of animals and the infrastructure alterations we need to make that happen. We cannot continue to stand idly by. It is time to ask of those who govern us "Where Is Our Future?" If all they are offering is more of the same they should be replaced by those who know better. Some years ago a cat was made joint leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party. The so-called loonies were clearly a lot wiser than they knew.