Cool Like That

"Maybe you are the 'cool' generation If coolness means a capacity to stay calm and use your head in the service of ends passionately believed in, then it has my admiration."
Kingman Brewster, Jr.


So I looked up the word "cool" in the Urban Dictionary, and let me just tell you that I found possibly the most "uncool" definition. "The best way to say something is neat-o, awesome, or swell.". (That's what I get for doing such an uncool thing like looking "cool" up in the dictionary.) Apparently this dictionary hasn't been updated since the 1950s.


Several images come to one's mind when pondering, "what exactly is cool?" Fonzie is probably the first image. He embodied cool. Fortunately, Fonzie was cool internally and externally. He was so cool, he could pull off being a good guy. James Dean may be another who immediately comes to mind. While he could certainly have pulled off being noble, he didn't bother. Maybe he didn't have to. He was an iconic individual, for sure.

While pondering my list of cool, the word  "responsibility" may not be the first word that emerges into my mind, but when musing about things that are "uncool," the antonyms of the word clearly come into focus, "deadbeats," "slackers," "losers," etc.


There are people who may be cool externally, but when you dig a little deeper, you find that they are ignorant deadbeats; irresponsible and illegitimate in every way. These are the people who have made a pattern of shirking responsibilities, large and small.  Undependable people are certainly "uncool' in most people's book. Perhaps I was a little harsh in calling them "irresponsible and illegitimate in every way," because EVERYONE is capable of this at some point, and not everyone is illegitimate in every way....maybe just some ways. It still ain't cool.

I found a blog on Yahoo discussing this very topic. For the most part the bloggers concurred that being yourself, and independent topped the list of what was cool.

"Cool" is certainly a relative and a generic term. I can refer to your pants or shoes as "cool," in the sense that I just like them. But when I deem something to be truly cool, it is pristine. It can fend for itself; stand on it's own, so to speak.

There are the intellectually cool. This brings up an important question, are you cool because of what you do or who you are? do you project a specific aura that says "hey, he's cool?" or must you do specific things in order to become cool? "she's a high-powered lawyer, gosh, she's cool."
    (Perhaps this query is merely my attempt to appear intellectually or philosophically cool.)

No one can definitively say what "cool" is, yet everyone knows it when they see it. I think an overarching definition is that cool is a state of mind. Independence is cool, blaming others for your and depending on others to bail you out of your misfortunes is very uncool.

You can't be truly cool without taking responsibility for yourself. No one likes constantly picking up the pieces of your oversights. That's just not cool. "But," you say. "I hate my job, it's pointless," or, "But my company just went bankrupt, how on earth is society going to function without such an important industry leader?" We need to stop depending on others to bail us out of these entirely preventable situations.

We need to work towards making this a much cooler society; a plucky and empowered society that isn't afraid to own up to its responsibilities.

c. 2009