A Modern Utopia?

It's the end of civilisation as we know it! It represents the destruction of traditional community values! Oh woe! Alas and alack! The 'clone towns' are upon us! That's all I seem to be hearing - people whingeing on about how awful it is that Britain's town centres are becoming more and more alike. Apparently the big chain stores have moved in to oust all those wonderful local shops. (You know the ones - they never stocked anything more exotic than tinned fruit and charged well over the odds for everything). But honestly, I don't know what people are complaining about - have they never read Sir Thomas More's Utopia? According to him, the perfect society would feature identical cities, each providing exactly the same amenities and services. That way there would be no necessity for people to travel anywhere - it was all the same. Not only are we heading that way with regard to shopping, but we're also getting there employment-wise, too. For professionals. distance working via phone and web increasingly eliminate the need to commute, whilst the destruction of the manufacturing sector and the advent of the 'flexible' employment market means that for the working classes there's a steady supply of locally-based low-paid casual jobs.

Now, you'd think that people, especially those middle class would-be environmentalists, would welcome such developments. Think of the massive reduction in carbon footprints if all long distance travel was eliminated. There's also a public safety aspect. By discouraging people to travel, they can instead be kept in the safely controlled environments of CCTV monitored shopping centres. Perfect safety - Utopia again! Also with fewer people travelling, terror attacks on the transport infrastructure would be less effective - Utopia! Crime too, would decline. After all, rather than being out robbing middle class people's houses, all those working class scumbags will be too busy shoplifting in those identikit town centres...

The people decrying the 'death' of traditional shops are generally well-off middle class tossers who can afford to pay for over-priced tat from twee little corner shops (just so long as their run by nice white people - God forbid we should have to deal with those Asian shop keepers). However, for the majority of less affluent working class people, the cheap and cheerful supermarkets and chain stores are a Godsend. Trust me, on the wages casual work pays, ASDA and Primark represent the pinnacle of the shopping experience. So, stop complaining you middle class bastards - we're living in a modern Utopia. Rejoice!