ROUGH draft

INTRO

Cool is a method and means for us to feel accepted. It gives us a sense of belonging and in most cases purpose. We use the aesthetic or of cool so we can provide ourselves with a standard goal to work toward. It is the path we unwittingly follow because it is the way we think we should live. Coolness is used as the guide and reference book to which we should act. The movie stars, musicians and athletes that are seemingly always cool are used as the visual aids to replicate and copy. We all are trapped in the cool box and are forced to walk down the cool path whit the threat of being alienated.

In summary coolness is a basic, life-spanning, constant goal we are constantly striving towards, it is the attempt to show those immediately around us that we can be significant and acceptable. As a result of our obsession with attracting and sustaining attention we do what ever we can to be seen as a fitting part of society and necessary, whether it is in sports, politics, entertainment, or intellectually. Unfortunately 99% fail in their attempt to heroic. By using signifier’s set up around our lives we perform a role that we hope will deem us heroic and pivotal.

ARGUMENT 1

However if we all became heroic and cool in the same way we’ll end up wise to real reason for our need to be cool. Therefore we enact different versions of cool (archetypes.) These archetypes allow us to pick a path that may seem slightly different. Each archetype is allows the individual to belong to a specific group and feel accepted by a small mass. Why are these archetypes so popular? Since it is nearly impossible to become cool, heroic or even acceptable to everyone we pick an archetype because it gives us a sense of belonging even if it ostracizes us from the other archetypes. As Mr. fanning said in his lecture to the class “getting a tattoo is like joining a tribe.” By getting a tattoo he joined the tribe of rebel. Each archetype in society is a tribe and wearing or getting the signifiers is like joining that tribe. Naturally we join the tribe that will get us the most success and attention.

Archetypes provide us with the ability to stand out from those in different tribes and blend in with those in the same tribe. They allow us to stand out while fitting in, we look like a hero and accepted. Unfortunately most people spend their entire lives trying to stand out and look heroic in their archetypes and fail drastically. Making the enactment of archetypes and need to be noticed futile and pointless, thus living a life obsessed with only aesthetics is itself meaningless. Unfortunately most people don’t realize how futile their attempt to be cool and heroic is and don’t realize how much more their life could have meant if they weren’t so obsessed with aesthetics. One example of this uncommon realization is from the book The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy. In the book Ivan Ilych becomes terminally ill, and it is only when he is close to death that he realized how pointless it was to live a life obsesses with monetary success and material items. "It is as if I had been going downhill while I imagined I was going up. And that is really what it was. I was going up in public opinion, but to the same extent life was ebbing away from me. And now it is all done and there is only death.” Ilych is saying that he was fooled by thinking that doing what society said would make him happy but it just masked what he should have been doing, it turned out his life under the archetype of success had the reverse effect of what it should. He realized that because he spent his whole life trying to be a hero for his wife but it only made his life meaningless.

ARGUMENT 2

As I mentioned briefly before we all fall into specific archetypes and we portray these archetypes in different ways, here I will expand on this idea of performing for approval and acceptable portrayal of an archetype.

We can’t just claim to be a part of a tribe (archetype) we must prove it, and show it so that people can identify us. In other words we perform the role so that we can further prove we are part of a tribe. We are all performers trying to portray a specific type of character. The archetypes are all depicted in different ways because of their different members. The differences are known as signifiers, signifiers are often clothes, hairstyles, tattoos, and vocabulary. We use the signifiers to perform which create signified’s/characters. The signifiers being material items like clothes and hair explain why material items play such a large part in societies perception of cool. This is why cool is such a big industry, coolness is controlled and dictated solely by material things. The material signifiers help us perform our cool obsession. The Wikipedia page for the book the presentation of self in everyday life by Erving Goffman states: “According to Goffman, the social actor has the ability to choose his stage and props, as well as the costume he would put on in front of a specific audience. The actor's main goal is to keep his coherence, and adjust to the different settings offered him.” The actor, which is a metaphor for the average person, uses a costume (signifiers) to maintain his coherence and act with acceptable actions. Goffman is saying that we are all performers using the props and costumes around us to portray ourselves as cool, heroic, and acceptable.

Some argue that Shakespeare originally introduced the theory that we are all performers trying to attain acceptance. His quote from the play As You Like It “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances” explains that society and obsession with acceptance has brought life down to simply performing for each other following their lines and narration never really experiencing or introducing anything new out of fear of losing approval.

Our obsession with cool and addiction to approval from others forces us to use our lives like a stage performing for an audience who we desperately seek approval from. Performance has become natural, pretty much 99% of society performs so that they can be accepted by their archetype without realizing that the underlying reason for everyone’s performance is the same, our constant need and crave for approval. Our need for approval is filled with acting like a performer fitting in to any and all archetypes

ARGUMENT 3

So where does this need for approval stem from? All cultures seem to have some way of attaining and sustaining approval. In Native American cultures in order to be accepted and gain your manhood you would go out on an expedition. In western culture you must wear certain clothes and listen to certain music. But why? I believe it is a need we have been chasing since we left infancy. We all at least on the sub-conscious level realize the insignificance of our lives and try to at least become acceptable if not heroic and significant and use the idea of cool to try to get to the level of approval from others and from there attention and heroism.

When we were babies we were given immense amounts of attention and affection. Everyone looked at us like we were amazing masterpieces of art, and took care of everything we needed. And we accepted it as the norm, got used it and enjoyed being the center of attention which is in no way surprising so now as a result nearly everything we do is done with the goal of trying to attain that feeling of centric attention. Much of this is adapted and expanded from the lecture “The Psychology of cool” by matt Fried who brought up the point that we have been coddled to thing we are the center of our universe since we developing and have ever since been trying to obtaining this feeling ever since, even into our adulthood and as we become elderly we try to look special for the nurses in the retirement home. We use cool as a mechanism to reach approval and then significance in all stages of our lives.

Schopenhauer, a physiologist and social theorist said that there are three major forces that distinguish us as normal and acceptable our broadcast sense (health beauty education), our possessions or financial ability, and our presentation to others. In order to gain a status of normality we must reach an approvable look, financial ability and life style. This is why the concept of cool is so popular, our definition of what is cool contains each of these concepts, and thus what is will grant us normality is our ability to look cool.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion as a society we use the cool-concept to fill the demand for approval. We use archetypes and variations of people to jump into a specific box. The box allows us to perform and act for the approval of others in similar boxes. We insist on performing and acting out in these cool forms because of an essential want for attention in societies brain chemistry.