How do you define being COOL?

[Nintii]

The face of cool ... The Thin White Duke ...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2ORPgP5_rI&feature=related

Edited July 6, 2012 by Nintii

[tetradite]

'Cool' is almost never attempted to quantified by those that are.The very act of trying to identify the parameters of a chimeric concept is usual proof of not being cool.To paraphrase a comment on pornography...I don't know how to define but I recognize it when I see it.

 

Yup.

 

Anyone who tries to work out, or needs to work out, what cool is... is not cool.

 

Also, even more so, anyone who says they are cool, isn't cool. Like people who say "OOOH I'M CRAZY!!!!" are not crazy, they're try-hard wannabes. http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/tongue.gif

 

 

[Nintii]

Anyone who tries to work out, or needs to work out, what cool is... is not cool.

 

Also, even more so, anyone who says they are cool, isn't cool. Like people who say "OOOH I'M CRAZY!!!!" are not crazy, they're try-hard wannabes. http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/tongue.gif

 

Although "cool" has a certain mystique about it, it's also pretty superficial and so does not warrant that much of a crowning.

It's nowhere near the "... what makes a male a man ..." type of debate which i'm not getting into as it's been here before.

[XanAlderon]

Quoting from 'Adbusters', who quote from Thomas Frank's 1991 book, 'The Conquest of Cool':

 

"bit by bit cool "became central to the way capitalism understood itself and explained itself to the public." In one of the most stunning cultural coup de'etat ever, ad agency gurus figured out "how to construct cultural machines than transform alienation and despair into content. ... Now the fog is lifting. We're finally beginning to understand where this bogus cool has been leading us: not to happiness and prosperity as promised in the ads, but to cynicism, ecocide and a brutal, dog-eat-dog future."

 

"I want to live in a world where nothing is 'cool', where things actually are as they appear. That would be extraordinary. I want food and a living environment that are not part of some suits strategic vision. Cool has betrayed all of us. I want reality" - Jessica Masse.

 

So, as far as I'm concerned, that about sums up the contemporary view on cool, as in, defined by the whim of corporations who have created a situation in which you can only be classified as in the 'cool' crowd if you conform to the criteria they have set down. Cool is just about how others perceive you, it's wholly irrelevant to anything but conformity.

[tetradite]

Quoting from 'Adbusters', who quote from Thomas Frank's 1991 book, 'The Conquest of Cool':

 

"bit by bit cool "became central to the way capitalism understood itself and explained itself to the public." In one of the most stunning cultural coup de'etat ever, ad agency gurus figured out "how to construct cultural machines than transform alienation and despair into content. ... Now the fog is lifting. We're finally beginning to understand where this bogus cool has been leading us: not to happiness and prosperity as promised in the ads, but to cynicism, ecocide and a brutal, dog-eat-dog future."

 

"I want to live in a world where nothing is 'cool', where things actually are as they appear. That would be extraordinary. I want food and a living environment that are not part of some suits strategic vision. Cool has betrayed all of us. I want reality" - Jessica Masse.

 

So, as far as I'm concerned, that about sums up the contemporary view on cool, as in, defined by the whim of corporations who have created a situation in which you can only be classified as in the 'cool' crowd if you conform to the criteria they have set down. Cool is just about how others perceive you, it's wholly irrelevant to anything but conformity.

 

You cannot buy or sell cool.

 

They may pretend they can, and some eejits may be taken in by it, but cool is not a commodity.

 

Cool is the true and actual embodiment of The No True Scotsman fallacy.

[WarRatsG]

I would say that purely biologically speaking, philosophical and cultural sentiments aside, "cool" is just an outward display of superiority - either as a potential mate or as a potential ally. It has always existed in some form, although a few thousand years ago it was probably more like some bone jewellery made from the last elk you hunted.

 

Biological sentiments aside though, "cool" is purely subjective. There are over 7 billion people with their own unique map of reality, which makes for 7 billion different definitions of cool. All of them are all true, but at the same time none are true. Nothing is cool until you think it is.

 

An example would be that in the Western world, obesity is a sign of being a loser, whereas in a lot of African tribes it is a sign of power.

 

To quote Alamut (not Assassin's Creed) - nothing is true, everything is permitted

 

Everything above is "reality", but as far as modern society goes XanAlderon was pretty much bang on with the description of the corporations controlling what is cool to keep refreshing the market and continue raking in profits.

Whoever runs these companies is probably sitting in their holiday home on Mars right now wearing the ugliest clothes imaginable - but they're also probably comfortable, cheap and long lasting. They're probably laughing right now while their butler carries the latest cheque to the bank.

 

"In the world I see... you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." - Tyler durden

 

Thats my anti-consumerist rant out the way, time to go out and pretend I actually give a f*** 8)

Edited July 11, 2012 by WarRatsG

[HappyHerring]

Other Greeks viewed the Spartiates as cool, the Samurai viewed themselves as cool. Most cool people I've seen wouldn't lift a finger to save a life as it would look as if they cared about a thing other than they're image. To View yourself as being above others and cultivating a sense of detatchment from people, objects or ideas which do not actively promote your vanity does not seem a tempting approach to life to me. If being uncool is caring then I'm happy to separate myself from the sociopaths and egoists.