13/03: Time-Released Bliss, or, This blog will be infinitely better in 2010
Category: General
Posted by: jamespothmer
TIME-RELEASED BLISS is when a company, government or individual tells you that great things are coming in the future in order to distract you from the mess they've created today.
Take the much maligned 2008-9 NY Knicks. No one talks about the earnest yet hapless team presently on the court at MSG. Instead, it’s all about the year 2010, when they will finally have some salary cap room and which is also the year that LeBron James and Dewayne Wade will be free agents and might possibly accept their gazillions.
Why dwell on present tense mediocrity when we can envision a dream hypothetical two years out?
That's TIME-RELEASED BLISS.
Exhibit B: Chevy. What's the best way to diffuse talk of bankruptcy and bailouts and gas-guzzlers? Spend tens of millions running Super Bowl and other ads for the Volt, an electric car that may or may not be available in limited numbers until late 2010.
TIME-RELEASED BLISS.
By the way, maybe the Volt should be the Official Car of the Knicks in 2010.
When will combat troops be out of Iraq? Mid to late 2010.
TIME-RELEASED BLISS.
Have you noticed the promos NBC has been running during its increasingly weak prime time broadcasts telling us to get ready for the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010?
It’s not about 2010. It’s about distracting us from the mess they’re in, and the mediocrity they’re selling us today.
What happens to a nation being encouraged to live in the future because living in the moment is apparently such a bummer?
Beats me. But my second novel is coming out in late 2010 and I expect nothing less that a Nobel.
Take the much maligned 2008-9 NY Knicks. No one talks about the earnest yet hapless team presently on the court at MSG. Instead, it’s all about the year 2010, when they will finally have some salary cap room and which is also the year that LeBron James and Dewayne Wade will be free agents and might possibly accept their gazillions.
Why dwell on present tense mediocrity when we can envision a dream hypothetical two years out?
That's TIME-RELEASED BLISS.
Exhibit B: Chevy. What's the best way to diffuse talk of bankruptcy and bailouts and gas-guzzlers? Spend tens of millions running Super Bowl and other ads for the Volt, an electric car that may or may not be available in limited numbers until late 2010.
TIME-RELEASED BLISS.
By the way, maybe the Volt should be the Official Car of the Knicks in 2010.
When will combat troops be out of Iraq? Mid to late 2010.
TIME-RELEASED BLISS.
Have you noticed the promos NBC has been running during its increasingly weak prime time broadcasts telling us to get ready for the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010?
It’s not about 2010. It’s about distracting us from the mess they’re in, and the mediocrity they’re selling us today.
What happens to a nation being encouraged to live in the future because living in the moment is apparently such a bummer?
Beats me. But my second novel is coming out in late 2010 and I expect nothing less that a Nobel.