So it turned out to be a joke, but the entire island of Sommarøy in Norway decided to pull a fast one and got dozens of media outlets to write about how they were just doing away with the concept of time.
But boy, did they have everyone going there for a minute. And they were super cool about it, too.
“All over the world, people are characterised by stress and depression,” the leader of the campaign told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK. “In many cases this can be linked to the feeling of being trapped by the clock. We will be a time-free zone where everyone can live their lives to the fullest … Our goal is to provide full flexibility, 24/7. If you want to cut the lawn at 4 am, then you can do it (italics and bolding ours because seriously WTF).”
First, you fire up the lawnmower at 4 a.m. and I’m pretty sure your neighbors are eventually going to make time cease for you permanently eventually.
Secondly, Sommarøy you didn’t invent that no time/”I do what I want” thing. Newborns did.
Now, in all fairness, this particular part of the world has monthslong daylight and monthslong darkness, so they could pull this off.
“It’s constant daylight,” it said on the campaign’s Facebook page. “If you want to paint your house at 2 am, it’s OK. If we want to take a swim at 4 am, we will.”
As it was suspected by Norway’s tourism officials, the whole thing was actually a stunt designed to bring attention to the island. But how much did they have their country (and other parts of the globe) going?
Well, people were finding experts to talk about the feasibility for their news stories. That’s how much.
“It’s a fascinating concept,” said Truls Egil Wyller of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Society had been ruled by the clock “and so disciplined in a very special way” only for the past two centuries, he said.
“Before that, you worked mostly as long as it was necessary, you ate food when you were hungry and you lay down when you were tired. In modern society, everything we do is controlled by the pace of the clock, from the moment we get up.”
Now, here at Daltxrealestate.com, we like a good joke told with just enough earnestness and plausibility to get a lot of people going. I mean, y’all were super mad when you thought Fort Worth sold the zoo land.
So we applaud you, Sommarøy, and your commitment to a bit. Getting that hotel receptionist to respond to the reporter as a skeptic was a great touch.
But seriously, y’all … what if we did get rid of time? My brain broke at the thought.
Want to read more about those rascally Norwegians? Click here.
