Corporate nothingspeak has utterly taken over the thought process of the problem-solvers of this world...and that’s a problem.

Stockton Rush of OceanGate built a collapsible submarine entirely out of corporate nothingspeak and carbon fiber.  He utilized the power of “thinking outside the box” and “ignoring the naysayers” to bypass decades of research and proven engineering.  He then “took it to the next level” while “pushing the envelope” right into Davey Jones’s locker. 

Fortunately for Stockton, corporate nothingspeak can make the most drastic of mistakes sound positive...so it can be said of his tenure at OceanGate that he was “crushing it.”

We’ll “circle back” to how Stockton “broke the game” with his “mission critical” “thought leadership”...but now, let’s turn our attention to the “vibrant arts scene” that has shown up in former manufacturing powerhouse cities across America.

So what exactly is a “vibrant arts scene,” and what might make it corporate nothingspeak that’s standing in the way of solving the real problem?

Start by looking at the list of cities said to have a “vibrant arts scene” (by USA Today): Detroit, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, Dubuque, Chicago, Los Angeles, Tulsa, Denver, St Louis, Santa Fe.

Of that somewhat abbreviated list, only one legitimate historically art based economy is listed: Santa Fe.  And Santa Fe has become a cartoon of its former self under blue leadership. 

Almost everywhere else on the lists of cities with a “vibrant arts scene” is a former manufacturing hub with murals painted on abandoned asbestos-contaminated factories and a coffeehouse across the street.

A “vibrant arts scene” is turning the Bethlehem Steel Works into a concert venue with an attached casino...turning a once productive place that shipped its products to the world into a museum or part-time amusement center (just when concerts are pricing themselves out of the market and casinos are falling out of favor).

So a vibrant arts scene is actually just corporate nothingspeak meaning someplace with a hollowed out tax base, lots of asbestos...and pretty murals.

Building a tax base is like building a submersible.  It’s been done before.  There are established ways to go about building a legitimate, healthy local economy — especially in places with navigable rivers.  Replacing a factory with a mural and a coffee shop isn’t “thinking outside the box”; it’s just copying someone else’s bad ideas at this point.

Anyone who has ever crushed an aluminum can could see the primary problem with the design of Stockton’s “submersible,” so why couldn’t he see it?  Well, most of the footage of him speaking gives a big clue.  He covered up arrogance and ineptitude with corporate nothingspeak. 

Rather than “bridging the gap” between what he had been trained to do (aeronautics) with what he was attempting to do (deep sea) with education, he filled the gap with platitudes and obscure goals. 

This probably originated when venture capitalists who wanted to appear be in charge of businesses they owned (but knew nothing about) had to speak to their subordinates.  A venture capitalist who owns a power plant through a leveraged buyout probably knows nothing about how it operates, so he tells the managers to “push the boundaries” or “think outside the box” rather than look impotent or uneducated.

But long before venture capitalists were even engaging in leveraged buyouts, Lucky Strikes were “toasted” (not cancerous) and “charming” houses were very, very small.  So who knows who started it?  But it’s spread everywhere.

Clever marketing slogans generally have little to do with reality.  Bullet points often sound great, but offering no nuance or detail makes for poor planning at best, and can be fatal at worst.

The obvious answer is to start “calling a spade a spade.”  Stop allowing local politicians to put negatives in the plus column.  Their “vibrant arts scene” is a lie.

If you go to your mechanic and tell him your car is making a banging noise, and he looks at it and says, “You’re right — it’s a banging noise,” and he hands you noise-canceling headphones...you fire him!  But a politician does it, and he gets re-elected?

Our national lexicon needs to become specific, detailed, coherent, and meaningful again.  Because economies are like submarines: subject to implosion by physics and reality.

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