THE DEATH OF COOL

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THE DEATH OF COOL

An open letter to Generation X

GREG IPPOLITO

THE DEATH OF COOL

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COOL.

It’s one of the most amorphous words in the English language. It can mean anything from “popular” to “interesting” to “fun” to “laid back” to “mysterious” to “breathtaking.” But however it’s used, one thing remains the same: We all want to be it.

So along with being difficult to pin down, it’s also one of the most powerful words in our lexicon. Cool is our culture’s nod of approval, a ticket for success. The cool person is socially adored; the cool product sells rapid-fire; and the cool idea creates the latest buzz. It’s as alluring and seductive as wealth and sex.

And it’s just as dangerous.

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SOME BIG QUESTIONS...

Where did the term come from? What does it really mean (at its base/core level)? Why is it so desirable?

And most importantly: How is Cool secretly destroying us?

For starters, let’s jump in the time machine...

The term “Cool” is often attributed to Lester Young, a smooth- as-silk tenor sax man from the 1930s and ‘40s (who doubled as Billie Holiday’s favorite musician). But really, no one knows for sure. “Cool” does seem to have emerged from the Jazz Age, making its official mark on the American radar with Miles Davis’ Birth of the Cool in 1950.

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So...what is “Cool,” in a nutshell?

James Dean is cool. So is Clint Eastwood. So is a Bugatti Veyron. So is a Toyota Prius. So is an iPhone. So is being “off the grid.” But what common element runs through each of these disparate phenomena?

The essence of Cool is quiet audacity. A supreme confidence — at times, an almost reckless one — that always seems to pay off. It’s an evolved step beyond the norm that doesn’t need the norm’s recognition or adoration (...but gets it just the same).

The essence of Cool is quiet audacity.

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Of course, the very act of stepping away from the norm is a divisive one. It’s an act that implicitly says, “I’m better than this” — which is to say, “I’m better than you.”

So Cool, at its core, is a sort of “Fuck you” to the status quo... a calm, irreverent detachment from the ordinary.

In a world of mindless cogs and bullshit artists — teachers/ parents/bosses trying to keep you in line, companies trying to sell products you don’t need, politicians trying to manufacture consent for things we don’t want, etc. — being Cool means having an attitude of disregard.

Being Cool means having an attitude of disregard.

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GANDHIS WITH ATTITUDES.

Cool was born in the underground. It was a kid secretly listening to a jazz record in the basement, while her parents wasted the living-room radio on Benny Goodman. From there, it expanded. It became a galvanizing force — the conduit through which repressed teenagers could express their unique voices.

To the Eisenhower/Kennedy kids, Cool was their ticket to rebellion. In an era when adults controlled everything, Cool gave the youth movement an indirect and powerful tool for the fight. Instead of yelling and screaming and never moving the needle, they withdrew. They fought the adult world with abject indifference. “Oh, you say Rock and Roll is a crap excuse for music that was invented by the Devil? Whatever.” It was like a nation of little Gandhis, but with attitudes: No, I’m not going to fight you. But I’m not going to do what you say, either. So, uhh, blow me.

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YOU WERE IN, THEY WERE OUT.

Cool was the ultimate insult to the powers that be — an allusion that the young (in body and/or mind) existed on a higher evolutionary plane, one that the old masses couldn’t possibly grasp. You were fun, they were safe. You were forward- thinking, they were ass-backward. You were in, they were out.

As Cool evolved, its “Fuck you” edge grew sharper and sharper. Cool began as a dividing line in the jazz era (Cool 1.0)...put up a wall in the rock-and-roll era (Cool 2.0)...started shouting over the wall in the counterculture rock era (Cool 3.0)...started pissing over the wall in the punk era (Cool 4.0)...and on and on and on.

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At some point during its 3.0 phase, Cool morphed into something else. Something soulless and toxic.

The hippy aesthetic was being co-opted for marketing purposes. Before Altamont even happened, you could buy tie-dye t-shirts at Woolworths. A few eye-blinks later, Sonny & Cher were hosting a cheesy variety show in front of a DayGlo back drop. This was when Cool’s “Fuck you” edge started to become a little too sharp. What was once a perhaps necessary evil — this liberating force that leveraged its power through divisiveness — became wholly self-destructive.

By the time Gen Xers1 came into the world, Cool had degenerated to a cancer. And we took it like Mother’s milk, without criticism or debate.

1. The term “Gen Xer” threatens a cultural divide, which I’m not looking to make. Whether you consider yourself a Gen Xer, a member of the Hip-Hop Generation, or whatever — if you grew up as a first- generation Sesame Street fan, if you spent any of your adolescence with Reagan in the White House, etc., then I’m talking to you.

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I was born in 1971. I’ve never known an America that wasn’t thoroughly, automatically sarcastic.

It brings to mind the “Homerpalooza” episode of The Simpsons — where Homer is hired to catch cannonballs with his stomach as part of a rock festival freak show. In one scene, two young Gen Xers2 are framed in the crowd waiting for Homer’s gig to start:

GEN XER #1 (lethargic): Oh, look. The cannonball guy. He’s cool.GEN XER #2: Uh, are you being sarcastic, dude?GEN XER #1 (after a thoughtful pause): I don’t even know anymore.

Just brilliant. As Homer himself might say, “It’s funny ‘cause it’s true!” Our penchant for sarcasm, irony and cynacism is so automatic, we don’t even know we’re doing it. Yet this comprises the Cool lens through which we see the world.

2. This episode first aired in 1996, when we were still “young.”

“Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins.”“Homer Simpson, smiling politely.”

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Maybe Cool worked for our parents. But how is it serving us? Maybe the better question is: What is it costing us?

David Foster Wallace talked about this: “Sarcasm, parody, absurdism and irony are great ways to strip off stuff’s mask and show the unpleasant reality behind it...but most of the illusion- debunking in the U.S. has now been done and redone...All we seem to want to do [now] is keep ridiculing the stuff. Postmodern irony and cynicism’s become an end in itself, a measure of hip sophistication and literary savvy.”

“All we seem to want to do [now] is keep ridiculing the stuff.”

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The quiet audacity of Cool is extinct. What took its place may have the same name, but it is significantly different animal.

After the ‘60s revolution, after “most of the illusion-debunking” had been done, a bitterness seemed to settle on the culture. This is when Gen Xers came into being. We were raised in a Zeitgeist of disillusionment — one where Cool was still quiet, but far from audacious. Modern Cool is missing that critical element. It is little more, now, than an automatic sneer ... a kind of imitation intellectualism ... a constant state of being “above it,” even though we rarely give much thought as to what “it” really entails.

Modern Cool is little more than an automatic sneer.

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NOT THE PEOPLE THAT WE DREAMED.

Even worse, Modern Cool is also inherently passive aggressive.

Consider: If a truly confident person were to disagree with your argument that Titanic is the greatest movie ever,3 she might directly say, “No, I disagree with that.” But a typical Gen Xer might, instead, roll his eyes at you and snicker, “Oh yeah, that movie’s awesome.” The same meaning comes across, but not in an honest way.

Think about this for a moment. If a person is defined by his/her actions, then the defining traits of our generation appear to be reflexive negativity and passive aggressiveness.

Read that sentence again. Jesus H., that’s a sobering statement.

We are far from the people that we dreamed.3. You’re an idiot for thinking this, btw.

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A FAILURE TO COPE.

In The Magus, John Fowles4 wrote that “all cynicism masks a failure to cope.”

This claim seems, at first, a bit reductionist. But at the same time, doesn’t it ring uncomfortably true? We do use snark as a kind of insulation against a real and deep consideration of things. We also use it to shield ourselves from our own genuine emotions.

It might not be an overstatement to say that we’ve become enslaved by Cool. This force, once liberating and empowering, has turned viciously against us.

4. Admit it: you want to make fun of the hat. See? Automatic sneer. Tisk-tisk.

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The truth is, most people carry a quiet sadness with them, a long- ing for something undefined. (If I’m being really honest, I’m no different.) Even in our self-defined “forward-thinking age,” where we’re supposed to have shaken off taboos around emotional struggles — where we’ve supposedly evolved to a point where we can be out in the open about the things that keep us up at night — no one really talks about this stuff.

We turn it in and then turn it out; our sorrow becomes self- loathing, and our self-loathing winds up getting projected onto anything and everything.

Few dare to cope — to really cope. Nah, we’re all too busy being fucking Cool.

Most people carry a quiet sadness with them, a longing for something undefined.

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AN IMPOSSIBLE PLEA...

So today, I’m making an impossible plea. A call to arms for our collective existential salvation. I’m calling for the Death of Cool.

Or at the very least — if we simply can’t do without it — let’s make a concerted effort toward self-awareness. Let’s look in the mirror and recognize the automatic sneer in ourselves. And to what degree we can, let’s bring the audacity back.

Let’s put a premium on confidence, self-possessedness, creative/ innovative thinking, a healthy penchant for daring, a high regard for authenticity, and the unwavering pursuit of truth. But as for our snarky, piss-on-everything default attitude — we can do without it.

Right? Can’t we?

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ABOUT THE AUTHORGreg Ippolito is a fiction writer and essayist from suburban Philadelphia. His debut novel, Zero Station (Coral Press), will be released in late 2010.

GET, CONNECT> To get a free sample download of Zero Station, email:zsfreedownload@gmail.com> To share your thoughts on “The Death of Cool,” email:greg.ippolito@gmail.com> To read and learn more about the author, visit:http://gregippolito.net/> To follow the author on Twitter, visit:http://twitter.com/gregippolito

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