Countless social revolutions started from people who had the time to get socially engaged e.g. students and academics.
Keeping people busy with real or artificial work is extremely common in dictatorships.
Keeping people busy with real or artificial work is extremely common in dictatorships.
They all disliked unemployed people and often forced them into work or in the military, loathed artists and writers that were able to work independently. They glorified "work for work's sake".
Created work artificially through gargantuan public works, bureaucracy and... war - the ultimate instrument to keep people busy and give them a common purpose.
Not sure if this counts but this image of a soldier mopping in the rain comes to mind.