What Is Term Cool Means - Essay Example

What is Cool? The term “cool”, has numerous definitions and can somehow be very confusing the context of its use dictating its meaning (Rice par1). Cool can be in the positive or negative sense, although it is mainly used in the former. Cool, as a principle, for example, means remaining calm even under stress. Yet again, it may mean lack of excitement in the negative sense. The term also means neither warm nor cold according to Free Dictionary (par 1). In this respect, the term may also be used with neither a positively nor negatively connotation. Historically, the term cool had various meanings. Different people had their own way of defining it. To begin with, cool was seen as a behavioral characteristic. Cool mainly, was a behavioral attitude practiced by black American men in the US. As a slang word, it was used to mean that a person is ok or in a relaxed state (Simchona par 1). Cool is also a positive attribute assigned to an awesome or great thing. Underdogs, rebels, and the likes of slaves, prisoners, bikers and political dissents, all fostered a cool attitude. This rebellion often invited punishment. Other people view cool as a state of well-being. In the modern society, cool is seen to bring a sense of serenity and internal peace. Other terms used to explain this is the absence of conflict, a state of balance and harmony. This meaning is of an African origin. In other cases cool can be used to describe the absence of excitement or composure in a person. The idiom, ‘Keep your cool’ best defines this. Also in the phrase ‘I’m cool with that’, used to express agreement or assent (Bornstein 3). People also view cool in the form of aesthetic appeal; it is taken as an attitude adopted by intellectuals and artists, who have aided in its infiltration into the culture. Today, it is a global phenomenon having spread across the globe. In fact, the concepts of cool have existed in several cultures over the centuries. Cool has also existed as an epithet. It is a common slag word among the young people and is well understood by the English- speaking people. It has gone to the extent of being used as a vocabulary in languages besides English. It is seen generally as an epithet with a range of related adjectival meanings. Through creativity and innovation, cool appears to be a classic case of resistance to authority. A paradoxical fusion of submission and subversion is represented by “so cool” (Bornstein 6). In the early 1960s and 1970s, cool like groovy was a very popular expression of satisfaction. Like groovy, which meant in ‘the groove’, cool surfaced in the early 19th century. In the modern era, the Jazz musicians popularized it in the 1940’s (Amazing facts 2). The interim president Calvin Coolidge, used the word cool in his presidential campaigns in 1923. He was popularized by the slogan “Keep cool with Coolidge”. In the modern society, the most important phenomenon in the youth culture is cool. Over the years, it has established as the focus of a large music and fashion industry around the world. Cool-mindedness is the center of the Black aesthetics and has become the only unique and distinctive creation of the Americans. According to philosopher Cornel West, “black-based Hip Hop culture of youth around the world” as a grand example of the “shattering of male, WASP cultural homogeneity” (Bornstein 8). Hip-hop being a symbol of black coolness has remained exportable. This has been demonstrated by a study showing that there has been a dramatic slip in American names in their cool quotients worldwide. It is however easy to distinguish between that that is cool and that that is not cool. Something that is cool resists linear structure. Therefore, the straight- forward linear search for power is not cool. The loss of power is not cool. Winning however is cool, but being ready to do anything to win is not cool. Totally immoral and moralists are both uncool people. On the other hand, people who maintain moral standards on an immoral environment are definitely cool. A chief executive officer in an organization is not cool unless he is ready to take risks and avoids being predictable while pursuing success. Coolness being a nonconformist balance, manages to square circles and personify paradoxes. This dates back to the time of cool Jazz music. The origin of cool is credited with the fusion of subversion and submission, has a lot to do with the paradox nature. A president who clings to absolute power is not cool but one who is democratic and voluntarily concedes power is very cool (Bornstein 11). However, this does not mean that a cool person ought to be an idealist. The self-righteous examples of both neoDarwinists and creationists, is a good example of uncool idealism. Coolness is derived from the balance created by the style of a cool person. In this case, a cool person remains close to real life with giving in to its absorption. It is neither cool to take everything away nor it is to give everything away. A person, who is cool, has learnt the art of take and give and plays life as if it were a game (Bornstein 13). In games, cool people develop a detached style while playing. The style means more to them than the money or power. In ancient Greece, the Stoic philosophers supported the vision of coolness in a turbulent world. Their supreme principle of coolness can be seen from the stoic indifference to fate. This is visible in the African American culture. The credibility of the style used by Jazz musician Lester Young was because he was neither proud nor ashamed. Hip Hop culture is likened to a philosophical spirit by Richard Shusterman, this is also implicit in Stoicism. A “strict difference between those things that depend on us and those things that do not depend on us” (Bornstein par 7) as posited by Epictetus the Stoic, has advocated an attitude on the things that we can not change as unimportant. The things that depend on use are our impulses, passions, attitudes, opinions, desires, beliefs and judgments. Death, actions of others, the past and the other things that we cannot control should be left indifferent. A cool attitude is nurtured from the thought that we should neglect all the things that we have no control of. Stoic just like the cool, continually decides what is not and what is up to him. In the event he decides not to think things in his power are in his power, he loses his coolness. Coolness more precisely is a matter of balance and negotiating a way to survive in a paradoxical state. Paradoxically, coolness is associated with control. However, a dictator who is in control of everything is not cool. He/she is not cool considering that he or she fails to balance the paradox. The self control practiced by cool Blacks before and during the 60s is associated with their inability to control the oppressive political and cultural environment. Paradoxically, their need for self control in their situation of lack of control created in them a cool attitude. In respect of the above situations, it may be concluded that cool individuals live in persistent states of alienation as suggested by Bornstein (par 10). In conclusion, the term “cool” may be used with various connotations. History dictates the use of the term which sometimes has positive, negative and even moderate meanings. The term cool may be paradoxically applied as in the case of control. Whatever is cool in one sense therefore may be not be cool in another sense. Work Cited Bornstein Thorsten. philosophy now. The Human Condition. 2012. Web. http://www.philosophynow.org/issues/80/What_Does_It_Mean_To_Be_Cool Rice Jeff. What is Cool. 2002. Web. http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=338 Free Dictionary. Cool. Nd. Web. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cool Simchona, Stakexchange, English Language and Usage. 2011. 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