9/25/2011
Cool is our Culture
cool is our culture
an essay in progress....
by youngblood holden
i visited turkey last summer. my experience there led me to the insight that in the United States: cool is our culture. in contrast marshall mcluhan said that: culture is our business. jean baudrillard, in his book "America", claimed that america was a primitive culture. by saying this he meant to highlight that american culture is only 200 years old and has not slow build up of culture over thousands of years as in other parts of the world.
please note that i am not making value judgments in this essay. mcluhan, time and time again, urged against value judgments...as they hampered a deep understand of the current state of affaris.
in turkey, one thing i saw that was prevelant was culture. this country has been at the crossroads of east and west cultures for thousands of years, and it shows. the way people interact with one another, the style of living, the food, the architecture, etc. etc, 'culture' is almost oppressivley present.
what is culture? [define it here]
however, one thing is missing. and that is cool.
what is cool? [define it here] [a detachment, an apathy, an irony]
the clothes the 'hip' young people wear is not up to par in coolness level as america. they simply are not as cool and started to become apparant on my mind. i started to feel like a 'rock star'. i started to feel proud to be an american... to see their cute attempts to mimic our 'cool culture'...because i was the real deal cool american. it was inspiring to see our contribution to world culture in action.
i saw that my version of cool was well advanced from turks my same age. did i mention i was in turkey visiting my wife's family and friends? this gave me first hand access to the culture. my version of cool is to not try to be cool. this is the most advanced stage of cool. if i am going to a nice resturant i will wear the appropriate 'nice attire.' i noticed the turkish male we were dining with merely wore the same tshirt he had been wearing all day. a cool move, no doubt...but not as advanced as my move of changing into a nice shirt. right?
a turkish male was impressed after an interaction with me...saying: he talks just like someone on a sitcom. he was amazed that the 'cool' characters on TV were based on real life people. i could not be touched...for i was...cool.
the song should be rewritten to say: i'm proud to be an american, where atleast i know i'm cool
sources to use in this essay:
The Conquest of Cool
Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism
by Thomas Frank
www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/259919.html
http://andrew.hedges.name/blog/2010/04/02/our-misguided-culture-of-cool
18 votes
As Ippolito states 'cool as our culture's nod of approval' started somewhere in the vicinity of the 30s and 40s as the ultimate applause, but from the 50s on it ...
http://henryjenkins.org/2009/12/from_cool_hunters_to_chief_cul.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/alphabet-kids/201008/snooki-katy-perry-glenn-beck-pop-culture-tells-our-kids-its-cool-be-stupid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_(aesthetic)
"cool is our culture"
http://www.google.com/search?q=cool+is+our+culture&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#sclient=psy&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&source=hp&q=%22cool+is+our+culture%22&pbx=1&oq=%22cool+is+our+culture%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=1&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=207l207l1l541l1l1l0l0l0l0l169l169l0.1l1l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=af033ffb63f16769&biw=1015&bih=562
an essay in progress....
by youngblood holden
i visited turkey last summer. my experience there led me to the insight that in the United States: cool is our culture. in contrast marshall mcluhan said that: culture is our business. jean baudrillard, in his book "America", claimed that america was a primitive culture. by saying this he meant to highlight that american culture is only 200 years old and has not slow build up of culture over thousands of years as in other parts of the world.
please note that i am not making value judgments in this essay. mcluhan, time and time again, urged against value judgments...as they hampered a deep understand of the current state of affaris.
in turkey, one thing i saw that was prevelant was culture. this country has been at the crossroads of east and west cultures for thousands of years, and it shows. the way people interact with one another, the style of living, the food, the architecture, etc. etc, 'culture' is almost oppressivley present.
what is culture? [define it here]
however, one thing is missing. and that is cool.
what is cool? [define it here] [a detachment, an apathy, an irony]
the clothes the 'hip' young people wear is not up to par in coolness level as america. they simply are not as cool and started to become apparant on my mind. i started to feel like a 'rock star'. i started to feel proud to be an american... to see their cute attempts to mimic our 'cool culture'...because i was the real deal cool american. it was inspiring to see our contribution to world culture in action.
i saw that my version of cool was well advanced from turks my same age. did i mention i was in turkey visiting my wife's family and friends? this gave me first hand access to the culture. my version of cool is to not try to be cool. this is the most advanced stage of cool. if i am going to a nice resturant i will wear the appropriate 'nice attire.' i noticed the turkish male we were dining with merely wore the same tshirt he had been wearing all day. a cool move, no doubt...but not as advanced as my move of changing into a nice shirt. right?
a turkish male was impressed after an interaction with me...saying: he talks just like someone on a sitcom. he was amazed that the 'cool' characters on TV were based on real life people. i could not be touched...for i was...cool.
the song should be rewritten to say: i'm proud to be an american, where atleast i know i'm cool
sources to use in this essay:
The Conquest of Cool
Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism
by Thomas Frank
www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/259919.html
http://andrew.hedges.name/blog/2010/04/02/our-misguided-culture-of-cool
THE DEATH OF COOL: An open letter to Generation X by Greg ...
www.goodreads.com/book/show/7852858-the-death-of-cool - Cached
October 22 The Hipster Dilemma: What is the meaning of cool ...
thinkdenton.com/.../october-22-the-hipster-dilemma-what-is-the-me... - Cached
Sep 12, 2010 – The hipster, though a most curious case, is only the latest manifestation of cool in our culture. The quest for “cool” drives much of today's culture ...http://henryjenkins.org/2009/12/from_cool_hunters_to_chief_cul.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/alphabet-kids/201008/snooki-katy-perry-glenn-beck-pop-culture-tells-our-kids-its-cool-be-stupid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_(aesthetic)
"cool is our culture"
http://www.google.com/search?q=cool+is+our+culture&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#sclient=psy&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&source=hp&q=%22cool+is+our+culture%22&pbx=1&oq=%22cool+is+our+culture%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=1&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=207l207l1l541l1l1l0l0l0l0l169l169l0.1l1l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=af033ffb63f16769&biw=1015&bih=562
Labels: turkey mcluhan cool youngblood holden
¶ 9/25/2011
