It may mystify many people as to why Governments take so much interest in how people spend their leisure. The truth is, outside of schools and colleges, leisure is where people build social circles and make opinions.
A certain type of political movement relies heavily on /1

mobilization of people. While Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were primarily held driven by fear, it is also true that the common people were mobilized by means of myth making and carefully creating common experiences for them.
Nazi Gauleiters made the traditional European /2

social activities, especially the annual holiday, an important part of their mobilization. Festive days were taken up by massive party and government shows and rallies, while local party bosses encouraged average people to sign for the Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy) /3

program. They'd get subsidized tickets for cultural shows, sports events and they could negotiate for deep bulk discounts on tours, cruises and the like. The Party was never away from you, at the workplace, your weekends, holidays and at vacation. The same style was adopted in /4

Soviet Russia. If the Komsomol and Hitler Jugend took care of childrens' leisure, the working classes were catered to by Strength through Joy and in USSR by the 'Right to Rest' program. Labour unions organized subsidized tickets, hotel rooms and sports events for factory /5

workers. All-boys trips, girls night outs, full family vacations - all managed by the local commissar.
This job is done in the West by television and the advertising agency. The only difference is, instead of a monolithic single party, it is various political and commercial /6