the Future Is Not What It Used To Be

Some utopians in the 1980s thought
of the future as place where machines
did most of the boring jobs, and man
(very few women shared this vision)
would be free of the shackles of labour
to see the world, like the rich young men
of the early 19th century who in their time
did grand tours of Europe. With the wealth
that they depended on theirs for the asking 
close behind them they went off to live in splendour.

But alas, modern freedom from drudgery
works for best for those who manage
other people's drudgery, where the more
the manager refines and defines the drudgery
the less the drudges can define it for themselves,
whilst their bosses reward themselves more
as they pass on, now screen related, drudgery
to people who to compensate for the inactivity
have to go factory-shaped gyms spaces
as free of character as where they work.