What's Cool?

Quite a while ago now, we were having a discussion on this blog (or one of its earlier incarnations, I can't remember) about the notion of "cool" and whether it was related in any way to any of the virtues.

Well, since the Big Important Issues of God, Man and the Meaning of Life no longer really hold my attention, I'm not all that keen to reopen the debate on virtue and cool, but I was just "rickrolled" by a friend of mine. I didn't get the joke, of course, and having been enlightened, responded that I have an excuse, being that I am famously unhip. I'm not cool. I'm too old to be cool.

But it made me think for a moment again about "cool" as a concept. Rick Astley was not cool among my friends in the 80's. We knew that the synth-pop genre was insipid. Things that are insipid cannot be cool. (Except for Flock of Seagulls, who, being insipid synth-pop, weren't cool, but I loved them anyway.)

I think there may be a clew here as to why the whole burlap-banner/guitar n'bongo/dancing nun liturgical movement never caught on and is (tbtg) dying out with the Boomers. It was insipid, for one thing. But it also had that other Kill o' Zap anti-cool landmine effect: it had been started in the 50's by then-middle-aged people who wanted to be seen by younger people (our parents) as "cool and withit". Well, now those middle aged people who started it all have died off, and the "young people" they preached to are now the greying hipsters still trying to sell peacelovegroovy to the crowd and wondering why the kids are so uncool.

What they don't seem to realise is that the wrinkly grey haired people they look at every morning in the mirror, are themselves and they are the ones who now look ridiculous dressed up in tie-dyed chasubles. They've become the one thing all cool hip teenagers most fear and despise: old people dancing to rock and roll.

What did I think was cool?



That'll show you how old I am.