The creation of "cool"

Growing up, a lot of us look up to the “cool” kids at school.  If you were lucky enough to actually be one, you probably felt the need to protect that status, working hard to differentiate yourself from those who were not “cool”.  If you were unfortunately cast outside that particular circle, you might’ve spent valuable years of your youth trying to get in.  Even as adults, the idea of being “cool” still maintains an invisible chokehold on our self-worth. prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /

So what exactly is “Cool”?  Cool is exclusive.  While we all know to some extent what being “cool” is supposed to be like, we are not all “cool”; it is up to the privileged “cool” minority to acknowledge who else is or isn’t “cool”.  Cool is a social institution that has entry requirements and rules to keep it “cool”.  

Cool is the dress code or guest list to an invite-only party.  Cool is the initiation process to get into a fraternity.   Cool is the “no cell phone” policy at a country club.  Cool is the effortful denial of the majority so that the relative value of a few can be protected and inflated.   

It is my personal belief that Cool is not an objective state of being.  “Coolness” is simply a separation strategy created through rules and exclusion by those who themselves decided they are “cool”.  It is the basic human need to feel included that makes Cool so powerful.  If Cool really is just a series of dividers, couldn’t we all take control and be our own kinds of “cool”?  Couldn’t you, as a potential trendsetter, decide that you were “cool” enough to start making your own rules, instead of living for someone else’s rejection?     

  Me and my old a cappella group being the opposite of "cool" 

A popular image of "cool" in music

-JWo