{"id":19619,"date":"2013-12-04T11:42:01","date_gmt":"2013-12-04T17:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidmcelroy.org\/?p=19619"},"modified":"2013-12-04T11:42:01","modified_gmt":"2013-12-04T17:42:01","slug":"banned-super-bowl-ads-its-a-new-way-for-you-to-cheaply-play-victim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=19619","title":{"rendered":"Banned Super Bowl ads? It’s a new way for you to cheaply play victim"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Reporter's<\/a>Random recent thoughts that never led to longer pieces, sometimes because of time\u00a0<\/em>constraints:<\/i><\/p>\n

I\u2019m amused by the dishonest games<\/strong> that some companies and political causes play today related to Super Bowl ads. Here\u2019s the new way to get attention. Make a cheap 30-second spot with a controversial message that you know the NFL will reject. (There are plenty of mainstream bidders for those ads, so the NFL doesn\u2019t need to take a chance on causing controversy that it can avoid. Any savvy media buyer can explain this to you.)<\/p>\n

Then submit the ad to the league and wait to be told that it\u2019s not the sort of ad the NFL wants for the Super Bowl. After that, start yelling loudly about censorship and then get outraged people online to all share your banned\u201d ad \u2014 an ad that nobody else would have watched otherwise. This way, tons of people see your ad and you\u2019re not required to pay $4 million for an ad that you couldn\u2019t afford anyway. Smart, huh? Yes, but very dishonest.<\/p>\n

A gun company is doing it<\/a> this year. PETA was doing it<\/a> as far back as 2009. And others have been doing it since then. Some might see it as just being smart, but I see it as really dishonest, because the people who are complaining about being banned had no intention of spending $4 million to ran an ad. (Most of them almost certainly had no ability to spend that kind of money for 30 seconds of air time.)<\/p>\n

Trying to write something that\u2019s completely honest<\/strong> and true is difficult, because ego and \u201cspin\u201d try hard to get into the way. The more honest and true I can be with my words, the more simple and clean they feel to me. When my ego has an agenda, the words seem convoluted and slimy, even if they\u2019re persuasive, like what you\u2019d expect from a used car salesman. Writing anything that\u2019s completely clean and honest is hard, but when it happens, it feels as though I’ve cleaned something on the inside. I wish I could feel more often that I’ve successfully done it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve recently realized that one of the biggest reasons<\/strong> I look forward to making a lot of money is that it will give me the ability to patronize the rare artists who I actually care about supporting in a semi-serious way. I don\u2019t care about the trappings of wealth that matter to most people, but the idea of being able to underwrite the production of an album that would otherwise go unrecorded or a film that I want to see produced is a powerful incentive.<\/p>\n

Once a narrative gets established<\/strong>, it doesn\u2019t matter whether it\u2019s true or not. Everybody \u201cknows\u201d it\u2019s true and keeps telling the same story.<\/p>\n

Some marriages remind me of the old movie<\/strong>, \u201cWeekend at Bernie\u2019s<\/a>.\u201d The marriage is dead, but somebody keeps dragging the body around and pretending it\u2019s still alive.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting to realize how much of our judgment<\/strong> about other people is made from subtle clues we\u2019re not fully conscious of. We notice some little thing about a person or situation and draw tentative conclusions, possibly unconsciously modifying the conclusions as more subtle clues show up. We decide things about people \u2014 whether we like them, whether they\u2019re trustworthy, whether they\u2019re safe for us to be around \u2014 and we\u2019re rarely aware of why we really think those things (even though we justify our opinions in an after-the-fact way).<\/p>\n

We sometimes come to unfair conclusions about people this way, but the truth is that our unconscious heuristics are right far more often than they\u2019re mistaken.<\/p>\n

For some people, life is mostly a long series<\/strong> of con games \u2014 a desperate attempt to get their need of the moment filled without real reciprocation. To them, things such as love and trust are to be unconsciously faked, partly because they\u2019re afraid and partly because they don\u2019t know how to really love or trust. Like emotionally undeveloped small children, they simply manipulate people into giving them what they need in the moment.<\/p>\n

Unless they ever learn what\u2019s important and take dangerous emotional risks, all they\u2019ll ever do is con people around them \u2014 people who trust them and who believe what the glib false exterior is telling them. I feel sorry for people like this, because they\u2019re more like scared animals backed into a corner than they\u2019re like those who want to hurt anyone. Many of them even feel guilty for how they live. But they don\u2019t know another way to live, so life is painful, exhausting, pointless and dishonest.<\/p>\n

A simple look at what I\u2019m eating<\/strong> tells me how well I\u2019m doing emotionally each day. If I\u2019m eating good foods, I\u2019m doing well. If I\u2019m eating junk, I\u2019m probably in a dark place emotionally (or heading there). It\u2019s a bit like a sugary mood ring.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t like empty cliches or most expressions of dogma<\/strong>, whether they\u2019re about politics, theology or most anything else. When you say some version of, \u201cThis is the complete truth and I\u2019m here to educate you,\u201d you cut off discussion and connection with others. You put yourself above others. And when you do that with cliches, you preemptively cut off discussion in a pious way that makes it clear you don\u2019t welcome thinking and insight. The worst part, though, is that those most likely to use these cliches and dogma have never honestly questioned their own assumptions, so they\u2019re likely to feel superior to those they\u2019re lecturing, even if they\u2019re lecturing in good faith.<\/p>\n

The more I think and feel and experience, the more I realize that all I can say is, \u201cThis is what I\u2019ve experienced, so this is what I currently believe truth is.\u201d What I believe in a decade \u2014 or five years or maybe even six months \u2014 might contradict some of what I believe is truth today. But all I can do is to share what I believe to be true \u2014 and be ready to change my mind when I discover ways in which I\u2019ve been wrong.<\/p>\n

The passions that motivate us seem to run in packs<\/strong>. When one of them disappears, the others all seem to follow. I never used to understand what artists meant when they spoke of a muse that motivated them. But I understand now. A muse is just a passion \u2014 most typically a deeply expressed love for someone else \u2014 and that passion attracts other passions.<\/p>\n

Collectively, they can ignite desires and capabilities that bring out the best and most visionary in a person. That seems to be why a muse enables a writer or other artist to find something inside that has been hiding. The muse doesn\u2019t bring anything that wasn\u2019t already there, but the presence of the muse is the passion that lights an internal fire that makes the artist manifest what he\u2019s really been hiding all along.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m not sure that any great art or great achievement happens without a muse to light the fire of passion.<\/p>\n

If you think fast food wages are too low<\/strong>, then don\u2019t take those jobs. If you are worth more than what fast food jobs pay, someone will offer you money appropriate to the value you can bring to a job. If you are NOT worth more money, then improve yourself and become worth more. Those are your choices.<\/p>\n

Complaining that someone should pay you more than the value you provide just makes your look like someone who doesn\u2019t understand voluntary exchange. No one owes you a job or a living. It\u2019s your business to make yourself worth employing at higher wages.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m very aware of evil and injustice<\/strong> in the world around me, but I don\u2019t usually waste my time anymore on angry arguments and unwinnable fights \u2014 which do nothing positive for me or others. This seems to confuse some people. I\u2019m more interested in finding loving ways that good people can safely live in peace than I am in defeating and arguing with those who try to stop us.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a longer-term strategy, but I believe it will actually work \u2014 and it\u2019s an approach that lets me enjoy the good that\u2019s in the world instead of just being obsessed with the evil.<\/p>\n

People who are actively fighting the coercive state are fighting on the government\u2019s terms. I don\u2019t fight the state. I\u2019m simply waiting for what I see as its inevitable collapse. Every empire eventually crumbles. Some are entirely destroyed and some stick around as shadows of what they once were.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s dangerous and counter-productive to try to bring the coercive state system down. The smart alternative is to plan for how to take advantage of the point in history when it\u2019s time for change and opportunity is everywhere. Until then, I see \u201cpolitical activism\u201d as a waste of time. But everyone has to pursue what makes sense to him.<\/p>\n

One of the saddest aspects of modern digital life<\/strong> is that it seems to make many people feel that they absolutely must<\/em> refute everything they don\u2019t agree with.<\/p>\n

The control that almost any person or group<\/strong> has over you starts in your own head.<\/p>\n

Facebook frequently serves to remind me<\/strong> why I stay away from large groups of people as much as possible.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m suffering from \u201coutrage fatigue\u201d<\/strong> from all the posts on Facebook and Twitter constantly telling me to be angry or outraged by something or other.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re posting links to insane theories<\/strong> about a conspiracy between NASA and \u201cthe mainstream media\u201d to cover up something vaguely nefarious about the comet ISON, you\u2019re way too nutty for me.<\/p>\n

I keep seeing articles that purport to explain<\/strong> how to hide from the NSA. I just want to live in a way that the NSA won\u2019t care that I even exist.<\/p>\n

And, finally, did you know that the cast<\/strong> of Star Trek: the Next Generation sang \u201cLet it Snow\u201d? They did. Seriously. Well, sort of<\/a>. You’re enjoy it if you’re a fellow nerd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Random recent thoughts that never led to longer pieces, sometimes because of time\u00a0constraints: I\u2019m amused by the dishonest games that some companies and political causes play today related to Super Bowl ads. Here\u2019s the new way to get attention. Make a cheap 30-second spot with a controversial message that you know the NFL will reject. Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1x9iR-56r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19619"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19626,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19619\/revisions\/19626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}