The words to spark controversy are numerous and varied. Even the words for not saying those controversial words are themselves controversial words.

If that sounds confusing, don’t worry: it’s because it is.

I’m talking about “political correctness.” A way of speaking based on friendliness and respect that somehow sets people’s teeth on edge.   

Oh, did I show my bias there? Did my preference come across? Did the fact I said “friendliness and respect” give away my opinion? Well, I’m glad to say there’s more to this article than just my thumbs up for verbal etiquette.

Because you know what “political correctness” really is?

It’s P.R.       

People might think of P.R. as an extension of a business’s image, but it can and does go deeper than that. You, as a person, as an individual, both separate and connected to your existence as a religious, political, corporate, and romantic identity, have your own P.R.

How you dress, how you look, how you speak, how you treat people—whenever you are at any place with other humans like Clearwater Mall or around downtown—that’s P.R. It is how your “relations” to the “public” are. And the “public”—in this sense—is everyone who is not you.

And thus “political correctness” exists as a measuring stick for how you might be perceived by your public. And your public is not only white, cisgender, heterosexual, American standards of attractiveness males. There are other groups to keep in mind. Groups marginalized and discriminated against—if only to name some of the milder injustices in our world’s history.    

And the idea of making people try, at least try, to monitor what words they use to refer to a living breathing person with thoughts and ideas and dreams, is I think a good step forward for everyone. Good P.R. for everyone.

Now—before you say it—I am not pointing fingers at the comedians and the artists who want to make a statement. Nor anyone who has a genuine, reasoned, and respectful point to make. Art and argument both exist to expand ideas.

But, that’s not the usual situation where political correctness needs to be invoked anyway. No. It’s the casual racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, religious intolerance, et cetera, that someone defends with the idea they should have the right to insult people that political correctness was invented to prevent.

Sure, free speech is something to uphold. Someone can be rude if they must—they have that right. But people also have the right to not talk to that someone anymore.

Bullying is bullying.

But kindness is also kindness. And political correctness need not be a totalitarian system. It is just respecting the “public” to your P.R.

We are living in an interconnected world with a growing awareness of the sheer variety of human existence and experience. And that is bound to cause a shift in language. Which may startle or confound people for a little while, but language evolves and changes all the time.

And, you know what? So can we.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com    

Enjoy the relative calm. Because it is on the horizon. The sweeping cultural oddity. The looming economic demand. The strange and some would call annoying event that is: “The Holiday Rush”.

You’ve noticed it too, haven’t you? Once we hit October, the holidays do not quit until the year is done.

The Halloween candy is still in the bowl and already it’s time to plan for Thanksgiving. And once finished with the turkey, Christmas shopping spurns forward on the backs of Black Friday and Digital Monday. And even when you think you have a moment of peace, as you sit in a comfy chair after opening all the presents, family and/or friends surrounding you, there is still one holiday left.

Because the year is about to end. And we have one more party to throw. One more gigantic event.

It really is a “rush”.

And I can’t even imagine what it’s like for people who celebrate multi-day holidays like Hanukkah.  

But, despite my dramatics, I like this situation. It makes the end of the year one giant bundle of things. And I’d rather be busy than bored.

But there are some who are not as fond of “The Holiday Rush”, who dread this time of year. People who don’t like shopping or cooking, for instance.

And for those people, and just for the curious, let’s speculate on why this happens. Why it feels like once it starts it does not stop.

The answer is, as you can guess from the article title: marketing.

Now, the calendar does have something to do with it--those holidays all fall close to each other after all. But the reason it feels like there is no stop, no gap, is because companies do not want it to feel like there’s a stop or gap.

As soon as they can, as soon as one holiday wraps up, they will immediately switch gears. I suspect worker elves at the Target in Clearwater Mall for what they manage for seasonal shopping. They erect trees for goodness’ sake.

And this is because companies and stores want you to just be prepping constantly. You are more likely, at least from my experience, to want to buy the next holiday’s necessities as soon as possible if it is presented--because the holidays season can be a stressful enough time without last-minute shopping.

And, among the ways a product can go about marketing itself, claiming a reduction in stress is always a popular prospect. If it works for insurance, it works for pumpkins.

And we, the consumers, make it so attractive too. The constant rush of it all. The holiday spirit compels people to put up all sorts of flashy decorations, which means you can’t go down the street without either ghouls, turkeys, or lights--depending on the time--reminding you, yet again, that it is the holidays.

You quite literally can’t escape it (unless you desire the lifestyle of a hermit) so it always feels prevalent. And this gives the impression of it barreling down on you as soon as it begins.

And your only choice is to embrace it, or ignore it. So mark those calendars, because starting October, Clearwater is going to get...festive.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com    

Whether it is true or not, being “learned” is perceived to tie to how much one reads. It is a stereotype with a long and established history. The bookish genius. The well-read business man. The literary professor.

You can picture the guy sitting there in tweed and smoking a pipe, can’t you?

It’s a powerful image to be sure. The well-reasoning literary master. And one every bookshop under the sun, on some level, emulates. Quiet atmosphere. Chairs and benches set up for reading sessions. Paintings and piped in classical music. Everything smelling of coffee, tea, and the vague vanilla scent of old paper.

Go to Barnes and Noble on Sunset Point and they have an entire wall devoted to writers. And writers are almost always readers.

But now, how does this tie into marketing? Well, it’s a matter of perception. Selling based on intelligence—regardless of whether they are intelligent. If a man with a lab coat and a clipboard tells you something will work, you are more likely going to trust him. And the same logic holds in other contexts.

And that other context--as I am finally getting around to saying--is political.

I am going to ask a controversial question. One which I do not know the answer to, nor will I attempt to speculate on an answer. And that question is: who reads more?

Who is more well-learned in general?

Democrats? Or Republicans?

Wait, before you send me angry messages, I am, yet again, not speculating on the actual answer—if there even is a concrete one. All I am talking about is what people try to project. How they go about marketing themselves as a member of a political party.

Because, from a marketing perspective, the Democrats present themselves as the more bookish of the two groups. The thinkers. The careful considerers.

While, on the other hand, we have the Republicans, who always seem to go about marketing themselves as the doers and the product-based people.

Now, these are just one man’s interpretation, and I am attempting to remain unbiased on the whole thing. I consider all of the qualities I mentioned to be positive aspects of a person or group.

All I am asking is which one presents themselves as more scholarly? If you look at the “intellectuals” in an academic sense, which political party seems more prevalent? I think the Democrats.

And, as a marketing method, this is effective. For those who consider themselves more high-minded, opinions can sway with the threat of making the “ignorant choice.”

What we perceive to be true, what we connect our own identities to, these are what matter to many people. And, I hope, in however small a way, I made you, the reader, reexamine this idea. And question whether the P.R. of a political party’s proclivities actually match the attitudes and aptitudes of members within it.

But perhaps not. Perhaps I have changed no one’s mind. Perhaps I am, at the end of the day, simply words on digital paper.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com        

When traffic cameras became a thing around America, I heard people talk about 1984 by George Orwell. When people talk about the newest technological gizmo, I hear things brought up like Star Trek. If you are in favor of human and robot interactions, you might point at I, Robot by Isaac Asimov as a prime example of it all being okay. If you don’t agree though: The Matrix and Terminator.

Notice a pattern? I’m sure you do: they are all science fiction stories. Different sub-genres of course, different authors and creators: but all science fiction. Arguments for and against technology coming from the same birthplace. The same talking points.

How could a genre do something like this? How could it promote advancement, of robots helping out our daily lives, of automatic cars and devices making life easier, and yet turn around and spout the opposite? How could it say from its various mouths that we could see a Clearwater of hoverboards and holograms like Back to The Future or a nightmarish city like District 12 in The Hunger Games?

Well, I have an answer. It’s by its very nature. Science fiction is perhaps the most important genre of art we have in terms of societal and technological progress. If most art forms exist to describe what humans “are” and what that means, then science fiction functions as a way to show what we can be—depending on how we move forward in the coming years and decades and centuries.

They are dreams of a future. They say to the audience “here is a way it could be,” and if the viewer, if enough viewers, agree to it, then well: Star Trek had cellphones before the real world did.

If you are a believer in an infinite number of alternative universes, then we can think of science fiction stories as making windows into possible worlds. And like any time you list all potential possibilities, some are not pleasant, good, or wholesome.

So, science fiction delivers both warnings and goals. It is saying “you can have a robot butler, sure, you should try to do so, but if you don’t think to make sure they cannot hurt us—well, don’t go crying to John Connor.”

Because the stories warned us. Moderation. Foresight. Ethical Choices. Equality. These and others are at the core of the themes of most science fiction stories. They are a method to promote morality for hypothetical outcomes.

Because, going forward, some won’t be hypothetical. And thanks to a sub-group of the most creative people we’ve had the pleasure to share a planet with, we have a chance to be ready. We have a chance to not make the same mistakes as those fictional characters in print and on the screen.

We get to choose a future. From staggering amounts of options, we can mix, cherry-pick, and curate to promote to the scientists and the creators and the industrialists and the politicians and the businessmen what we want to exist.

And I hope we pick something astounding, aspiring, and astonishing.   

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com     

Gyros: a food few Americans seem to pronounce right. But not a food one forgets once you’ve had. A combination of various meats, and served in strips, it is a staple of any American Greek restaurant.

And, as I am sure you can guess from my positive words, I am a fan of this food. And in Clearwater, there is only one Greek restaurant that has my patronage on any given day: The Hungry Greek.

For when I am a particular type of hungry, I go for the Greek. So, their name is apt. And their gyro meat is good. Everything I’ve had there is good. From the platters, to the soup, to the Greek salads I ritually consume, they create nice, varied meals. If you like Greek: they’ve got you covered.

And, if I may praise it more (because, after all, that is the point of this article) I’d commend the staff, who are always willing to deal with my specialty orders. And are prompt when making the food.

Now, when I say “prompt”, I am not claiming they will rush it out like a McDonald’s--because better food takes a little time. And you can watch them take that time, as they make it behind the large counter, as they assemble and cook with a spinning rotisserie of gyros, a stove, and sets of vegetables in trays--among other things.

As to the atmosphere—a large draw for any restaurant--it is...well: Greek. With music and décor giving the place a better feel than what you would receive at a random sub shop which only dabbles in the same themes.  

So, if you’re in the neighborhood of Clearwater Mall, and want something different than the standard roulette of Chipotle, Panera, and Five Guys, well, might I make a recommendation?

And if I may make one more: as you leave Hungry Greek, be sure to ring the bell on the wall. Because trust me, the results are fun.  

Opa!

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com