So following the logic here, it was coolness that elected Trump. I happened to have voted for him but cool he is not.
Keith Richards.
3
"Cool" is evaluation. It's a decision. It's conviction. It's THINKING.
2
Two words, Keith Richards.
3
Steve McQueen was the very essence of cool. He should at least have been mentioned.
3
Cool - Barack Obama
Cool - Michelle Obama
Cool - Angela Merkel
Cool - Emma Stone
Cool - Francois Macron
Cool - Pope Francis
Cool - Martin Luther King (he will always be cool, no matter how "cool" is defined)
Cool - Mahershala Ali
Cool - Viola Davis
Cool - Bill Gates
Cool (in a very weird way) - Elon Musk
Cool - Jerry Brown
Cool - Cate Blanchett
Cool - XI Jingping
Cool - Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
Cool - Michelle Obama
Cool - Angela Merkel
Cool - Emma Stone
Cool - Francois Macron
Cool - Pope Francis
Cool - Martin Luther King (he will always be cool, no matter how "cool" is defined)
Cool - Mahershala Ali
Cool - Viola Davis
Cool - Bill Gates
Cool (in a very weird way) - Elon Musk
Cool - Jerry Brown
Cool - Cate Blanchett
Cool - XI Jingping
Cool - Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
2
"Culture is the collective response to the core problems of the times." What? Maybe you mean "counter-culture"? Culture is FAR more than this 'byproduct of itself' tautology. Mr. Brooks might want to look over an Anthropology textbook.
In my view, "cool" was a way of being that was celebrated by modern society made self-aware and self-critical by movies and other forms of mass media. Since this anti-establishment ethos can't really exist without the establishment looking on it's sort of false, in my view (and not worth seeking a replacement for). Resistance to an oppressive system by an individual, whether self-conscious or not, can result in great things (even if it is phony). West Coast or cool jazz was mainly popular at privileged, college campuses throughout the country. But it's hard to deny the genius of Stan Kenton..... or, in another genre, Hendrix? The arrogance that often accompanies coolness makes it difficult for me to appreciate the talents of many cool people. The same applies to many "woke" individuals, for me, as well, I guess.
In conclusion, I think we're looking at another childish and contrived article from David Brooks (lately he's risen above this).
In my view, "cool" was a way of being that was celebrated by modern society made self-aware and self-critical by movies and other forms of mass media. Since this anti-establishment ethos can't really exist without the establishment looking on it's sort of false, in my view (and not worth seeking a replacement for). Resistance to an oppressive system by an individual, whether self-conscious or not, can result in great things (even if it is phony). West Coast or cool jazz was mainly popular at privileged, college campuses throughout the country. But it's hard to deny the genius of Stan Kenton..... or, in another genre, Hendrix? The arrogance that often accompanies coolness makes it difficult for me to appreciate the talents of many cool people. The same applies to many "woke" individuals, for me, as well, I guess.
In conclusion, I think we're looking at another childish and contrived article from David Brooks (lately he's risen above this).
3
To be cool is to have "it," and of course the very meaning of that is to have something that defies verbal definition. Cool people are people who make you feel better about what human beings are. They stand out as exemplars, but only within some limited context. The biker in the leather jacket was cool to teens because he shattered the confining boredom of 50s morality. But, adults of the day found him very uncool. They could see how he was cool to kids, but he didn't inspire their admiration. He was disrespecting their idea of a model human. Most of the people Mr. Brooks mentions are like that ... recognized as cool only in the sense that we know they were exemplars for come class of people, by race, or sex, economic status ... really cool people could span a number of classes. Toadies are cool as they mimic the real thing. Kids say 'cool!' when another kid does a good job copying the genuine article.
Today's woke person is just an exemplar that fits what the times call for ... someone outraged. What's different? Cool usually means lucid.
Today's woke person is just an exemplar that fits what the times call for ... someone outraged. What's different? Cool usually means lucid.
1
Glad to see Mr. Brooks sees through the cool of present-day hipsters. As a resident of Williamsburg, Brooklyn for the past 30 years I can safely say that hipsterism has become, simply, the vanguard of the consumer class. Not a lot of counter-culturalism there.
1
Cool doesn't need sunglasses or a need to call them "shades."
Cool doesn't need tattoos or a need to call them "ink."
Cool doesn't post photos of meals eaten.
It rarely ...if ever ...takes selfies.
It doesn't let the world know every time it's in an airport.
Cool doesn't post publicly viewed love letters on Facebook.
Cool doesn't say "like" several times in every sentence.
Cool can't try to be cool. Cool is just cool.
I'm not cool.
Cool doesn't need tattoos or a need to call them "ink."
Cool doesn't post photos of meals eaten.
It rarely ...if ever ...takes selfies.
It doesn't let the world know every time it's in an airport.
Cool doesn't post publicly viewed love letters on Facebook.
Cool doesn't say "like" several times in every sentence.
Cool can't try to be cool. Cool is just cool.
I'm not cool.
2
And not a single mention the coolest of all, Steve McQueen
4
and you left out dylan? not cool, man.
4
Interesting and concise BUT - "No, I am not an existentialist. Sartre and I are always surprised to see our names linked." - Camus, 1945
3
As a college educated African-American, I become offended by these types of discussions, which attempt to elevate a survival mechanism within the African-American community as being something other than survival. Survival meaning, functioning at a level of desperation under adverse conditions. There is nothing "cool" about survival.
Both the African-American community and the non-African-American community have bought into these portrayals ensuring that African-American men, in particular, continue to embrace these kinds of values instead of embracing the only functionally (healthy, constructive, productive, upwardly mobile) value available to them, that being education.
Both the African-American community and the non-African-American community have bought into these portrayals ensuring that African-American men, in particular, continue to embrace these kinds of values instead of embracing the only functionally (healthy, constructive, productive, upwardly mobile) value available to them, that being education.
11
Interesting that the comments section seems to be dealing mainly with coolness and not wokeness.
3
Cool has lasted longer than most of "in" words that appeared over the last 30 years.
I never thought of cool in the depth that David reveals nor have I ever been cool, unless it was a fluke accident.
But I have come to understand something that brings unexpected and uncommon joy.
And that is when you do something for others when they least expect it or for strangers you hardly know.
Like surprising neighbors by giving their kids books for no other reason than just the idea of getting a kid something out of the blue.
I've learned over many years that "others" tops being concerned about one's self. It may not seem cool but it is an uncommon joy you don't get from a lot of life's activities
I never thought of cool in the depth that David reveals nor have I ever been cool, unless it was a fluke accident.
But I have come to understand something that brings unexpected and uncommon joy.
And that is when you do something for others when they least expect it or for strangers you hardly know.
Like surprising neighbors by giving their kids books for no other reason than just the idea of getting a kid something out of the blue.
I've learned over many years that "others" tops being concerned about one's self. It may not seem cool but it is an uncommon joy you don't get from a lot of life's activities
6
I'm interested why you didn't cite Barack Obama as a modern-day example of Cool. Compared to the current president Obama was so cool physicists could have used him to form a Bose-Einstein condensate.
33
Really? We're talking cool in the NYT?
Okay so I'll weigh in.
I have always understood it to mean calm under pressure.
Actors (even Bogart) aren't cool; maybe their on-screen persona is, but the actor?
A soldier, yes, even a cop, performing his job well under pressure is cool.
A surgeon performing flawlessly for hours on the operating table is cool.
Aircraft controllers are cool.
Firefighters rushing into a burning building to save lives are cool.
Tightrope walkers are cool.
Yes, people every day acting heroically under extreme pressure are the coolest people on earth.
Okay so I'll weigh in.
I have always understood it to mean calm under pressure.
Actors (even Bogart) aren't cool; maybe their on-screen persona is, but the actor?
A soldier, yes, even a cop, performing his job well under pressure is cool.
A surgeon performing flawlessly for hours on the operating table is cool.
Aircraft controllers are cool.
Firefighters rushing into a burning building to save lives are cool.
Tightrope walkers are cool.
Yes, people every day acting heroically under extreme pressure are the coolest people on earth.
18
Well you finally did it. You wrote something where I had absolutely no idea what you were talking about in that last couple of paragraphs. I have never heard the term woke, but having read since this morning its meaning in the urban dictionary, I am sorry to see that grammatically it is yet another corruption of the "King's English".
Nevertheless you were right about one thing, Jimi Hendrix was the epitome of cool.
Nevertheless you were right about one thing, Jimi Hendrix was the epitome of cool.
4
Loved this column. These ideas help tie things together , make better sense of our society. Your evolution over last 5 years has been heartening. Keep it up.
Wow—reminds me of when I was an eager young Baby Boomer chasing “COOL.” Just one problem, though; by the 1960s, Miles Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Albert Camus, et al, were the Silent Generation’s passé idea of cool. We didn’t need any stodgy previous generation—or anybody else—to tell us what was cool; we could make up our own minds.
And for GenX and the Millenials, Miles Davis, Audrey Hepburn et al have long since passed beyond the sunset. And of course Millenials and GenXers don’t need Baby Boomers to advise them about cool; like every other generation, they decide for themselves.
Oh, and my idea of cool? Merce Cunnngham. Look him up on YouTube.
And for GenX and the Millenials, Miles Davis, Audrey Hepburn et al have long since passed beyond the sunset. And of course Millenials and GenXers don’t need Baby Boomers to advise them about cool; like every other generation, they decide for themselves.
Oh, and my idea of cool? Merce Cunnngham. Look him up on YouTube.
Prince was cool. Distant, quiet, effortlessly skilled at everything he tackled.
8
This column is philosophically misconceived. Brooks seems to think that cool is a substance, a philosophical entity that can be embodied in persons in a historical context. But, following the later Wittgenstein, this is an error, a product of the bewitchment of language. The proper understanding of “cool” is the way it is used in ordinary language by competent speakers. The meaning of a word is its usage. The problem is that a single word, “cool” for instance, has many different usages. This gives rise to the philosophical question, “What is the essence of cool?” But this is a pseudo problem. The only things that makes sense are the specific usages. When I say, “Steve McQueen is cool,” it can mean his character displays what it is to be cool. It can also mean that I like him. Or we can use cool as in “Cool it.” Wittgenstein made clear that the only valid usages are the ones we already know when we use the word in everyday language. These, of course, change in the course of time. However, the philosophical abstraction “cool” is a ghost that has no substance. Brooks is writing about ghosts. Brooks should have written a post entitled: How do we use the word “cool” today?
2
I'm no fan of Brooks, but asking (or trying to explain) "how cool works today" seems awfully close to asking how we use the word cool today. He is talking precisely about usage not essences.
1
I believe cool was defined by Kipling in "If"
1
A great movie portrayal of cool: Paul Newman in "Cool Hand Luke". Engaged (not nonchalant), a rebel and non-conformist, powerless but with dignity, and never backing down or taking the easy way out. A leader of men, but despite himself.
7
Is Trump cool? If so than cool is dead!
I'm going to go ahead and say it: "Woke" will soon be as forgotten as the "Occupy" movement. Not that the ideals aren't worthy, or that I disagree with them. I will borrow another phrase from the kids, and suggest that it's just "not a thing." It's certainly not the mainstream political and intellectual movement that Brooks says it is. By all means, let's continue to strive to achieve the state described as "woke," but don't mess around with tortured and forced comparisons to "cool," by which Brooks reminds me of an old grandpa trying to be "with it." Go back to politics,
daddy-o.
daddy-o.
7
Are you kidding? I don't know about actors, but it's really easy to find cool characters like Rainbow Dash in My Little Pony or Link in The Legend of Zelda. It's just that cool's evolved away from being useless lumps of self-absorption like Humphry Bogart's characters or whatever type of character (screamy damsel?) Audrey Hepburn played.
1
"Cool was politically detached, but being a social activist is required for being woke.'
Cool was NEVER politically detached. Quite the contrary; for those who invented "Cool", i.e. Americans of African descent.
Absolutely keeping up on ALL politics pertaining to ALL people who've ever owned them and all the awful things post-slavery up until this date, was a prerequisite for survival. Black folks knew this and counteracted in many ways.
To look good, calm, collected and unscathed while enduring all of this: Well, THAT'S cool!
Cool was NEVER politically detached. Quite the contrary; for those who invented "Cool", i.e. Americans of African descent.
Absolutely keeping up on ALL politics pertaining to ALL people who've ever owned them and all the awful things post-slavery up until this date, was a prerequisite for survival. Black folks knew this and counteracted in many ways.
To look good, calm, collected and unscathed while enduring all of this: Well, THAT'S cool!
1
How about we make civility cool?
Everyone cool with that?
Everyone cool with that?
8
Yeah like when someone gets killed, act like it matters.
What is super-cool today is the "woke" functioning of the separation of powers in the US. I (and probably a few billion people ) went from despair last November to a renewed faith in America as journalists, jurists, representatives, citizens of all stripes and, yes, "leakers", rose up to expose mercilessly the ongoing calamity of a mad White House.
6
Any day now I think Mr. Brooks could become woke enough and cool enough to embrace marijuana legalization and acknowledge the damage that marijuana prohibition, along with the governmental mechanisms employed to promote and prolong it, have wrought upon our society.
6
So were the weather underground cool, or woke? Can you not be both?
1
The Black Panthers were cool. So we're the well dressed Civil Rights workers who sat as white mobs assaulted them. African American cool is not 'powerlessness' or an acceptance of our political position.
3
Robert Downey Jr?? Try Tommy Lee Jones.
6
The "woke" phenomenon is a sad attempt to sidestep debate about important issues by shaming those who disagree. Proclaiming those who agree with you to have awoken is to accuse everyone else of being ignorant, or asleep. It is an old tactic of the left, which can be adopted by right wing extremists as well. African Americans who dispute the leftist line are called much worse things than not "woke" but it is all the same tactic to control language to stifle debate.
The women's march organizers praise a cop killer on their web site and explain it as support for a different kind of "resistance". Murder is OK, because it is resistance, which is OK....Orwell warned us. From Trump to the totalitarian left, folks want to blind us by taking our language. So tell folks that you may be wrong, or many other things, but if they say you are with them or not "woke" use language to push back. Opposing trump doesn't require accepting the radical language, or actions, of other extremists.
The women's march organizers praise a cop killer on their web site and explain it as support for a different kind of "resistance". Murder is OK, because it is resistance, which is OK....Orwell warned us. From Trump to the totalitarian left, folks want to blind us by taking our language. So tell folks that you may be wrong, or many other things, but if they say you are with them or not "woke" use language to push back. Opposing trump doesn't require accepting the radical language, or actions, of other extremists.
3
I see Brooks is still writing about anything other than his party or the current administration. Maybe he's woke to all the troubles therein...
5
One would have to be "cool" to get this story right. David Brooks is the opposite of cool.
7
Roger Federer is cool.
2
Way not cool to have cool explained by Mr. Brooks.
6
Reading David's attempt to distill the concept of "cool" down to a definition, and then . . . compare it to "woke?"
Oof.
Try again.
Oof.
Try again.
5
"Today because of social media, everybody is close up, present 24/7, familiar and un-iconic."
Thank you for this sentence and the word "close-up", which becomes an insight into our individual and collective challenge in dealing with the Internet environment we are now immersed in. To follow-up on the photographic metaphor, a mind's ability to switch back to the wide-angle view as needed is certainly a measure of its health. That's the essence of "cool" and it was discovered 2500 years ago by the Buddha. (Who knows, the renewed popularity of mindfulness training might contribute to Make America Cool Again).
Thank you for this sentence and the word "close-up", which becomes an insight into our individual and collective challenge in dealing with the Internet environment we are now immersed in. To follow-up on the photographic metaphor, a mind's ability to switch back to the wide-angle view as needed is certainly a measure of its health. That's the essence of "cool" and it was discovered 2500 years ago by the Buddha. (Who knows, the renewed popularity of mindfulness training might contribute to Make America Cool Again).
5
Oh my, ... cool rare or dead ?
Even the French noticed that President Obama and his wife are and were the epitome of cool
Un couple glamour et cool à la fois
(A glamorous and cool couple at the same time )
Au bout de la «coolitude» ...
The French even invented a new word : Coolitude to describe it !!!
http://madame.lefigaro.fr/celebrites/barack-obama-douze-sequences-emotio...
Even the French noticed that President Obama and his wife are and were the epitome of cool
Un couple glamour et cool à la fois
(A glamorous and cool couple at the same time )
Au bout de la «coolitude» ...
The French even invented a new word : Coolitude to describe it !!!
http://madame.lefigaro.fr/celebrites/barack-obama-douze-sequences-emotio...
3
The "cool" described here by Brooks is WAY too narrowly defined, and in many cases, the inverse of cool. Many of the people I knew growing up, particularly through my high school and college (or college-aged, in my case) years, were cool because they were NOT detached and they WERE politically aware and engaged. Brooks (and Dinerstein) seem to be offering up anachronistic iterations of cool, and I'd suggest that that pretty much sums up cluelessness to coolness.
Cool is not static or bound to a particular set of cultural conditions, styles, or eras. Cool can be aloof, but cool can be deeply empathetic and caring. Cool is going out on a limb when others seem unable to.
In this particular time, even holding the nightmare of Trump aside, it would be "cool" for conservative pundits to buck the orthodoxy and acknowledge the death spiral of winner-take-all consumer capitalism and the myth of immaculate meritocracy. I guess we'll see how cool they turn out to be.
Cool is not static or bound to a particular set of cultural conditions, styles, or eras. Cool can be aloof, but cool can be deeply empathetic and caring. Cool is going out on a limb when others seem unable to.
In this particular time, even holding the nightmare of Trump aside, it would be "cool" for conservative pundits to buck the orthodoxy and acknowledge the death spiral of winner-take-all consumer capitalism and the myth of immaculate meritocracy. I guess we'll see how cool they turn out to be.
6
Woke/cool connected to not just spectators, (the left who lost track of the working class), but also agents of change. How many hours a week do you watch TV, complaining about Trump? Could not some of it go to political action? Form a neighborhood discussion group, invite a congressperson, and tell them what to do. Simple.
1
Chet Baker and Paul Desmond were cool. Charles Mingus, who died in 1977, was FULLY WOKE.
5
Cool and woke are totally different concepts.
4
Getting a good laugh over here at being coolsplained by David Brooks, champion of uncool.
29
Technically, Brooks would be coolsplaining only if he were telling Joel Dinerstein what cool is, especially if he supported his explanation by appealing to Dinerstein's book and added that Dinerstein really ought to read it.
Even so, this is the best post of the day.
Even so, this is the best post of the day.
Who'da thunk coolness would be a reflection of Taoist principles. Thank you Mr. Brooks for your keen insights. We could also use a deeper dive into stoicism. How about Marcus Aurelius vs. Donald Trump?
3
Oh, the weariness of folk like David Brooks and Joel Dinerstein- forever analyzing, dissecting- studying the Black Experience in America. Here is a newsflash David: We who wear the color black are not all cool, uncool, or any other stereotype. We prefer to just be known as Human Beings. Is that too much to ask of you?
22
That essay purporting to be the right-wing version of "woke" is far from it. Remember that woke starts with being awakened, aware -- specifically, of how black people have been treated inhumanely throughout the history of this country. After slavery, from trespassing laws and gun control to the drug war and mass incarceration, our country has systematically criminalized being black.
No right winger can claim to be "woke" because he's woken up to the fact that some conservative politicians aren't doing what he wants.
No right winger can claim to be "woke" because he's woken up to the fact that some conservative politicians aren't doing what he wants.
11
Sounds like Brooks has confused "cool" with "hip" -- another West African-derived cultural concept. Too bad he's neither. LOL
10
Kurt Schlicter is right-wing cool? No one has ever been farther from cool.
Maybe right-wing cannot be cool.
Maybe right-wing cannot be cool.
5
William F. Buckley was incredibly cool. So was Robert Nozick.
Good Lord. David Brooks has got to be the least self-aware human on the planet.
19
I differ.
That position is already occupied.
See 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
That position is already occupied.
See 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
3
I don't think "woke" is a newly formed phenomenon. The fringes have been there forever. But after being fed a steady diet of reality shows to the nosy audience, they become legitimate. Comparing the progressive left and reactionary right is a false equivalency though, especially when the Tea Party keeps waving the libertarian flag. The left wants to better society and the left behind but the right wants to be other people's guardians.
In terms of cool, surely America has lived through the French New Wave and British invasion. It is about cultural fusion, an opposite of the current xenophobic and America First movement. Combining the best and being innovative are the core of being cool. Now, the usurped Republican Party is gross as hack
In terms of cool, surely America has lived through the French New Wave and British invasion. It is about cultural fusion, an opposite of the current xenophobic and America First movement. Combining the best and being innovative are the core of being cool. Now, the usurped Republican Party is gross as hack
1
If you are looking for a modern example of a cool person, I would nominate jazz bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding. Such talent with a serene stage presence.
4
Reminds me of Cary Grant's remark when asked if he knew that everyone wanted to be Cary a Grant: "Yes, I know. Even I want to be Cary Grant."
11
Steve McQueen defined cool during my youth.
5
Bob Dylan is the coolest person in America. Has been for quite some time. Patti Smith right behind. Neil Young is Canadian. There you go.
4
Oh David. I wish you would go back to your pensive semi-religious musings rather than venture out to areas ill equipped to travel. This is one journey where your GPS isn't working.
12
Uncool = John McCain, who returns from cancer treatment to vote for senate republican health care "something" (its not a bill)
12
Did you read/hear what he said on the floor? It was a sensible speech, very timely. So his voting aye was to get everyone's attention and while I too admit to being a bit shocked his speech put things in perspective.
From the USA Today:
"All we’ve managed to do is make more popular a policy that wasn’t very popular when we started trying to get rid of it," he said of Obamacare.
...
But that was only a vote to begin debate. "I will not vote for this bill as it is today," McCain said, and if it fails, "which seems likely," the Senate should go back to the drawing board, with hearings, markups and consultation with Democrats — all things that have thus far been lacking.
Standing in the well of the Senate with the surgical scar over his left eyebrow clearly visible, McCain urged his colleagues to "stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths" on radio, television and the Internet who rail against compromise. "To hell with them!" McCain said.
Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, were seen smiling during McCain's speech as he railed against Republicans crafting legislation behind closed doors and trying to convince skeptical members that it's better than nothing.
“Let’s trust each other," McCain said. "We’ve been spinning our wheels on too many important issues because we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle."
...
From the USA Today:
"All we’ve managed to do is make more popular a policy that wasn’t very popular when we started trying to get rid of it," he said of Obamacare.
...
But that was only a vote to begin debate. "I will not vote for this bill as it is today," McCain said, and if it fails, "which seems likely," the Senate should go back to the drawing board, with hearings, markups and consultation with Democrats — all things that have thus far been lacking.
Standing in the well of the Senate with the surgical scar over his left eyebrow clearly visible, McCain urged his colleagues to "stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths" on radio, television and the Internet who rail against compromise. "To hell with them!" McCain said.
Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, were seen smiling during McCain's speech as he railed against Republicans crafting legislation behind closed doors and trying to convince skeptical members that it's better than nothing.
“Let’s trust each other," McCain said. "We’ve been spinning our wheels on too many important issues because we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle."
...
4
I (hope) believe you are describing cool as people comfortable in their skin. Eons ago, in the 8th I acknowledged that I was not a cool guy and conducted myself thusly. Yow, I found I was accepted in every social stratum and with ease. With the birth of my first child I laughed and noted aloud, once you become a father you are no longer hip. Maybe cool is merely de-hipping cool and then living it. Life really is fun.
3
David Brooks writing on "cool." Hysterical. Cool is everything he is not but has always wanted to be. Give it up.
10
Okay, here's an idea...rather than labels like "cool" or "woke" -- why don't we just try to be honest, thoughtful, caring, human beings? Rather than listening only to the media outlets that tickle our ears, why not try listening to the other point of view and really trying to understand where they are coming from?
Life is such a wonderful thing. And, it can be so very fleeting. So, let's please try to make the best of it. Let us do the good that is within our power to do. Breathe, love, grow, listen, cherish the moment and don't spend even a second worrying about whether you are cool or woke. If you are reading this, then you are alive and that is a pretty amazing thing.
Life is such a wonderful thing. And, it can be so very fleeting. So, let's please try to make the best of it. Let us do the good that is within our power to do. Breathe, love, grow, listen, cherish the moment and don't spend even a second worrying about whether you are cool or woke. If you are reading this, then you are alive and that is a pretty amazing thing.
9
Mr. Brooks, how is it we're the same age yet you're a cranky, oblivious, obsolescent old shut-in? You pretend to report on the human race without actually being a member.
As the kids today like to say, "Delete your account."
As the kids today like to say, "Delete your account."
5
David,
You seem to be be the classmate in high school I encountered who was enthused with "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," and looked down on me because I was a middling student (at best) who played football, but also read St. Augustine, Martin Buber, and Thorsten Veblen.
I am a fan of the folks you offer, but they are not the only ones carved in stone when thinking 'cool', unless you went into a time capsule in 1980:
Miles Davis (last ‘important” album 1970s d. 1991)
Billie Holiday (d. 1959)
Humphrey Bogart (last starring role 1955, d. 1957)
Albert Camus (d. 1960)
Audrey Hepburn (last ‘starring role’ 1976, d. 2003)
James Dean (d. 1955)
Jimi Hendrix (d. 1970)
The Beach Boys were cool in the 1960s along with Allen Ginsberg, country rock was the thing in the 1970s along with Rod McKuen in the early decade; "smooth jazz" was the thing in the 1980s, and on and on and on.
I don't think 60-some writers should be talking about generic cool. Each group has their own idea of what that term means. Just watched 'Dunkirk" I have to believe in Europe from 1939 to 1945, it was cool simply to stay alive.
Gil Scott-Heron, RIP!
You seem to be be the classmate in high school I encountered who was enthused with "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," and looked down on me because I was a middling student (at best) who played football, but also read St. Augustine, Martin Buber, and Thorsten Veblen.
I am a fan of the folks you offer, but they are not the only ones carved in stone when thinking 'cool', unless you went into a time capsule in 1980:
Miles Davis (last ‘important” album 1970s d. 1991)
Billie Holiday (d. 1959)
Humphrey Bogart (last starring role 1955, d. 1957)
Albert Camus (d. 1960)
Audrey Hepburn (last ‘starring role’ 1976, d. 2003)
James Dean (d. 1955)
Jimi Hendrix (d. 1970)
The Beach Boys were cool in the 1960s along with Allen Ginsberg, country rock was the thing in the 1970s along with Rod McKuen in the early decade; "smooth jazz" was the thing in the 1980s, and on and on and on.
I don't think 60-some writers should be talking about generic cool. Each group has their own idea of what that term means. Just watched 'Dunkirk" I have to believe in Europe from 1939 to 1945, it was cool simply to stay alive.
Gil Scott-Heron, RIP!
4
It's summer. If Mr. Brooks can't be bothered to write about something he knows something about, can he at least do his book reports on juicy bodice rippers?
6
Neil Young was, is & always will be cool.
3
Obama definitely was cool, and isn't it ironic that the one big time he broke his cool and made fun of Trump's hair during the correspondent's dinner that has come back to blow up in his face?
5
Brooks writes:
"Embrace it or not, B.L.M. is the most complete social movement in America today, as a communal, intellectual, moral and political force."
Communal, yes. Intellectual, no.
"Embrace it or not, B.L.M. is the most complete social movement in America today, as a communal, intellectual, moral and political force."
Communal, yes. Intellectual, no.
7
Mr. Brooks. I am a 69 year old, white Jewish American male. I'm not cool. I play golf with mediocrity. My waist is now 34 and my weight, well, its on an upward tick. I'm not the skinny 145 lb, 19 year old Army private of 1966. My hair is thinning too. And, of course, I'm on my second marriage. Some would say that is ok but not cool. My kids don't think its cool.
And, I'm not involved with politics, or solving social problems. I'm not an activist. You might even say I'm indifferent. When in college in 1970 I didn't protest when kids were slaughtered at Kent State. In my view it wouldn't have been to cool for a veteran to be among the protestors. You wouldn't find me at DuPont Circle.
I am no longer a supporter of the Democratic Party...or the Republican. They're not cool. They betrayed us.
I grew up in the 20th century. I do not want to be like Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Humphrey Bogart, Albert Camus, Audrey Hepburn, James Dean or Jimi Hendrix. They were ok. Maybe they were cool. I don't know. Their personal lives were sometimes as wretched as ordinary people. Not cool.
I would have liked to be able to do math and physics problems like Einstein. That would definitely be cool! Or maybe write music like Tchaikovsky or Rimsky-Korshakov. Or George Gershwin. Or perform ballet like Mikhail Baryshnikov. Or have the charisma and hair of John Kennedy. General Patton was cool! MacArthur was really cool! The Beatles and the Rolling Stones are cool! Ok, Audrey and Jimmy are too.
And, I'm not involved with politics, or solving social problems. I'm not an activist. You might even say I'm indifferent. When in college in 1970 I didn't protest when kids were slaughtered at Kent State. In my view it wouldn't have been to cool for a veteran to be among the protestors. You wouldn't find me at DuPont Circle.
I am no longer a supporter of the Democratic Party...or the Republican. They're not cool. They betrayed us.
I grew up in the 20th century. I do not want to be like Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Humphrey Bogart, Albert Camus, Audrey Hepburn, James Dean or Jimi Hendrix. They were ok. Maybe they were cool. I don't know. Their personal lives were sometimes as wretched as ordinary people. Not cool.
I would have liked to be able to do math and physics problems like Einstein. That would definitely be cool! Or maybe write music like Tchaikovsky or Rimsky-Korshakov. Or George Gershwin. Or perform ballet like Mikhail Baryshnikov. Or have the charisma and hair of John Kennedy. General Patton was cool! MacArthur was really cool! The Beatles and the Rolling Stones are cool! Ok, Audrey and Jimmy are too.
3
Why don't you ever mention the rot in wealth inequality? You don't think that oppresses people?
4
Absolutely depressing editorial.
4
Mr brooks again has served up his "philosophy lite". A bit more research into the real meaning and depth of what is "cool" would have served him well. I suggest he start with reading "Flash of the Sprit" by Yale professor Robert Farris Thompson.
3
Davey, you are too youg to understand "COOL"!
After witnessing Obama accept thousands of dollars for a speech and Hamilton sell at hundreds of dollars a seat I too tried to grasp coolness but woke up very empty handed and angry. "Stupid IS as stupid does" made far more sense.
4
Why is it only OK for conservatives to make money?
3
Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and other members of the Black Panther Party exuded iconic cool, but they were, first and foremost, "woke." They did not rely on promoters and producers to package and commercialize their message because they, like Gil Scott-Heron, understood that "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."
I think that is where David Brooks, a perpetual stranger to both cool and woke, may have gone wrong. He is relying on media, fashion, and academics to inform him about perspectives that derive meaning and value by rejecting the perspectives of historic institutions of power. That's not cool. That's not hip, either. Oh, sorry, I mean "woke."
I think that is where David Brooks, a perpetual stranger to both cool and woke, may have gone wrong. He is relying on media, fashion, and academics to inform him about perspectives that derive meaning and value by rejecting the perspectives of historic institutions of power. That's not cool. That's not hip, either. Oh, sorry, I mean "woke."
7
David Brooks is "a perpetual stranger" to anything and everything. Forget about what the Russians have on Trump, what does Brooks have on the Times?
5
To shun motor vehicles is cool
3
Charles Cooley was cool.
2
Uncool is Mr. Trump! His threats to fire Mr. Mullen is the most uncool and shows a man in the panic mode.
1
It is kind of hard to be cool when everything has been done before. Kids today have nothing to call their own. Maybe that is why they dress like their grandparents did and wear T-shirt's of bands that were popular before they were born
1
Among the figures who emerged to define cool in the 1960s, one must mention Bob Dylan. No one was more "cool" than Dylan circa 1965-1966. And to this day, almost anyone who meets him--including the Obamas--is rendered awkward by the charisma of his cool. Also one might mention Keith Richards--a man who has been completely true to his heart all his life, and who is both smarter than everyone thinks and an epitome of cool. People respond to cool with admiration or detraction, but cool doesn' care; authenticity doesn't care. Radical authenticity plus creativity equals happiness + cool; when you add genius (as with Dylan) you arrive at pure cool.
6
Actually, someone who speaks honestly about character, beliefs, and social mores without insisting that you agree is pretty cool. Add to that being a person who makes 10 minutes every Friday evening kindly jousting with Mark Shields must see TV is one of those personalities that people look to.
Sorry David, but you're cool.
Sorry David, but you're cool.
4
With the advent of trump, America has become the most "uncool" place on the planet.
Who better embodies the antithesis of cool than our ignorant, narcissistic, Whiner-in-Chief?
Who better embodies the antithesis of cool than our ignorant, narcissistic, Whiner-in-Chief?
10
When you try to put out a framework to hang a discussion of "Cool", you are in effect hanging cool out to dry. Mr. Brooks reminds me of the people in my college graduating class who chose not to live a life of adventure and then tried to write about it in later life... As he continues to perform his autopsies of different aspects of life in America (some still living), he illustrates how he would be better served to stay in his own lane and write about politics, or at least the way he remembers them to be...
Veering out of his lane, is simply uncool...
Veering out of his lane, is simply uncool...
3
Trump is the definition of anti- cool and is more Startle than woke.
2
A key issue here is that it is so hard to differentiate between a persons public and private persona. Is a person cool if they are only publicly cool?
Mr Brooks touches on this point briefly but it is only to highlight the role of social media in changing the quality of our exposure to people. The real issue with the examples of "cool" people Mr Brooks highlights is that it is unclear if we are discussing the characters they play or the people they are. Robert Downey Jr plays a cool person, as does Bruce Willis, every portrayer of James Bond and countless others. However, this shows us the myth of cool, not actual cool people who might live a philosophy of cool. Is "cool" really a tangible philosophy? Something that really guides adherent's thinking and behavior, leading to a rewarding life? Or is it perhaps a temporary state of mind in response to our environment and which is created piecemeal based on a few abstract notions of what we think it means to be cool in a cultural context.
The definition of cool stated up front is an interesting one, and the roots of cool cited by the Dinerstein are worthy of investigation, but what can we really know about this as a philosophy when all we have are media icons and public persona to look to?
Mr Brooks touches on this point briefly but it is only to highlight the role of social media in changing the quality of our exposure to people. The real issue with the examples of "cool" people Mr Brooks highlights is that it is unclear if we are discussing the characters they play or the people they are. Robert Downey Jr plays a cool person, as does Bruce Willis, every portrayer of James Bond and countless others. However, this shows us the myth of cool, not actual cool people who might live a philosophy of cool. Is "cool" really a tangible philosophy? Something that really guides adherent's thinking and behavior, leading to a rewarding life? Or is it perhaps a temporary state of mind in response to our environment and which is created piecemeal based on a few abstract notions of what we think it means to be cool in a cultural context.
The definition of cool stated up front is an interesting one, and the roots of cool cited by the Dinerstein are worthy of investigation, but what can we really know about this as a philosophy when all we have are media icons and public persona to look to?
7
David, when I think of cool in the US, I immediately think of Obama. How can you discuss cool without referring not even once to him? He has been chastised for being too cool (aloof) even by blacks. Have you ever read this article of BloombergBusiness Week where Obama is criticized for his Ebola crisis management?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-10-23/ebola-obamacare-syria...
He was criticized because he didn't cater to peoples emotional needs and instead managed the crisis with his usual intellectual rigor. By doing so he saved us from the frenzy that the media wanted to create around this "crisis". From the Bloomberg article page, there is a very nice gif of Obama that I've printed and posted in my office and that I refer to whenever I face situations at work that gets me fuming. It reminds me to keep cool. We definitely had cool with Obama, as a result, a lot of people felt his presidency was boring, technocratic and unspectacular. He was criticized a lot for being aloof because people think that being engaged is necessarily being passionate or loud, or that your outbursts really shows who you are.
The grace and dignity Obama showed when under vicious attacks was certainly unnerving to the people who didn't liked him. I'm glad that Obama didn't took the bait when Trump recently wanted to lure him in a mudfight. This attests his coolness and speaks volume, of Obamas "superiority", over Trumps angry bluster.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-10-23/ebola-obamacare-syria...
He was criticized because he didn't cater to peoples emotional needs and instead managed the crisis with his usual intellectual rigor. By doing so he saved us from the frenzy that the media wanted to create around this "crisis". From the Bloomberg article page, there is a very nice gif of Obama that I've printed and posted in my office and that I refer to whenever I face situations at work that gets me fuming. It reminds me to keep cool. We definitely had cool with Obama, as a result, a lot of people felt his presidency was boring, technocratic and unspectacular. He was criticized a lot for being aloof because people think that being engaged is necessarily being passionate or loud, or that your outbursts really shows who you are.
The grace and dignity Obama showed when under vicious attacks was certainly unnerving to the people who didn't liked him. I'm glad that Obama didn't took the bait when Trump recently wanted to lure him in a mudfight. This attests his coolness and speaks volume, of Obamas "superiority", over Trumps angry bluster.
12
I would say the Pope is cool, and I'm not even Catholic.
3
Reading Brooks flail on about cool reminds me of a quote attributed to Louis Armstrong when asked what jazz is. "If you have to ask, you'll never know."
Brooks is squaresville. L7. A complete lame. He can't play. "In their own way these people defined cool." sigh.. I have to stop reading. I'm getting squarer by the word.
Brooks is squaresville. L7. A complete lame. He can't play. "In their own way these people defined cool." sigh.. I have to stop reading. I'm getting squarer by the word.
6
When there's a vote on the repeal of the ACA literally today, how can the Times accept this kind of commentary? I can understand Brooks' collaboration with such feckless rascals; he's one of their chief enablers and can always be counted on to put a respectable face on fundamentally corrupt behavior. But that the Times is giving him a platform and a salary to do it? Stop the collaboration.
8
Somebody please tell the people that ride Harley Davidson motorcycles they are not cool.
9
I have read many, many columns by David Brooks and have listened to many interviews and panel discussions with him. I have the feeling he would really like to be cool, but since he can't help being a nerd and wanna be intellectual, there is absolutely no chance of that!
5
He has always been a bit culturally adrift that's for sure.
1
He's always been a bit culturally adrift but he seems like a really nice guy.
One thing is for sure: David Brooks is not cool.
12
Barack Obama. Case closed.
14
Sorry, david, but what you call "woke" is not the new cool, because at its core the 'woke' movement is a bunch of people who are angry but rather than challenge the power structure and more importantly, to advocate for change, to go forward, what you end up with is populist nihilism. Kid Rock, for example, has no new ideas, he feeds into the idea that the 'real Americans' have been used and abused by the establishment, but their answer is to basically rip apart the government, rather than addressing the wrongs. Worse, they believe they have the simple solution to everything, so they chant "repeal obamacare" while getting upset when they realize that if that happens they would be some of the victims. Instead of realizing that there are people on the left who feel the same way and reaching out, they declare that anyone who isn't like them, who has other ideas to address the issues, is an enemy.
Populist rage is not cool, and the woke movement is all about that, but there is one thing about populist rage, it expresses itself thoughtlessly, something you, David, should be really scared of. Collectivist action is one thing, mob rule "burn baby burn" (except, of course, what helps them) is another, and the 'woke movement' is nothing more than mob rule, the election of Trump tells the whole story about that.
Populist rage is not cool, and the woke movement is all about that, but there is one thing about populist rage, it expresses itself thoughtlessly, something you, David, should be really scared of. Collectivist action is one thing, mob rule "burn baby burn" (except, of course, what helps them) is another, and the 'woke movement' is nothing more than mob rule, the election of Trump tells the whole story about that.
8
Ultimately, this column is pretty naive. Why do we care? We have a lying government that does not care about us.
6
Nothing of any importance to write about, David? Nothing caught your eye this week? Nothing to do with the imminent threat to our Justice Dept?
9
Another book report, Mr.Brooks?
If you're going to write about cool, you can't leave out Fonzie!
If you're going to write about cool, you can't leave out Fonzie!
4
I guess cool people are popular without trying to be popular. Maybe it just means a person with enough self respect for themselves and others. Obama was so cool at the beginning, the ultimate cool black man, but then, his personality and skills didn't win republican congressmen. Trump is so popular with many economically distressed people but he seems to be too loud and desperate to be cool. But what's the point of being cool if you're not trying to win over anyone though? I don't really care about any of those entertainers of past and present. I like artists for what art they produced, not really for their personality since I don't know them personally. I like any public figure for what they tried to accomplish, but I don't really care past that because it's too much for me to care.
3
You crazy Mr. Brooks. But I like this piece. Quite thought provoking
2
Lincoln=woke.
And then there is this other usage of the term:
Under all these circumstances, do you really feel yourselves justified to break up this Government unless such a court decision as yours is, shall be at once submitted to as a conclusive and final rule of political action? But you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!"
From Lincoln's Cooper Union Address on Slavery February 27, 1860.
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/cooper.htm
It still makes for riveting reading.
Under all these circumstances, do you really feel yourselves justified to break up this Government unless such a court decision as yours is, shall be at once submitted to as a conclusive and final rule of political action? But you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!"
From Lincoln's Cooper Union Address on Slavery February 27, 1860.
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/cooper.htm
It still makes for riveting reading.
2
To be cool one must be able to be oneself and to distance ones mind from ones own feelings to see things in a clear perspective. That's very hard to do because one really needs to see things from one's adversaries perspective and be able to appreciate it as human like oneself, and still not have to forgive them to do so. I have known people who did so, but they stand out because everyone else coming from the same circumstances were sincerely resentful of those who treated them unjustly and mistrusted them and avoided them as they could. The only difference one could experience was that the cool people were less likely to fall into the habits of stereotyping people than were most other people.
President Obama was a cool person.
President Obama was a cool person.
3
I always enjoy your columns because they offer different reads, versatility in thought, and I am always learning something new. People should learn new things daily about their world, and about themselves. Are we growing, or are we in a stagnant place.
Like other teens, I cultivated being cool as a teenager because my peers were quick to tell me that I was not. The herd mentality at work. Eventually I decided standing apart from them was more cool, so I did, and found others 'uncool' like myself to hang with. When you are a teen the definition of cool keeps morphing along with the definition of self, and that self in the world. The one out there trying to draft its own blueprint in order to create a new footprint.
I was into the truly cool people seen on tv and in movies or read about in the classics, old and new. I was a kid who loved to hear stories from the 'old' people in my life, and how it was for them growing up. What their survival kits included. What was cool about every one of them, family, neighbors or passing strangers, was that they each carved a place in this always crazy world, and held onto it. Sort of like planting a flag on top of Mt. Everest.
Like other teens, I cultivated being cool as a teenager because my peers were quick to tell me that I was not. The herd mentality at work. Eventually I decided standing apart from them was more cool, so I did, and found others 'uncool' like myself to hang with. When you are a teen the definition of cool keeps morphing along with the definition of self, and that self in the world. The one out there trying to draft its own blueprint in order to create a new footprint.
I was into the truly cool people seen on tv and in movies or read about in the classics, old and new. I was a kid who loved to hear stories from the 'old' people in my life, and how it was for them growing up. What their survival kits included. What was cool about every one of them, family, neighbors or passing strangers, was that they each carved a place in this always crazy world, and held onto it. Sort of like planting a flag on top of Mt. Everest.
1
Only David Brooks could write a column on cool and not mention Steve McQueen.
David, you're hoping your woke movement will be "substantive, rigorous, and effective", yet Kid Rock is to be part of it?
no, David, nothing "remains to be seen" of THAT
no, David, nothing "remains to be seen" of THAT
3
If Obama were permitted a third term we'd still have the coolest leader on earth!
3
I thought it was a typo- Wouldn't Brooks be the expert on all that is uncool?
6
I grew up in the 20th century and wanted badly to be Paul Newman, but somewhere or other that project went awry. Someone once told me I looked like Jean-Paul Belmondo (still can’t figure that one), so for a while I affected a Left Bank slouch and chain-smoked Gauloises, but my native earnestness kept tripping me up. Some of the people I admired during my formative years (Mailer, Brando, Sinatra) wanted to be thought of as cool -- who didn’t? -- but their intensity kept breaking through the surface, and all of them, in different ways, carefully tended their public image. Real cool, I now realize, is unselfconscious, naïve rather than sentimental. So I guess there’s little hope for a cool last act. As for being “woke,” if that means facing a day of Kurt Schlichter and his fellow agents of radical change, I think I’m going back to bed and disabling the smartphone.
1
People always go from idealistic reformers to complacent beneficiaries of somebody else's misfortune when they become part of the dominant groups in society. Cool people usually are not privileged but they are rare. This country seems to be breaking down into a tribes and competing factions which refuse to think beyond the fixations of those with who they are affiliated. Individuals who think for themselves are outliers who kind of have to keep their heads down. The forces that capture the energies and passions are all characterized by group think and consider all others as absolute adversaries. From Trump's faithful supporters to the B.L.M. the core values which holds them together is emotional and fundamentally resentment towards all others as oppressors of themselves. For Trump's people immigration and culturally diversity and the global economy are the sources of oppression. For B.L.M. slavery, Jim Crow, and white supremacy are real and universal and they are devoted to protecting the victims from all three. The result is a society where a huge proportion of people no longer identify with each other and instead are not going to support each other.
The cool person who can see these divisions and understands what they are and what they are not, can sometimes cross amongst them without causing a stir but their perspective cannot be shared with all those who have become members of tribes.
The cool person who can see these divisions and understands what they are and what they are not, can sometimes cross amongst them without causing a stir but their perspective cannot be shared with all those who have become members of tribes.
Maybe a cool band name today would be the Woke Blokes.
"We da Woke Blokes
We live in Park Slope
We used to smoke dope
But it made us sleepy"
"We da Woke Blokes
We live in Park Slope
We used to smoke dope
But it made us sleepy"
1
"Hipness isn't a state of mind , it's a fact of life. You don't decide to be hip. It just happens that way. ". Cannonball Adderley
4
If anyone knows anything about being cool, it's David Brooks.
2
Another book report from David Brooks has left me to coin a new term for what he does: Zeitgeisting.
4
"How Cool Works in America Today" by...David Brooks?
You are just asking for the internet to make fun of you.
You are just asking for the internet to make fun of you.
8
For your information the Sanskrit word Bodhi. which is usually translated as Enlightened, actually means Awakened or Woke. So the name Buddha means the Woke One. But wokenness in the Buddhist sense means being aware of the truth. It doesn't mean being indignant. If one is angry one must be cool about it.
That sums up What I think we need. First of all to see the truth. Then to respond to it with cold rage.
Hardly anyone today is in a proper frame of mind. The great majority are cruelly ignorant, and the rest are overheated. I could say to America Get wise and cool yourselves, but it won't help.
That sums up What I think we need. First of all to see the truth. Then to respond to it with cold rage.
Hardly anyone today is in a proper frame of mind. The great majority are cruelly ignorant, and the rest are overheated. I could say to America Get wise and cool yourselves, but it won't help.
2
When Buddha was a young man three visions impacted him. The sight of an old man, the sight of the funeral of a dead man and finally the sight of a renunciation, who had an aura of equanimity, peace and cool. He decided to become the calm cool and completely awakened one.
Barack Obama was, and always will be, cool.
10
He is shaka mahalo, hang loose, cool, "The SHAKA is a sign used by Hawaiian locals to convey the, 'aloha spirit', it's a gesture of friendship and understanding between cultures. It can also mean, 'all right', 'cool', 'hang loose', 'howzit brah?', 'hello', 'goodbye', and 'mahalo'."
1
What is this drivel? Wokeness is not cool. It's a bunch of crybabies looking for racism in every activity they partake in.
4
Part of the problem.
3
Mr. Brooks is not in a position to define or explain "woke." He should stick to what he knows.
2
President Barack Obama: he moved the peg marking "cool" to its highest mark in the 21st Century. Thank you, Mr. President.
12
Mr. Brooks, you missed the whole point of being woke. Yes, it does mean to be "radically aware" and "cognizant of the rot pervading the power structures," but these are just the preconditions for being awakened. The next step is, as you say, to be a social activist, but you neglect to distinguish for which cause you are going to agitate. Perhaps if you had actually listened to "Master Teacher" by Erykah Badu, you would have understood that being woke is about education for all, feeding the poor, honesty, tolerance, and respect. To equate her work with the bloodthirsty ravings of Kurt Schlichter is an act of supreme intellectual laziness. Being awakened to your inner fascist is not at all the same thing as being woke.
3
Implicit in your distinction is a (universal) true North to our moral compasses. As they say in German " each man lies beneath his own dome of heaven" .
1
Cool is President Obama.
6
I'm not sure what cool really is, but the last person on Earth I would trust to define it is David Brooks.
7
German: What brings you to Casablanca?
Rick: I came here for the waters.
Waters? Casablanca is in the desert.
Rick: I was misinformed.
Who could hear that and not want to be as cool as Rick?
Rick: I came here for the waters.
Waters? Casablanca is in the desert.
Rick: I was misinformed.
Who could hear that and not want to be as cool as Rick?
8
I must say that reading a piece from David Brooks about "cool" is the height of irony.
I bring to mind a parent's meeting at my step sons high school; we were in his band room with it's high walls decorated with very nice black and white portraits of about a dozen of our greatest jazz artists. Large portraits of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Bill Evans (the only white guy on the wall), and Lester Young.
I thought it great because this school is in Jefferson County which is very white and very republican. The band director/music teacher might have seemed at times to be the only black man in the county. It's great that all these white kids get to be inspired by these great musicians. It also struck me that they were all junkies. Heroin addicts at one time or other.
More irony.
You want cool today: Bruce Springsteen, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Ringo Starr, Chris Thile, Winton Marsalis among many many more.
Reading this I was inclined a little to think of Tom Wolf writing about Ken Kesey; one kind of cool observing another kind of cool. This piece was not that.
I bring to mind a parent's meeting at my step sons high school; we were in his band room with it's high walls decorated with very nice black and white portraits of about a dozen of our greatest jazz artists. Large portraits of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Bill Evans (the only white guy on the wall), and Lester Young.
I thought it great because this school is in Jefferson County which is very white and very republican. The band director/music teacher might have seemed at times to be the only black man in the county. It's great that all these white kids get to be inspired by these great musicians. It also struck me that they were all junkies. Heroin addicts at one time or other.
More irony.
You want cool today: Bruce Springsteen, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Ringo Starr, Chris Thile, Winton Marsalis among many many more.
Reading this I was inclined a little to think of Tom Wolf writing about Ken Kesey; one kind of cool observing another kind of cool. This piece was not that.
Cool is not to be defined. It just is. It's the IS part. Not the cigarettes. Not the drugs. Not the shades. Whether you zoot or toot, you still might not be....
3
Not a single mention of Steve McQueen? Really?
My comment is a digression from Mr. Brooks' point, and focuses solely on the fact that he considers Black Lives Matter to be the most complete social movement in America today. I wonder if that is the case because B.LM. arose out of an actual and urgent need for African Americans and other minorities to end state sponsored persecuted executed by the police. So many of the other so-called major issues our country face today are nowhere near as urgent and as dire. Most of our politics today revolve around fights to the bitter end over who gets what tax cut, who gets or doesn't get health insurance, who can or can't own a gun, etc. While these issues are important, they are certainly not existential to an entire group of people. It all makes me wonder why we all spend so much time thinking about politics to begin with.
3
A bit disappointed by the comments, including the NYT Picks, which usually do a good job of highlighting respectful criticism or opinions that expand or evolve the thesis. Too much time here spent arguing if James Dean or Miles Davis was cool and not enough exploring the central theme, that Woke is the new cool. I admittedly don't know all that much about the Woke movement, other than it seems to be mostly expressed through social media, which to me is about as inauthentic as it gets -- making it anything but cool.
6
Both Mr. Sanders and Mr. Trump tapped into aspects of "cool." Both were "cool" populists. Trump promised everything. Sanders also made unrealistic promises. Sanders had a blind spot a mile wide vis-a-vis racism and misogyny. Trump for his part simply embraced racism and misogyny. Their voters relished the opportunity to be "cool"--i.e., to be part of a "cool" movement with other "cool" people, according to the values of their own particular social groups. Yes, both campaigned on paranoia and a rebel personae. That was also "cool." When all is said and done, however, "cool" itself was twisted and subverted. "Cool" was not cool at all.
1
There was neither racism nor misogyny in Bernie's campaign. It included stripes of all colors and genders, sorry you got taken in by the media's false portrayal. Remember the media was totally in Hillary's camp, her being the "most qualified", "most experienced", its "time for a woman President".
5
Apparently ageism and anti semitism are "cool" now.
1
Petey writes: "There was neither racism nor misogyny in Bernie's campaign. It included stripes of all colors and genders, sorry you got taken in by the media's false portrayal. ..."
Reply: Our own caucuses made it clear, for instance, that a meaningful subset of Mr. Sanders' supporters here were simply anti-woman. What they said at the caucuses was identical to what the Republicans said, including the four- and five-letter words. My generalization of this is that they were economically progressive but socially moderate or conservative.
Reply: Our own caucuses made it clear, for instance, that a meaningful subset of Mr. Sanders' supporters here were simply anti-woman. What they said at the caucuses was identical to what the Republicans said, including the four- and five-letter words. My generalization of this is that they were economically progressive but socially moderate or conservative.
"woke" was something black people were way before erykah badu, although we all appreciate it being brought back into the american zeitgeist. for a definitive reference on "the cool," see robert farris thompson's "an aesthetic of the cool." he breaks it down for you as an essentail element of a black aesthetic tracing its lineage through traditional african culture.
2
David, What are you doing? Is this your avoidance of the issues that the rest of us are facing daily, as we approach the inevitable constitutional crisis? Please devote your columns to the issues at hand, not your collective daydreaming, or recent book you read. I don't want to even start on what sort of electorate would vote for such a child madman. But that is your job, not mine.
14
At least Mr. Brooks is not writing negatively about the Republican Party or President Trump. How refreshing. Is he being cool or woke? You can decide for yourself.
2
As a graduate of the University of Chicago, David Brooks knows a thing or two about "cool."
1
"Flop, flip, once I was hip.
Flip, flop, now you're on top.
Set, reset, why are we beset
With crazy and cool
In the same molecule?"
Thomas Pynchon, V, 1963
Flip, flop, now you're on top.
Set, reset, why are we beset
With crazy and cool
In the same molecule?"
Thomas Pynchon, V, 1963
1
I would also point to the Black Panther Party as a serious joining of cool and woke. Of course, we know (or do we) what Cointelpro did to them. It is dangerous to be cool and woke. Malcolm was and so was Martin. So was Frederick Douglass. So was Fannie Lou Hamer. So was Shirley Chisholm.
2
I can find no better example of cognitive dissonance than describing conservatives, "normal" or otherwise, as woke.
So was it difficult to conspicuously fail to mention Obama? You know, the guy who defined cool as President.
So was it difficult to conspicuously fail to mention Obama? You know, the guy who defined cool as President.
11
I can't wait to hear what this article sounds like when read with a tank of helium by the very cool Matt Taibbi.
4
Ya know yer gettin old when ya wake up early and find David Brooks introducing ya to a new social term. They're not awake yet, so I'll ask my cool friends if they've ever heard of "woke" a little later in the day, after they awake.
1
Cool? Obama. [Mic drop].
15
For what it is worth David, I'm cool.
You? Are not.
But you continue to make me smirk, shake my head and raise my eyebrows all at the same time which in and of-itself is a good thing.
Keep up the good work David.
We need it on this the 187th day of our Collective National Nightmare.
You? Are not.
But you continue to make me smirk, shake my head and raise my eyebrows all at the same time which in and of-itself is a good thing.
Keep up the good work David.
We need it on this the 187th day of our Collective National Nightmare.
4
So, following your logic the question arises, "Do Trump voters see him as 'cool' based on his irreverence for established political norms?" Could this explain his enduring popularity with and undying loyalty from his base? He is willing to challenge everything from mainstrem media, court judges, NATO, and even the values of the Boy Scouts of America.
Many Trump voters love him because they think he is entertaining and doesn't "take anything from anyone." Could this be the new definition of "cool?" If so I can't wait for "cool" to be totally "out."
Many Trump voters love him because they think he is entertaining and doesn't "take anything from anyone." Could this be the new definition of "cool?" If so I can't wait for "cool" to be totally "out."
1
Is David Brooks telling us that Miles Davis, James Dean, Jimi Hendrix, and Billie Holiday were "stoical, emotionally controlled, self-possessed"? Is he smokin' dope?! Their artistic choices gave that false impression...but their real lives didn't. Read the bios: their lives were un-cool. Are Brooks and Dinerstein talking about art or life? You might want to be the way Miles sounded, but who'd want to be the way Miles really was? Billie in the '50s, for example, sounded like a living corpse. A great artist but absurdly un-cool--listening to Holiday was to see a slow-motion traffic accident. Not cool.
33
Yes, wake up David. They weren't cool, they were mostly stoned. Lester Young? He was barely functional most of the time.
I can watch Humphrey Bogart movies over and over again. He was cool and had massive sex appeal. His wife Lauren Bacall was 25 years younger than him.
She saw immediately what Bogie's attributes were. There isn't an actor out there today that is as cool as Bogie was.
She saw immediately what Bogie's attributes were. There isn't an actor out there today that is as cool as Bogie was.
4
Obama was cool. He and Bogey could have hung together. He had a strong moral compass and didn't broadcast it. We need it now.
11
Norman Mailer, "The white Negro" is still the best discription of cool ,think Barack Obama, cool was his great strength and weakness. Cool is ethic of the hired gun as personified by Steve McQueen in "magnificent seven". Not a bad way to live if you stand the gaff.
1
Jimi Hendrix was cool when he was playing the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock - but not when he was rolling around on stage, picking with his teeth, and setting his guitar on fire. You wouldn't have called him hot, that would have been Jerry Lee Lewis. A lot of times, Hendrix was something more like outrageous.
I don't see the pairing of cool and woke. Cool was more of an attitude and style, woke is more about knowing real information and caring about it. You can't decide to dress up and act woke, you have to do some real studying.
The idea of Schlichter as right-wing woke cheapens the concept - he might actually be faking what he thinks is a Blackish style, but that faking is contrary to real wokeness.
I don't see the pairing of cool and woke. Cool was more of an attitude and style, woke is more about knowing real information and caring about it. You can't decide to dress up and act woke, you have to do some real studying.
The idea of Schlichter as right-wing woke cheapens the concept - he might actually be faking what he thinks is a Blackish style, but that faking is contrary to real wokeness.
3
Republicans are such lost children. Here, one of them tries to put their finger on...something ineffable, something acquired through discipline and insight and actual work.
Cool is earned. And no one on the right seems to ever have a clue.
Cool is earned. And no one on the right seems to ever have a clue.
4
I was cool then I woke now I'm confused.
It's 3:57 a.m. I just read David's column and a warm snooze never looked so good.
May whatever the heck it is people do when they're trying to be aware & creative & free survive analysis. Erika Badu embodies it.
David, you clearly need to bust loose.
It's 3:57 a.m. I just read David's column and a warm snooze never looked so good.
May whatever the heck it is people do when they're trying to be aware & creative & free survive analysis. Erika Badu embodies it.
David, you clearly need to bust loose.
3
"Cool" has no definition. It's an attitude that says "I know something you don't, and I'm not telling." It's not moral, ethical, or even transactional. People can't organize around "cool."
It's a way of avoiding ethical problems and is impervious to tests of any kind. You can't depend on a "cool" person.
Actually, it's a very dangerous attitude. People in the top 20% of wealth holders and their children try to be "cool" so as to avoid the fact that they are sucking up all the oxygen in the room.
The Clintons tried to be "cool." Obama tried to be cool and refused to prosecute the most dangerous criminals on Wall Street who still may drag down this country.
Everything is a joke with "cool" people. I'd rather be "square" in the sense that I have ethics, hold a job, don't diss my family, love my country, keep my word, say what I mean as clearly as possible, don't demean people or make life hard for others. "Square" goes on and on, and it has meaning. "Cool" people think it's ridiculous.
It's a way of avoiding ethical problems and is impervious to tests of any kind. You can't depend on a "cool" person.
Actually, it's a very dangerous attitude. People in the top 20% of wealth holders and their children try to be "cool" so as to avoid the fact that they are sucking up all the oxygen in the room.
The Clintons tried to be "cool." Obama tried to be cool and refused to prosecute the most dangerous criminals on Wall Street who still may drag down this country.
Everything is a joke with "cool" people. I'd rather be "square" in the sense that I have ethics, hold a job, don't diss my family, love my country, keep my word, say what I mean as clearly as possible, don't demean people or make life hard for others. "Square" goes on and on, and it has meaning. "Cool" people think it's ridiculous.
4
And with proper editing of words and deeds (and a killer haircut), square can turn one of its four sharp corners and end up quite cool in a fair number of situations. I'm talking of course about Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett in the original Hawai'i Five-0 series.
I think truly "cool" people
know how cool it is to care.
Self possessed: It arises from within.
A daring honesty.with oneself- above all.
Steady under pressure
Not subject to ego's passing trends.
When they cry they cry.
When they laugh they laugh.
Not moved to impress, they exude influence.
They know it's a complex Mystery
and are willing to play their part. Period.
"Show up. Pay attention. Speak your truth.
And let go of outcomes."
The woke part is to put a clarity of Selfhood
at the service of something greater.
Without forcefulness and insisting on your way. That's the hard part. The patience, humility and nonattachment is cool.
The passion to be aware and step up
is woke.
I imagine Buddha, Jesus, Nelson Mandela,
any gifted, non ego-driven creative person
(musician, artist, poet... mechanic, cop (yup))
and that clerk at the shop who's always nice,
rolled into one. Perhaps...
Any path with heart will do.
Hey, no worries, just a drop will do.
I don't think you can just make this happen
or just make this up. It ain't a concept.
Hey, just a touch, a gesture, a word, an act...
whatever you call it
these times need something
to rise up out of us
know how cool it is to care.
Self possessed: It arises from within.
A daring honesty.with oneself- above all.
Steady under pressure
Not subject to ego's passing trends.
When they cry they cry.
When they laugh they laugh.
Not moved to impress, they exude influence.
They know it's a complex Mystery
and are willing to play their part. Period.
"Show up. Pay attention. Speak your truth.
And let go of outcomes."
The woke part is to put a clarity of Selfhood
at the service of something greater.
Without forcefulness and insisting on your way. That's the hard part. The patience, humility and nonattachment is cool.
The passion to be aware and step up
is woke.
I imagine Buddha, Jesus, Nelson Mandela,
any gifted, non ego-driven creative person
(musician, artist, poet... mechanic, cop (yup))
and that clerk at the shop who's always nice,
rolled into one. Perhaps...
Any path with heart will do.
Hey, no worries, just a drop will do.
I don't think you can just make this happen
or just make this up. It ain't a concept.
Hey, just a touch, a gesture, a word, an act...
whatever you call it
these times need something
to rise up out of us
I think Johnny Deep qualifies as cool, were it not for a horrendous franchise of slop called "Pirates of the Caribbean". I remember the Cool School of Jazz. I remember when musicians had the lead. Bill Evans, Gil Evans, Miles Davis and others where some beautiful artists. Best to remember that we are only young once. Today there are cool guys. You don't don't hear about them. They don't seek the limelight. They just wrestle the daily bull to the ground and move on.
3
Whatever one decides to be, "cool" or "woke" (and one should never be exclusively either), remember that there are pitfalls to both approaches. Sometimes it truly does pay to be cool, to detach yourself from the scene and step back, to take note of all its absurdities as well as your own before stepping back in. The danger is that there is a thin-line between cool and outright nihilism, in believing that you're permanently above it all because you "like, refuse to play their game, man." Too much of that and the next thing you know, you're like Frank Zappa describing all his fans as "zombies" and women's lib as "a fad." That or downing White Russians in your crummy duplex between bowling nights. There is also grave hazard in being "woke", the line between activist and zealot is equally thin. Wokes can have a habit of being moralizing and on constant edge, to the point of neurosis, and like all neurotics may end up focusing on little, inconsequential details. A well focused drive to end gerrymandering or the travel ban can thus become sidetracked by personal campus dramas over "micro-aggressions" or what was said or not said at that drunken frat party. Its good to be "woke", to be aware of what's happening and to give a damn enough to do something about it, but don't become a whip-cracking missionary with your own reality distortion field.
4
Damn proud to be Woke, embrace it.
White collared conservative flashing down the street
Pointing their plastic finger at me
They're hoping soon my kind will drop and die
But I'm gonna wave my freak flag high, high
Wave on, wave on...
If 6 was 9
Jimi Hendrix
White collared conservative flashing down the street
Pointing their plastic finger at me
They're hoping soon my kind will drop and die
But I'm gonna wave my freak flag high, high
Wave on, wave on...
If 6 was 9
Jimi Hendrix
1
First, having perhaps the squarest person ,in the public space, I know write about cool is a little weird. Second, frequently "cool" people die young. (As Debbie Harry opined: Die young, stay pretty) Had Hendrix lived beyond 30 would he still have been so aloof? Or would he have become a money grubbing tour machine such as the Rolling Stones, whose creativity died face down in a pool with Brian Jones? Find me someone who is cool at 70. That is someone who has probably seen most, screwed up a lot, learned lifes lessons and now recognizes we are all in this together.
3
Mr. Brooks misses out in describing cool in two essential ways. When people say, "Be cool," they mean "don't lose your temper and do something you and I will regret later." To be cool is to avoid over-reaction, and in many cases, to avoid imipulsive violence. Another meaning of cool can be seen when people say "He (or she) is cool." The meaning here is that the person is acceptable and non-threatening. Coolness does not imply extreme individualism. On the contrary, it is a sign of membership in a social group.
1
This, like so much concocted reasoning for writing a column, is vacuous. It's not an enviable job when you have nothing of worth to say but have to say something anyway.
4
This is a timely piece as my teens use the term 'woke' frequently now that Childish Gambino used it in his lyrics. It is the Millenials who will have to stay woke considering how they are being set up terribly for the future by those currently in power. As a Gen X cool kid my services are outdated. No longer can one be detached from the elements. Maybe I need to be woke too!
2
Neil DeGrasse Tyson is cool man. You know who ain't cool and never will be, all republicans.
8
The Brewpublicans are not cool.
1
It is good to see Brooks (consciously or not), assuming the mantle of Walter Lippmann in an age in which superficiality and passion pass for critical analysis and the work of theorizing academics is largely confined their own circles.
2
I took a look at your link to the Kid Rock enthusiast. Nothing remotely "woke" about it. The author kept talking about "true conservatism," while making it clear that he had never entertained a political conception more sophisticated than hatred of "liberals," which he seems to understand as a synonym for whoever is more educated than he is.
True, "cool" is too detached to help anyone beyond those who seek its insulation. But at least it causes no harm. The version of "woke" you put before us, on the other hand, is the kind of insanity that leads whole nations to march off to war. No, it's worse than that. It's the insanity that leads nations to tear themselves apart in the catastrophe of civil war.
Let's hope for a true awakening rather than angry kids high on woke, i.e. something that enhances our more civilized impulses rather than blurring them into tunnel vision.
You are the pundit. Time to get wise instead of reading the trash you're reading. Take a year off. Read Plato and Dante and Shakespeare. Read the Gospels. Read Dostoevsky and William Faulkner and Robert Frost.
Your taste for pop psychology and pop sociology has led you into a blind alley. Time for a sabbatical!!
True, "cool" is too detached to help anyone beyond those who seek its insulation. But at least it causes no harm. The version of "woke" you put before us, on the other hand, is the kind of insanity that leads whole nations to march off to war. No, it's worse than that. It's the insanity that leads nations to tear themselves apart in the catastrophe of civil war.
Let's hope for a true awakening rather than angry kids high on woke, i.e. something that enhances our more civilized impulses rather than blurring them into tunnel vision.
You are the pundit. Time to get wise instead of reading the trash you're reading. Take a year off. Read Plato and Dante and Shakespeare. Read the Gospels. Read Dostoevsky and William Faulkner and Robert Frost.
Your taste for pop psychology and pop sociology has led you into a blind alley. Time for a sabbatical!!
8
I read the link too. Embarrassing. Another mid-life conservative as clueless as David sitting in his comfy law office getting thinking how "cool" he is to support a jerk like Kid Rock.
1
I think David might be mistaking trolling with cool. When people can act out inappropriately or with the depraved vileness I see online they are not cool. They are breaking a social contract, the thin ribbon that binds society and keeps us safe from anarchy, intimidation and fear.
1
"are you awake"
the matrix 1999
the matrix 1999
1
Trump voters consider themselves woke, though they would never imagine using such a term. They prefer epithets tossed at perceived opponents, proof that they are angrily aware of who's messing things up: professors, uppity women, black presidents, Hillary, and, of course, Mexicans throwing 20 pound bags of drugs onto the blonde heads of innocent Americans.
Woke indeed.
Woke indeed.
5
Let's start with the PS.... decent healthcare and a mildly fair tax structure is cool. Your "political party" is interviewed yesterday for "improper contact" with a long-time adversarial nation (known at that time to undermine our elections)....and you give us a flight of fancy on DB's understanding of cool? And with an opening photo of an African American man with his fist up. Not cool.
6
At the age of 70, I am truly amazed at how language, truth, belief. honor. justice and the words used to express them have crumbled. What leaps to mind is "Ozymandias." Here are two sentences from this op-ed piece.
"To be cool is to be a moral realist." And. "To be "woke" is to be radically aware and justifiably paranoid." Huh?
Let me try and help Mr. Brooks. A moral realist knows that our political system is rotten and corrupt to the very core of its existance. The Republicans, with their insane desire to kill, maim, destroy, torture the poor and the middle class run the United States and the President is a classless, ignorant psychopath. To be "woke" is, according to Brooks, aware of this and justifiably paranoid.
Mr. Brooks, have you been in a coma. The Republicans have oppossed every moral response to human inequality. Unions, SS, Medicare, Civil Rights, Voting Rights, gender and sexual orientation, equal pay, health care, you name it. The Republicans have been against it. And Mr. Brooks IS a Republican. He supported his party's agenda. So, now "awoke" he is radically aware and justifiably paranoid? Really?
I do not believe him.
He is a rich, white man coward. A coward.
A brave man would write a column on what a horrendously evil man Mitch McConnell is, how Paul Ryan is a sick and stupid man. How Yoho, Grohmert, Steven King are tin-pot animals that are holdinf the country hostage.
Not our Mr. rooks. He will name no names, feign concern, and hide.
"To be cool is to be a moral realist." And. "To be "woke" is to be radically aware and justifiably paranoid." Huh?
Let me try and help Mr. Brooks. A moral realist knows that our political system is rotten and corrupt to the very core of its existance. The Republicans, with their insane desire to kill, maim, destroy, torture the poor and the middle class run the United States and the President is a classless, ignorant psychopath. To be "woke" is, according to Brooks, aware of this and justifiably paranoid.
Mr. Brooks, have you been in a coma. The Republicans have oppossed every moral response to human inequality. Unions, SS, Medicare, Civil Rights, Voting Rights, gender and sexual orientation, equal pay, health care, you name it. The Republicans have been against it. And Mr. Brooks IS a Republican. He supported his party's agenda. So, now "awoke" he is radically aware and justifiably paranoid? Really?
I do not believe him.
He is a rich, white man coward. A coward.
A brave man would write a column on what a horrendously evil man Mitch McConnell is, how Paul Ryan is a sick and stupid man. How Yoho, Grohmert, Steven King are tin-pot animals that are holdinf the country hostage.
Not our Mr. rooks. He will name no names, feign concern, and hide.
12
" A moral realist knows that our political system is rotten and corrupt to the very core of its existance."
...And an historian knows that every political system in history meets that description.
...And an historian knows that every political system in history meets that description.
1
In the immortal words of funk group "Tower of Power", "What is hip? Tell me, tell me if you think you know."
1
From the same source, perhaps more aptly:
"Hipness is...what it is. / And sometimes hipness is...what it ain't."
"Hipness is...what it is. / And sometimes hipness is...what it ain't."
1
Nothing is "woke", "cool", or anything else about our totally gluttonous society or that of the Human population as a whole. At the bottom of the sludge is religious entitlement which is the basis of our depravity.
1
Barack Obama is definitely the embodiment of cool. No one else in public or political life comes even close. So,in the constellation of wokedness, does anyone rival Bernie Sanders?
5
I would prefer Obama woke. enjoying the spoils of 8 years of taxpayer support by playing with the likes of Beyonce is decidedly UNcool.
1
If "cool" is "rare today" as Brooks and Dinerstein say, then what are young people meaning when they call lots of folks "cool."
Is there a new meaning of "cool"?
Are this morning's sages too out of touch to grasp new forms and applications of the old one?
Is there a new meaning of "cool"?
Are this morning's sages too out of touch to grasp new forms and applications of the old one?
1
More arbirtary social labels, eh?
Mr. Brooks has entended his burgeoning diletantte abridgement franchise yet another day.
Mr. Brooks has entended his burgeoning diletantte abridgement franchise yet another day.
4
This is all well & good but no one is born "cool". It is an acquired state, comparable to self-actualization, that requires nurture, forethought and preparation.
Good to see you getting hep with the step, David. Be careful not to become "cooler than thou."
1
cool. what is cool? i think i gave up thinking about it the day a diploma was placed in my hand and i was told to scoot. that is when LIFE raises it's head. if cool is a means of projection involved in idol worship no real damage to the idoler. to the idoled a propensity for hubris interesting write today mr Brooks
There is something really funny about having David Brooks define "woke." I've been rooting for him to wake up for quite some time - he often seems on the verge of it, but consistently sticks his head back in the sand. "Woke," Kid Rock, and Senate Republicans all tied together all in one paragraph, by David Brooks? A comedy masterpiece!
8
..."woke seeks to establish a clear marker for what is unacceptable.
See Kurt Schlichter’s Townhall essay “We Must Elect Senator Kid Rock” as an example of right-wing wokedness.
Kid Rock arrested In Michigan 1991.
Kid Rock Arrested in Michigan September 1997
Kid Rock manhandles Photographer — with Rock grabbing him by the neck and pushing him into speeding traffic on Pacific Coast Highway 2003
Kid Rock Arrested On Assault Charge 2005
Kid Rock Arrested In Waffle House Scuffle 2007
Kid Rock Explains Why He Hit Tommy Lee 2007
Kid Rock ends 4 month marriage to Pamela Lee 2007
And for Trump /Republican "businessman" bonus points: Kid Rock loses money on California Real Estate (Tough to do, but he was up to the task!) "Kid Rock Dumps Point Dume Mansion at $2 Million-Plus Loss"
Welcome to the Senate Mr Rock, the Republican party is thrilled you are here to save us.
See Kurt Schlichter’s Townhall essay “We Must Elect Senator Kid Rock” as an example of right-wing wokedness.
Kid Rock arrested In Michigan 1991.
Kid Rock Arrested in Michigan September 1997
Kid Rock manhandles Photographer — with Rock grabbing him by the neck and pushing him into speeding traffic on Pacific Coast Highway 2003
Kid Rock Arrested On Assault Charge 2005
Kid Rock Arrested In Waffle House Scuffle 2007
Kid Rock Explains Why He Hit Tommy Lee 2007
Kid Rock ends 4 month marriage to Pamela Lee 2007
And for Trump /Republican "businessman" bonus points: Kid Rock loses money on California Real Estate (Tough to do, but he was up to the task!) "Kid Rock Dumps Point Dume Mansion at $2 Million-Plus Loss"
Welcome to the Senate Mr Rock, the Republican party is thrilled you are here to save us.
3
David Brooks wouldn't know cool if it bit him on the ankle.
3
Electing Kid Rock to Congress has NOTHING to do with being woke or cool or anything else, whether outside the discredited mainstream, positive or worth emulating.
Doing that would be better described by some old-fashioned and mainstream term like bad, wrong, or stupid.
Doing that would be better described by some old-fashioned and mainstream term like bad, wrong, or stupid.
2
All the iconic cool stars Brooks mentions in the first paragraph were smokers.
It's hard to be cool without a cigarette dangling from your mouth, or exhaling a world-weary stream of existential smoke that tells the world you're a fatalist.
Latte doesn't do it.
It's hard to be cool without a cigarette dangling from your mouth, or exhaling a world-weary stream of existential smoke that tells the world you're a fatalist.
Latte doesn't do it.
1
Boy, did I cringe at this. As a seventy-five year old white guy , one of the last people I would turn to for an investigation of cool would be the latest will-of-the-wisp iteration of Mr. Brooks who is only slightly my junior. I midestly submit that this kind of discussion
5
Cool, shmool, woke, smoke. I want lots of money, billions of dollars. That makes me "cool" in my book. Uber-rich is the new "cool," David.
The (far/alt) right alternative to 'woke' is 'redpill', which is actually pretty close thematically--you have 'woken up' from the dream pushed by the MSM. I imagine most people here would disagree with the content of it, but it's a very similar metaphor--there is a false reality (sleep/dreams, the Matrix from the movie) from which you have escaped and now you see the truth.
2
Cool doesn't work in America today.
There is no cool in America today. The Cools are Fools.
It's time to get hot, very hot, about the criminals running the country into the ground.
I'm not turning away. Not one of us has something better to do. This is no time to be cool.
There is no cool in America today. The Cools are Fools.
It's time to get hot, very hot, about the criminals running the country into the ground.
I'm not turning away. Not one of us has something better to do. This is no time to be cool.
2
Brooks writes: " it’s hard to think of any contemporary cool movie icons." I nominate Elliot (played by Rami Malik) from the USA network series "Mr. Robot." The entire plot of that show is based on a battle between Elliott's two split personalities: his own "cool" personality and his father's "woke" personality.
Brooks writes: "The cool person is gracefully competent at something, but doesn’t need the world’s applause to know his worth." That's Elliot's native personality. He a master hacker who could make big money in the corporate world if he chose, but instead prefers the life of a slacker and a loner.
Brooks writes: "being a social activist is required for being woke. Cool was individualistic, but woke is nationalistic and collectivist." That's Elliot's ectopic personality, transplanted from his father, who uses his hacking skills to lead a group of true believers who take on the world's corrupt financial system and take it down.
The entire plotline Mr. Robot can be viewed as a meditation upon the relative virtues of cool versus woke. After reading this article, I can better appreciate how that show is a timely commentary upon our culture's current struggle to decide what "emobodied philosophy" is most appropriate for our times.
Brooks writes: "The cool person is gracefully competent at something, but doesn’t need the world’s applause to know his worth." That's Elliot's native personality. He a master hacker who could make big money in the corporate world if he chose, but instead prefers the life of a slacker and a loner.
Brooks writes: "being a social activist is required for being woke. Cool was individualistic, but woke is nationalistic and collectivist." That's Elliot's ectopic personality, transplanted from his father, who uses his hacking skills to lead a group of true believers who take on the world's corrupt financial system and take it down.
The entire plotline Mr. Robot can be viewed as a meditation upon the relative virtues of cool versus woke. After reading this article, I can better appreciate how that show is a timely commentary upon our culture's current struggle to decide what "emobodied philosophy" is most appropriate for our times.
The cool person could be a robot today.
1
The Republican definition of "Cool: today is Donald Trump at the Boy Scout National Jamboree.
Electing Kid Rock is not being "woke," it is being stupid -- again.
Yes, elect someone else with no credentials or competence to run the country.
Run the country down.
Yes, elect someone else with no credentials or competence to run the country.
Run the country down.
4
At the end of the Great Escape there is the famous motorcycle chase scene which ends with Steve McQueen tangled up in barbed wire. He’s in civilian clothes and knows that out of uniform he can be shot as a spy, but he has his lieutenant’s bars pinned to the inside of his shirt. With German machine guns pointed at him, he reaches under his shirt and flashes his bars. Then he smiles. Now that’s cool.
Just one for instance in this woke thing.
Robert Zimmerman, in his incarnation as Gospel Bob Dylan, working the African American branch of the old old tradition, thirty seven years before rude to the Nobel committee according to some but not others Bob, exploring a metaphor as old as man, on sleep, which is far far far older than mankind, all of ape kind and primate kind, as metaphor for blind to the disordered human world:
"God don't make promises that He don't keep
You got some big dreams baby, but in order to dream you gotta still be asleep.
When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up strengthen the things that remain ?"
gotta serve somebody/slow train coming/Bob Dylan
The delivery of that opening line is worth listening to a time or two and definitely worth more than all Brooks has ever written or will write.
Has woke gained a new life and new context for the sleep/wake thingie, since, say, the Matrix red/blue pill take on it of the transgender brothers? Yep. Is it something new under the sun? Nope. should a conservative know this? Yep. Does Brooks? Hehehehehe. Are we in serious trouble? Yep. Is Brooks part of the solution or the problem? Hehehehe
Robert Zimmerman, in his incarnation as Gospel Bob Dylan, working the African American branch of the old old tradition, thirty seven years before rude to the Nobel committee according to some but not others Bob, exploring a metaphor as old as man, on sleep, which is far far far older than mankind, all of ape kind and primate kind, as metaphor for blind to the disordered human world:
"God don't make promises that He don't keep
You got some big dreams baby, but in order to dream you gotta still be asleep.
When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up strengthen the things that remain ?"
gotta serve somebody/slow train coming/Bob Dylan
The delivery of that opening line is worth listening to a time or two and definitely worth more than all Brooks has ever written or will write.
Has woke gained a new life and new context for the sleep/wake thingie, since, say, the Matrix red/blue pill take on it of the transgender brothers? Yep. Is it something new under the sun? Nope. should a conservative know this? Yep. Does Brooks? Hehehehehe. Are we in serious trouble? Yep. Is Brooks part of the solution or the problem? Hehehehe
My favorite Dylan album. Brother Dylan takes it to church. My mind went to Wake up Everybody, but this works too. Where was Brooks while all this was going on?
2
You nailed it this time. The right wing embodies woke kind of like Justin Bieber defines hip-hop. Very cool you dawg.
1
Barack Hussein Obama and Bernie Sanders.
1
Is there even a slim possibility that David Brooks will ever write a meaningful column again in the course of his career? He puts thousands of words on the page, but rarely, if ever, writes anything that will make anyone pause to think, "He certainly makes a point worth considering." Complete drivel.
5
And wokeness? The very word is disappointingly cool.
This is too rich: 1960's white intellectual mansplaining. David, time to take a pass and make yourself really useful. Grow some veggies or something.
5
I don't know what "cool" is, Mr. Brooks, but trust me: you're not, haven't been and won't be.
So just chill already.
So just chill already.
3
And just like that, you killed woke
1
Yep. That's how commodification works.
Very good, Mr. Brooks. Very good. Got time for a quick story?
There was a TV show years ago--Indiana Jones as a young man. A young WHITE man, of course--learning how to play the blues. On a saxophone. His first efforts are met with ridicule--by various black artists. No no! they told him. What you're doing is not the BLUES.
The BLUES (they tell him) represent--what? Powerlessness? Oh yes. In the face of overwhelming power, irresistible authority. But there's a real defiance as well. "You can beat me but I'm not beaten." Like that.
At the climax of the show, we see Mr. Harrison Ford in a cabin somewhere. Snowed in. Sax in hand. The villain has just relieved him of some precious artifact--and is now making his way to safety. Mr. Ford turns to the young man and explains the philosophy behind the blues. Then he begins to play. Some mournful tune.
Suddenly--a quick crafty smile. A sudden movement. A loud discordant note. Outside, we hear the rumble of an avalanche. Man and boy make their way out of the cabin. They pass that villain's body, all but buried in snow. One hand sticking out. Clutching their precious artifact.
"Of course," observes Mr. Ford (smiling)--"sometimes you're NOT so helpless." He retrieves the artifact. The two trudge on through the snow.
Now THAT'S cool! Don't you think so?
There was a TV show years ago--Indiana Jones as a young man. A young WHITE man, of course--learning how to play the blues. On a saxophone. His first efforts are met with ridicule--by various black artists. No no! they told him. What you're doing is not the BLUES.
The BLUES (they tell him) represent--what? Powerlessness? Oh yes. In the face of overwhelming power, irresistible authority. But there's a real defiance as well. "You can beat me but I'm not beaten." Like that.
At the climax of the show, we see Mr. Harrison Ford in a cabin somewhere. Snowed in. Sax in hand. The villain has just relieved him of some precious artifact--and is now making his way to safety. Mr. Ford turns to the young man and explains the philosophy behind the blues. Then he begins to play. Some mournful tune.
Suddenly--a quick crafty smile. A sudden movement. A loud discordant note. Outside, we hear the rumble of an avalanche. Man and boy make their way out of the cabin. They pass that villain's body, all but buried in snow. One hand sticking out. Clutching their precious artifact.
"Of course," observes Mr. Ford (smiling)--"sometimes you're NOT so helpless." He retrieves the artifact. The two trudge on through the snow.
Now THAT'S cool! Don't you think so?
If the Schlichter column, it strikes me that it goes way beyond "angry, passionate and unambiguous" on into "contemptuous and disdainful of anything that isn't them." Paranoid? Maybe. But wokedness reads a lot more like "pathologically xenophobic."
1
"Cool" is from 30,000 ft; "woke" is from inside your blinders..
1
Wow. David Brooks speaking on "wokedness". This is a first.
And while some very interesting points and observations were made here, I must still draw the line when it comes to ascribing it to the populist right.
Somehow, "right-wing wokedness" just doesn't cut it. No matter how hard you try. Because most things the right-wing stands for are so "uncool" -- especially when it comes to anything dealing with Blackness.
And like it or not, the whole "woke" ethos is a Black thing.
So right-wingers will just have to wait before claiming that one. They have a long way to go before they can be called a "complete social movement", capable of being a communal, intellectual, moral and political force.
Still, Miles Davis was cool.
And while some very interesting points and observations were made here, I must still draw the line when it comes to ascribing it to the populist right.
Somehow, "right-wing wokedness" just doesn't cut it. No matter how hard you try. Because most things the right-wing stands for are so "uncool" -- especially when it comes to anything dealing with Blackness.
And like it or not, the whole "woke" ethos is a Black thing.
So right-wingers will just have to wait before claiming that one. They have a long way to go before they can be called a "complete social movement", capable of being a communal, intellectual, moral and political force.
Still, Miles Davis was cool.
2
Wow, woke, who woulda thunk! I raise my hand I'm woke! "To be radically aware and justifiably paranoid. It is to be cognizant of the rot permeating the power structures." Your best column ever David, and there have been many, I just hope you have a job at The Times at the end of the month. Would it be, that our politicians were woke, even if only a bit. I would cast my vote with Rdea from NY, President Obama and Michele are definitely woke, they were I'm sure cognizant of the rot around them from the moment they entered the race for the Presidency and the Machivallian Nature required to merely survive the challenges of occupying the White House. My personal feeling is President Obama was not willing to get down in the dirt and roll around with the pigs so he became known as aloof, I think of him as President Cool. woke in early days, later as a pragmatist retreating to cool. I wished he had been able to shove through more in particular Single Payer but I'm afraid the "rot" part of politics stymied him at every turn whether on healthcare, prosecution of banksters or extricating our nation from other people's wars in the M.E. He was criticized by both left and right as being to soft on white collar crime, not forceful enough on single payer or not a "good enough friend of Israel". Through all the criticism Our President and his family held their head high and remained just enough outside the ugly fray. Thank you President Cool, we didn't know what we had, until you were gone.
5
My father, 1918 - 1978, was cool, and I learned from him the following:
1. Better to stay an ordinary petty officer rather than be a CPO. Too much visibility and the wrong kind of responsibility.
2. Better to be Union than not, but even better to pay above scale when the company is yours.
3. Don't believe anyone in authority unless they are a closet drunk or take money on the side.
4. Don't volunteer unless it involves something like nazis, Pearl Harbor or car wrecks.
5. Remember, most things are none of your business.
6. Bring back the change.
7. In the end, right will prevail, just like The Prisoner of Zenda.
Following these and other spoken and unspoken admonitions can lead to chronic underachievement and neglect of even those few goals cool enough to pursue. I love cool. But it can lead to substance abuse, early death, domestic chaos. Shake off cool, take off the shades. Better woke than cool. Better awake than woke. Better now, right now. Pin it!
1. Better to stay an ordinary petty officer rather than be a CPO. Too much visibility and the wrong kind of responsibility.
2. Better to be Union than not, but even better to pay above scale when the company is yours.
3. Don't believe anyone in authority unless they are a closet drunk or take money on the side.
4. Don't volunteer unless it involves something like nazis, Pearl Harbor or car wrecks.
5. Remember, most things are none of your business.
6. Bring back the change.
7. In the end, right will prevail, just like The Prisoner of Zenda.
Following these and other spoken and unspoken admonitions can lead to chronic underachievement and neglect of even those few goals cool enough to pursue. I love cool. But it can lead to substance abuse, early death, domestic chaos. Shake off cool, take off the shades. Better woke than cool. Better awake than woke. Better now, right now. Pin it!
well...not exaclty.
cool is all of it just not noisy (you got more "passionate and indignant" than miles? oh, please) woker's let you know, they, the who, are more important than the" what," and they have lots less command over their instruments, riding on the wave of social political tides...cool is itself a tide, that underlies issues.
cool is all of it just not noisy (you got more "passionate and indignant" than miles? oh, please) woker's let you know, they, the who, are more important than the" what," and they have lots less command over their instruments, riding on the wave of social political tides...cool is itself a tide, that underlies issues.
Just as a thank you to D. Brooks for this interesting editorial, here is a synthesis of cool and woke. First, note, the strong artistic or non-linear structure to both. Here goes. It's a brief narrative.
I come from Planet Algebra and we seek to colonize your planet. You have sufficient similarities to our DNA structure, but you have not evolved via cultural engineering to anything near to where you need to be to avoid a near future extinction. We can re-program you and re-imprint your young. First, you must sublimate your lower animal vices of greed and lust with an Algebraic model we will show you. Then you will see a pleasure palace open before you and you will comprehend how far superior planet Algebra is to planet Earth: you will not resist us. In fact, resistance will become futile. Shall I continue or are you afraid to live forever as you now are? I have the model; you can see it, it's a game you play. Afraid to try to win?
I come from Planet Algebra and we seek to colonize your planet. You have sufficient similarities to our DNA structure, but you have not evolved via cultural engineering to anything near to where you need to be to avoid a near future extinction. We can re-program you and re-imprint your young. First, you must sublimate your lower animal vices of greed and lust with an Algebraic model we will show you. Then you will see a pleasure palace open before you and you will comprehend how far superior planet Algebra is to planet Earth: you will not resist us. In fact, resistance will become futile. Shall I continue or are you afraid to live forever as you now are? I have the model; you can see it, it's a game you play. Afraid to try to win?
looking for "duende" look no further than Jean Paul Belmondo ,,
anyone this ugly and able to bed Jean Seaberg has cool.
anyone this ugly and able to bed Jean Seaberg has cool.
Interesting thing: Though one might be a liberal, "radically aware and justifiably paranoid", and "cognizant of the rot pervading the power structures", the moral scolds will still consider you an enemy, if you are a straight white man. It seems "wokeness" is reserved to defined groups of the "oppressed". Which could, in part, explain the attraction of #45*. He offered the "refuge" of victim-hood to middle class whites.
I wonder what, say, Thom Yorke or Neil Young would have to say about David Brooks deciding how to define cool. A guy from D.C.! (Did you see those magazine ads -- "D.C. Cool. We Got This!"? Those crack me up!)
Also, what's with lionizing formulaic actors like Eastwood and McQueen? Jeez, don't you know that Clint is an arch-Republican?
Oh! There's my definition of cool -- anything that isn't Republican? You're welcome.
Also, what's with lionizing formulaic actors like Eastwood and McQueen? Jeez, don't you know that Clint is an arch-Republican?
Oh! There's my definition of cool -- anything that isn't Republican? You're welcome.
3
If Schlichter's article is your best example of right wing wokeness that you can provide, you are sadly mistaken about what being woke means. What a disgusting and sad example. Being woke is about social justice and racial justice. All that article relates to is being tired of being lied to by politicians. I can hardly feel woke over the sound of all those dog whistles.
3
"Cool" is anything but needing adulation every waking moment of every day like the uncoolest president the US has ever had: Donald Trump.
I wanted to be coooool like my dad. As for "Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Humphrey Bogart, Albert Camus, Audrey Hepburn, James Dean or Jimi Hendrix," I had no idea what they were really like out of the public eye but wouldn't have minded their social status or influence or $$$.
I attempt to emulate the Dude, with a bit less laziness (but not much).
The Dude stands as a man who, like Rick Blaine, has a strict personal code of ethics. His word is good: if he promises to attend a recital, he shows up.
He is socially active, serving as a leader of the anti-Bowling Alone movement. The Dude is empathetic and willing to help friends at a moment's notice, provided he is not in a league game.
The Dude is also a man ahead of his time: the occupation of various administration buildings during his college years is prescient of today's campus activism.
He strives to abide in the Biblical sense: "Generations come and go, but the Earth abides forever." (Eccl. something).
But that's just like my opinion, man.
The Dude stands as a man who, like Rick Blaine, has a strict personal code of ethics. His word is good: if he promises to attend a recital, he shows up.
He is socially active, serving as a leader of the anti-Bowling Alone movement. The Dude is empathetic and willing to help friends at a moment's notice, provided he is not in a league game.
The Dude is also a man ahead of his time: the occupation of various administration buildings during his college years is prescient of today's campus activism.
He strives to abide in the Biblical sense: "Generations come and go, but the Earth abides forever." (Eccl. something).
But that's just like my opinion, man.
2
No mention of the beats? Or young Marlon Brando..."The Wild one" ?
To paraphrase a country song.
.."They were cool, when cool wasn't cool"
This article reminds me a little of the lyric in West Side Story.
"Play it cool, but not like a yoyo school boy,
Just play it cool boy,...real cool."
With Trump, the uncoolest person I've ever witnessed, it feels like we're living in a post-cool world.
To paraphrase a country song.
.."They were cool, when cool wasn't cool"
This article reminds me a little of the lyric in West Side Story.
"Play it cool, but not like a yoyo school boy,
Just play it cool boy,...real cool."
With Trump, the uncoolest person I've ever witnessed, it feels like we're living in a post-cool world.
2
How much compassion is associated with cool? A gallant like Errol Flynn commanded respect by his strength & egalitarian ways. As often as not, however, "never give a sucker an even break" is applied to those seen without hope of redemption. This is true of all races & creeds. The tribal is a difficult bridge to cross.
1
What you see as 'hipster culture' in Brooklyn now is surely a 'consumer aesthetic'. But you are mistaking the newer post-gentrification Williamsburg types for a wide array of people previously in Brooklyn - many of whom have been pushed out to neighborhoods farther out in Brooklyn - who indeed can be described as a 'cultural movement' (to use your words). Cool still exists in the mysterious, underground, ambiguous ways you describe; it's just that you didn't find it when researching this article. It tends to hide from pundit types.
Cool would be the GOP standing up to Trump and demanding that he do the job he's supposed to do: lead the country instead of twittering. Cool would be the GOP inviting the Democrats to sit down at the legislative table to work on ways to improve life for working Americans. Cool, real cool and decency, that would mean looking at this country through the eyes of her citizens and visitors from other countries and trying to make it work for all of them. Cool would mean that Trump, Pence, Sessions, Price, McConnell, Ryan, Cruz, et. al. would act like mensches and understand that it's an honor and privilege to serve the country, that there is a ton of work that needs to be done and that it can't be done by refusing to work with a duly elected president (Obama), or excluding one party (Democrats), or trying to stay in power all the time, or ignoring reality.
Cool is not what any member of the extremely elite and shortsighted GOP is. They are selfish, tyrannical, ignorant, power hungry, careless, and ultimately foolish people. They have no morals or ethics or compassion. None of that is cool. Cool was Obama when he spoke after the Newtown massacre, holding back tears. Cool is being responsible and caring while not trying to steal credit from others. Cool is not the GOP.
Cool is not what any member of the extremely elite and shortsighted GOP is. They are selfish, tyrannical, ignorant, power hungry, careless, and ultimately foolish people. They have no morals or ethics or compassion. None of that is cool. Cool was Obama when he spoke after the Newtown massacre, holding back tears. Cool is being responsible and caring while not trying to steal credit from others. Cool is not the GOP.
3
"Cool" is also regional. NYC "cool" will not often translate to West Coast "cool" and visa versa. Cool is a subterranean attribute that is mostly recognized in retrospect.
Most of the cool people I know are cool because they are fiercely independent and self-sufficient, embodying the best definition of cool, thousands of years old: beginning of verse 56 of the Tao Te Ching: "Those who know do not speak and those who speak do not know". That's cool, eh?
Most of the cool people I know are cool because they are fiercely independent and self-sufficient, embodying the best definition of cool, thousands of years old: beginning of verse 56 of the Tao Te Ching: "Those who know do not speak and those who speak do not know". That's cool, eh?
1
1. The last "cool" person was Steve McQueen.
2. Using the word,"cool" in a sentence automatically renders whatever subject described as cool as certainly uncool. Real cool needs no such descriptive. Cool?
2. Using the word,"cool" in a sentence automatically renders whatever subject described as cool as certainly uncool. Real cool needs no such descriptive. Cool?
2
Cool: hard to define but I know it when I see it.
2
Rhiannon Giddens. Esperanza Spalding. Chris Thile. Not actors, but singers/musicians and all marvelously cool.
2
I think so highly of the Obamas and voted for Barack twice, but judging from the comments section here, it seems like a mandate to state their coolness, and an admonishment seems due to the writer for having not included them - ridiculous...
1
I am 69 and I have no idea how cool works in white America today.
I remember Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Coney Island of the mind and a poem Sometime During Eternity.
I think Ferlinghetti described cool better than anyone since the English poet Keats in his Ode on a Grecian Urn.
Cool is Jesus and Socrates. "Truth is beauty and beauty is truth."
There is no cool in in a land of cynicism. Where there is no truth there is no cool.
I remember Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Coney Island of the mind and a poem Sometime During Eternity.
I think Ferlinghetti described cool better than anyone since the English poet Keats in his Ode on a Grecian Urn.
Cool is Jesus and Socrates. "Truth is beauty and beauty is truth."
There is no cool in in a land of cynicism. Where there is no truth there is no cool.
5
Rightist "woke" is more than passion against the status quo. It is a profound racism, sexism, a lack of mercy and justice for the poor, an indifference to climate change and the government regulations in health and safety standards which save american lives. Nothing can really explain what is going on here. Like lemmings going over the cliff.
3
While the eruption into plain view of the corruption of the Republican political establishment has "woke" you up, Mr. Brooks, you don't get to slap that label on the Democratic establishment as a moral equivalent on your say-so. All that does is show you are still loyal to GOP philosophy, but are just upset with Trump's lack of "cool" in expressing it.
1
I have no argument with the any of the ideas in this article save one; that the "woke" mentality that he describes whose adherents are "disgusted with what they see as the thorough corruption of the republican and democratic establishments" are exemplified only by the right-wing. Traditionally, it has been the left in this country that exposed and excoriated the corruption in government and it remains so today. Not the "left" of Bill and Hillary Clinton, but the true left for whom tagging this position with a cultural descriptor was unnecessary. It has always been a hallmark of a segment of society that refused to take the word of the government and corporate media, and investigated political and social issues for themselves. No "tag" required to belong to that club, just possession of common sense and critical thought processes.
1
Cool, like Zen, is destroyed when one attempts to define it.
3
What is it to be a "cool" person?
The more I think about it, the more this seems a deadly serious question. To work it out right, and to put it before the public, seems a way to get to honor morality, sense, originality, thought in a way acceptable to almost anyone and to avoid getting bogged down in this or that religious or political or other collective view.--In other words, it seems a way to get to individuality without ruining the commitment to public life.
But how to do so? I really can't think of a way. It appears when people start talking about it the conversation becomes phony, devolves to a con. Like everything else, every little interest steps in and tries to define its own interest as cool. I don't think anything's cool anymore--it's all a rigged game. The computer, the internet has decisively ruined any possibility of realizing ideal of cool. It has done so because it proposes falsity over the authentic. People pose online, are not themselves, whether this means trying to be more than they are or just outright fake comments, webpages, crummy propaganda, manipulation, spying and controlling, alteration of reality in the name of just this interest or that...Life's not cool anymore--the authentic person no matter if an artist or scientist or criminal or what have you is just censored or controlled or spied on, or manipulated or exploited or entrapped,--What's real can no longer be cool and life is just false and hot and the machine is neither human nor authentic.
The more I think about it, the more this seems a deadly serious question. To work it out right, and to put it before the public, seems a way to get to honor morality, sense, originality, thought in a way acceptable to almost anyone and to avoid getting bogged down in this or that religious or political or other collective view.--In other words, it seems a way to get to individuality without ruining the commitment to public life.
But how to do so? I really can't think of a way. It appears when people start talking about it the conversation becomes phony, devolves to a con. Like everything else, every little interest steps in and tries to define its own interest as cool. I don't think anything's cool anymore--it's all a rigged game. The computer, the internet has decisively ruined any possibility of realizing ideal of cool. It has done so because it proposes falsity over the authentic. People pose online, are not themselves, whether this means trying to be more than they are or just outright fake comments, webpages, crummy propaganda, manipulation, spying and controlling, alteration of reality in the name of just this interest or that...Life's not cool anymore--the authentic person no matter if an artist or scientist or criminal or what have you is just censored or controlled or spied on, or manipulated or exploited or entrapped,--What's real can no longer be cool and life is just false and hot and the machine is neither human nor authentic.
19
Totally agree with you. Your comments are well spoken. However, even "the machine" can be bypassed, especially if social media is ignored or minimized. The internet offers a plethora of tools and knowledge and education and quality news (NYT for example) for those willing to use that knowledge. For example, I'm currently taking a chemistry course on coursera.org through Duke University for free! Previous courses taken have included physics, astrophysics (Duke), critical thinking, humane farm animal treatment, Latin American culture, philosophy, Buddhism, and a superb course in happiness, which teaches knowledge of what makes one happy, and that could include avoiding social media like some folks used to avoid the playground because it was full of bullies and wasn't very fun.
I also care for street cats and volunteer on campaigns for political progressives, national, state and local as well as in the schools and in adult literacy. I sponsor youth and aging in Latin America. Those endeavors are pretty cool (and rewarding!).
Yes, the machine is relentless, however there are ways to jump off and "be cool."
I also care for street cats and volunteer on campaigns for political progressives, national, state and local as well as in the schools and in adult literacy. I sponsor youth and aging in Latin America. Those endeavors are pretty cool (and rewarding!).
Yes, the machine is relentless, however there are ways to jump off and "be cool."
2
Wow, Daniel12 in Washington. D.C. Can't say that I agree with all of your comment, but it is powerful. I think more readers would have given it Recommend if they did the work to understand it. I hope that you get woked, and that's a blessing.
1
What's cool in America today?
Probably of all things the false is cool in America today. Being fake. So many aspects of American life are invested in hiding personal identity, retaining privacy, not revealing too much about yourself, secrecy, and false front. Take business with public relations, salesmanship. Take the movie industry where what we are given of actors is primarily the act. Take politics--falsity to the core. Take economics, the Federal Reserve. Take the military, national security. You name it--go ahead.
What is cool is the false. People lost in video games, plugged into computers with who knows how many manipulations behind it...What's cool is a vast artificial reality in which people complain of fake news, propaganda, etc. of all things...Who wants authenticity, actual news, a person who has no problem revealing himself? No one. Nobody hires for that. Interesting how for all knowledge leading up to the modern world, all discovery of truth, all creative power, arguably the actual state of society is increasingly sophisticated deception, artificiality, as if all progress toward truth has now just led to a hall of mirrors the human race has created for itself and what's more valuable than knowledge is that you add another mirror, confusing people more and more every day.
I give up on American life. Name me a place that wants an actual person, one willing to reveal himself and who works toward increase of truth instead of mirror reality and I'll take the job.
Probably of all things the false is cool in America today. Being fake. So many aspects of American life are invested in hiding personal identity, retaining privacy, not revealing too much about yourself, secrecy, and false front. Take business with public relations, salesmanship. Take the movie industry where what we are given of actors is primarily the act. Take politics--falsity to the core. Take economics, the Federal Reserve. Take the military, national security. You name it--go ahead.
What is cool is the false. People lost in video games, plugged into computers with who knows how many manipulations behind it...What's cool is a vast artificial reality in which people complain of fake news, propaganda, etc. of all things...Who wants authenticity, actual news, a person who has no problem revealing himself? No one. Nobody hires for that. Interesting how for all knowledge leading up to the modern world, all discovery of truth, all creative power, arguably the actual state of society is increasingly sophisticated deception, artificiality, as if all progress toward truth has now just led to a hall of mirrors the human race has created for itself and what's more valuable than knowledge is that you add another mirror, confusing people more and more every day.
I give up on American life. Name me a place that wants an actual person, one willing to reveal himself and who works toward increase of truth instead of mirror reality and I'll take the job.
1
You forgot Elvis and Brando whose passion lurked just below the surface like volcanoes that could erupt at any moment. Cool personified.
But President Obama is the current King of Cool who withstood the Republican juggernaut to destroy him. That they could not is one of the reasons republicans hate him so and the reason they chose the passionate fraud Trump. But Obama to his credit could show his emotions when it was called for maturely and without fear. Cool is more than being buttoned down but has the ability to be free in expression.
But President Obama is the current King of Cool who withstood the Republican juggernaut to destroy him. That they could not is one of the reasons republicans hate him so and the reason they chose the passionate fraud Trump. But Obama to his credit could show his emotions when it was called for maturely and without fear. Cool is more than being buttoned down but has the ability to be free in expression.
Using the criteria listed in this column, Quakers (aka The Religious Society of Friends) have been cool and woke for over 350 years.
58
Genevieve wins the comments today.
Don't forget there is Jerry Garcia cool, too.
The late, great, Leonard Cohen.
4
Oh my God, what a sad day that was.
Think David Brooks ever heard of Cohen?
Think David Brooks ever heard of Cohen?
1
We chose cool for our last leader - we weren't offered it in 2016. David didn't connect the dots that our current President represents a backlash to cool. Those who don't get to sit at the cool kids table often join the playground bully's group. But he does point to where to look for future leaders. Bring on the woke candidates.
66
Trump, Jared, Mitch, Paul and many other of are current politicians embody uncool.
Cool movie star: Jeff Bridges
3
Mr. Brooks: Now that your Republican Party is going down the tubes, is there nothing left for you to do than to read one new book a week and then take your latest pop psychology observation from it and brush it over the entire population as if you had just discovered some grand and exciting revelation?
5
Let's hope what's next on Mr. Brooks' reading list are two companion books by Thomas Frank: "The Conquest of Cool" and "Commodify Your Dissent"
My thoughts exactly. America is going up in flames, primarily due to Mr.Brooks' side. He has nothing to say except juvenile book reports.
I watched Trump's speech at the Boy Scouts rally yesterday. I think young people of that pedigree have now "woke". Nearly fifty thousand cheering for Trump and at the same rally booing Obama. These are scouts that are taught to love the U.S.A., yet they roundly booed a two termed President. I think the reason behind this originates in the fact scouts require years of hard work that result in defined skills and philosophy. Obama catered to a generation that has no clue on how to anything and have become incredibly weak and poor. It is now time for the "woke" to clean up the mess and create their own future based on a solid foundation. Not creating an app or a YouTube video or a rap song.
2
I love this article so much.
Oh, come on. Barack Obama epitomizes the notion of "cool."
2
For some of us when we travel to a city- we avoid the garbage dumps. We turn away from the homeless- who remind us of our own vulnerability. When camping in he forest- we avert our eyes from the clear cut. Well Trump is the garbage- the clear cut- a reminder of what we have wrought. We cannot avert our eyes from his words and actions. And while an Obama may give us a sense of pleasant coolness- and a feeling of wellness- the truth is that we can not forget either- the degradation and the beauty. For we are both.
To be honest- this is why Trump is here now. As a warning of what we have become and a clarion call to confront the aspect of our natures and our societies we have chosen to forget in the miasma of consumerism and lies. For these have come to a mighty fruition and threaten our very existence.
To be honest- this is why Trump is here now. As a warning of what we have become and a clarion call to confront the aspect of our natures and our societies we have chosen to forget in the miasma of consumerism and lies. For these have come to a mighty fruition and threaten our very existence.
1
This is a silly article. Cool is a word whose definition changes with the era we live in. There are plenty of cool people today -
George and Amal Clooney
Barack and Michelle Obama
Bono from U2
Men and Women who serve in the military
Entrepreneurs in technology across the US
Bah Humbug Mr Brooks.
George and Amal Clooney
Barack and Michelle Obama
Bono from U2
Men and Women who serve in the military
Entrepreneurs in technology across the US
Bah Humbug Mr Brooks.
1
Ripping healthcare from the poor and middle class is not cool.
1
May I suggest Ruth Bader Ginsberg as cool?
2
A textbook definition of cool, just like a text book definition of poetry in Dead Poet's Society.
Cool was a cerebral sensibility. The core was cool jazz; think MJQ or the Gerry Mulligan quartet. This was THOUGHTFUL music as opposed to the hectic agitation of Bebop or the exuberance of traditional hot jazz. I suppose Mile was the coolest of them all. I don't think one could speak of cool painting, or cool literature.
Bob Dylan defined it well: "To live outside the law, you must be honest."
1
Lester Young was the first to popularize cool and defined cool as the alternative to hot jazz, which then became a life style.
To discuss cool is not cool.
1
Obama cool,Mitch McConnell not cool!"............
1
It is the 40% Trump voters that are disgusted with institutions and it is the republicans created this distrust of government institutions. Yes, we need to get rid of republicans who only want total control and to drown government in a bathtub. Republicans don't want to govern or reach across the isle to work together to come up with solutions to our many, many problems since the rich donors have written the rules of these institutions such as the supremes.
"It was a way to assert the value of the individual in response to failed collectivism — to communism and fascism, to organized religion. The cool person is guided by his or her own autonomous values, often on the outskirts of society."
You republicans have been spewing individuality for way to long and against community/collective. Your party failed collectivism and why we have such a divided country.
You are amusing.
"It was a way to assert the value of the individual in response to failed collectivism — to communism and fascism, to organized religion. The cool person is guided by his or her own autonomous values, often on the outskirts of society."
You republicans have been spewing individuality for way to long and against community/collective. Your party failed collectivism and why we have such a divided country.
You are amusing.
1
People that are cool are those with wisdom, compassion, congeniality, honesty - people that are easy to be around.
The rest are just posers: I think of a very 'cool' older woman who was unkind and competitive to the degree of a serious personality disorder. Or a cool mixed-race boyfriend I had in my twenties; years later he was arrested for installing a video-camera under the sink in the bathroom of the coffee shop where he worked. Not cool.
The rest are just posers: I think of a very 'cool' older woman who was unkind and competitive to the degree of a serious personality disorder. Or a cool mixed-race boyfriend I had in my twenties; years later he was arrested for installing a video-camera under the sink in the bathroom of the coffee shop where he worked. Not cool.
Being cool is not having to write about being cool.
1
C
"Cool" and "woke" may be difficult to define. However, as Mr. Brooks surely knows, many facts and philosophies are best defined by observing what they are not.
"Cool" and "woke" will never be found in "republican".
"Cool" and "woke" may be difficult to define. However, as Mr. Brooks surely knows, many facts and philosophies are best defined by observing what they are not.
"Cool" and "woke" will never be found in "republican".
The comment that resonates with me is how ubiquitous everybody and everything is now, thanks to social media and media technologies in general. As a kid in the 60s it was a huge deal to get a glimpse of the Beatles, and any other artist you want to name from the era, on T.V. You know, on one of the 3 or 4 channels we got. Maybe once in awhile there would be something in Life magazine. Hence there was aura, mystery. There was a scarcity that added a real charge to seeing your favorites on Ed Sullivan. OMG! (to use that ironically), there they are!
Now...every celebrity of every category is just another bauble on a shelf with a thousand others. Built-in ennui, and far removed from "cool" or "woke" or what have you.
Now...every celebrity of every category is just another bauble on a shelf with a thousand others. Built-in ennui, and far removed from "cool" or "woke" or what have you.
Woke is talking about doing something. Cool is taking action.
1
Foreword: As in most of his columns, David Brooks comes off like a man who fell asleep in 1975, is just now waking up, and reading books to try to understand Americans today.
Lots of young people today - particularly celebrities - try to do the opposite of hip by advertising how nerdy or goofy they are in their personal lives. Appearing cool is no longer cool.
Lots of young people today - particularly celebrities - try to do the opposite of hip by advertising how nerdy or goofy they are in their personal lives. Appearing cool is no longer cool.
The first part of this essay is excellent I think. It doesn't entirely limn the term but it does suggest an important element- the power of culture to determine the attitude and behavior that is perceived as desirable. Thus in midcentury the detached, self-sufficient, ironic rejection of jejune mainstream America by the "beats", which had been adopted from urban black culture, became the standard and it was reflected back again in popular culture in film i.e. Rebel Without a Cause or even On the Waterfront or later films like Hombre or The Magnificent Seven and these more accessible cultural touchstones influenced, subconsciously to an extent, what many growing up then thought was the ideal.
It would be interesting to read a study that compared and contrasted the cultural influences that dominate today. One thing that might be a "visible" way into that question is the prevalence of "body art" among millennials. This seemed to begin in prisons and gangs and moved to athletes and now is a statement of one's "outsider" status. Kind of like the old cool but without the mental effort. So perhaps "cool" is always this removed, detached attitude and it is the expression that is culturally determined and it is that which changes rather that the concept itself.
It would be interesting to read a study that compared and contrasted the cultural influences that dominate today. One thing that might be a "visible" way into that question is the prevalence of "body art" among millennials. This seemed to begin in prisons and gangs and moved to athletes and now is a statement of one's "outsider" status. Kind of like the old cool but without the mental effort. So perhaps "cool" is always this removed, detached attitude and it is the expression that is culturally determined and it is that which changes rather that the concept itself.
Those cool legends noted in the beginning possessed a certain innocence --- it's completely removed nowadays as most have a motive.
To elect a racist is "woke"? You're right, DB, not cool. I'm happy sitting this convention out.
Another wearisome column by Mr. Brooks who seems to be running out of nice things to say about the GOP. Since he can't write anything decent about his favorite party he's taken on the role of condescending teacher by giving us his version of history, sociology, psychology, and how things have turned out the way they have today. Never mind the fact that his party is responsible for the entire mess with the infrastructure, health care, education, jobs, etc. We need to know his version of cool in America.
Mr. Brooks, you are precisely what the GOP loves: a white male with a certain level of education and a willingness to sell your soul for the power and money allying yourself with the GOP brings you. During my growing up years cool wasn't a form of resistance or rebellion. And we didn't seek to be like Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, James Dean or Jimi Hendrix. But that's probably because I'm part of the last 10 years of the baby boom generation, the part that, when push comes to shove, gets to be ignored or spit upon by the generations preceding us. And so are you because you were born in 1961.
Please stop writing such preachy op eds Mr. Brooks. Get out of your ivory tower and start to listen and observe what real people are living through, not what the GOP or Koch Brothers tell you we're living through. Write about that instead of Cool, or who you think we wanted to emulate.
It would be much "cooler" if you'd write a realistic piece about white privilege.
Mr. Brooks, you are precisely what the GOP loves: a white male with a certain level of education and a willingness to sell your soul for the power and money allying yourself with the GOP brings you. During my growing up years cool wasn't a form of resistance or rebellion. And we didn't seek to be like Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, James Dean or Jimi Hendrix. But that's probably because I'm part of the last 10 years of the baby boom generation, the part that, when push comes to shove, gets to be ignored or spit upon by the generations preceding us. And so are you because you were born in 1961.
Please stop writing such preachy op eds Mr. Brooks. Get out of your ivory tower and start to listen and observe what real people are living through, not what the GOP or Koch Brothers tell you we're living through. Write about that instead of Cool, or who you think we wanted to emulate.
It would be much "cooler" if you'd write a realistic piece about white privilege.
2
Wait! He does get out. Remember, he had Mexican food with his uneducated bestie just last week!
1
With all due respect Mr. Brooks, with the insanity going on in Washington, this is probably your most "un-cool" essay ever. As commenter Anne-Marie Hislop stated earlier, "Gobbledygook" and then some.
5
There is a straight line of cool and woke from JFK and RFK to Barack Obama. You can't define it David but we know when we see it. It never goes away.
4
Woke is a progression, an evolution of cool. It drops pretense and restraint and gets angry, not worried about being excluded from the cool group. Cool people get angry in a cool way. Woke people don't care. Woke people lose it and raise their voice, hair all messed up, disheveled, sweating. Woke people may look at cool people as being enablers. Hipsters are the worst offenders, not even on the spectrum. A woke person started out being cool, but then got woke and sort of lost it. Got ALL woke and lost it.
Conservatives like to poke fun at the woke and enraged. Watch Tucker Carlson. He spends a whole segment taking down the woke protester. Tucker is trying to be cool -- key word, trying. He is so uncool. But he tries for his conservative buddies. He took off the bow tie in a hipster effort to be relevant, and tries to make the woke look lie fools. He is trying -- trying -- to be cool in his own conservative spectrum. But the cool don't have to try. And the woke don't care what you think, they will go to the mat for the truth.
The question becomes: what is the most effective stance to influence positive change, woke or cool? Get woke or stay cool? I'd say woke is the way to go. Bernie Sanders style. Although, cool may be the way to actually get legislation passed, Obama's ACA style. But when Obama lost it a bit and got angry, more woke, he moved the dial immensely.
Maybe the answer is stay cool, but know when to get woke.
Conservatives like to poke fun at the woke and enraged. Watch Tucker Carlson. He spends a whole segment taking down the woke protester. Tucker is trying to be cool -- key word, trying. He is so uncool. But he tries for his conservative buddies. He took off the bow tie in a hipster effort to be relevant, and tries to make the woke look lie fools. He is trying -- trying -- to be cool in his own conservative spectrum. But the cool don't have to try. And the woke don't care what you think, they will go to the mat for the truth.
The question becomes: what is the most effective stance to influence positive change, woke or cool? Get woke or stay cool? I'd say woke is the way to go. Bernie Sanders style. Although, cool may be the way to actually get legislation passed, Obama's ACA style. But when Obama lost it a bit and got angry, more woke, he moved the dial immensely.
Maybe the answer is stay cool, but know when to get woke.
54
I wouldn't say cool was politically detached, socially unconscious, individualistic or emotionally reserved. Almost everyone you named as an example of cool, was actually the complete opposite of that. The new cool is the same as the old cool, and only cool again because it has returned to the roots of what it once was.
Like irony, coolness is dead.
Hey Dan. Check out Mike Mahan of Atlanta's comment below. Proof that irony isn't dead.
Conservatism is the new "punk". Conservatism is the new counter-culture. Resist the Resistance.
It seems to me the defining attribute of being "woke" is the utter inability to go more than 15 consecutive seconds without irritating everyone around you by talking about just how very "woke" you are.
2
Woke is highly subjective-- you can only be "woke" when within your group where people agree on the dreams the Lu are fighting for and against. Cool is relatively objective stoicism mixed with hedonism. I prefer cool as a guiding principle.
1
David stick to humility.
3
I would suggest that two or three of the originators of cool were Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and James M. Cain. They were at the origins of a backward imaginary universe where an outsider had to stay on the good side of the cops, as far as he could, while bringing justice to bear in a small corner of an arbitrary system.
1
Cool, today, would be Baby Driver. Just surviving or enduring. No greater cause than self. There's a difference between thriving and surviving. Perhaps, Spider-Man or Wonderwoman are providing youth with a new definition of cool--being for a cause greater than self. Hopefully, thriving in all its aliveness, will be the new cool.
"Woke" up, David. If I wanted to read a People Magazine article, I would read People.
Also, do you think a "general disgust with institutions" is really something new? Remember the sixties when people were marching in the streets, getting shot by national guardsmen? The seventies, when the president was impeached after trying to use the FBI and CIA for his own personal gain, while relentlessly attacking the media. The early 2000's, when half the country thought that a rigged Supreme Court stole the election from the true candidate. The 20's. The 1890's. The 1810's. The 1770's. And on and on.
Distrust of institutions is not new. Even the Republicans being intellectually dishonest, because their "philosophy" has now been shown to be ineffective and misguided, even this is not especially new.
What IS new and what deserves your attention is a mentally unstable and pathologically dishonest President. Like a serious infection in an otherwise healthy body, this dangerously exacerbates the normal tensions in a healthy society. The President is the most serious problem American society faces today, by a long ways. Why don't you write about that, instead of detached shallow treatments of the concepts of cool, hip, and willfully ignorant.
Also, do you think a "general disgust with institutions" is really something new? Remember the sixties when people were marching in the streets, getting shot by national guardsmen? The seventies, when the president was impeached after trying to use the FBI and CIA for his own personal gain, while relentlessly attacking the media. The early 2000's, when half the country thought that a rigged Supreme Court stole the election from the true candidate. The 20's. The 1890's. The 1810's. The 1770's. And on and on.
Distrust of institutions is not new. Even the Republicans being intellectually dishonest, because their "philosophy" has now been shown to be ineffective and misguided, even this is not especially new.
What IS new and what deserves your attention is a mentally unstable and pathologically dishonest President. Like a serious infection in an otherwise healthy body, this dangerously exacerbates the normal tensions in a healthy society. The President is the most serious problem American society faces today, by a long ways. Why don't you write about that, instead of detached shallow treatments of the concepts of cool, hip, and willfully ignorant.
3
The cool person is fine being alone, especially in a crowd.
2
I laughed at the very thought that David Brooks is writing about what's cool, but he redeemed himself in my estimation by recognizing the wokeness of Black Lives Matter. For me, the old concept of cool was mostly superficial, a veneer. Woke insists on integrity, intellectual rigor, commitment and dignity.
38
This is the opinion you write today when McCain interrupts taxpayer funded cancer treatments to take away health care from millions and the GOP does the same. Such dribble!
2
Cool today is anonymity. Complete anonymity. Privacy is the new cool.
2
We're watching the undoing of Brooks as a serious person..which is cool.
6
Wow, cool. David Brooks lecturing on what it means to be cool. Wow.
Engaging in discussions of cool isn't cool, but here I go nonetheless.
Brooks thinks cool is on its way out, but apparently so is his memory. For eight years, until the Trump train wreck crashed into the White House, it was inhabited by the coolest family of the 21st century.
I'd like to see Brooks tell me with a straight face that Barack or Michelle Obama weren't "trying to live by [their] own honor code in an absurd moral world".
The Obamas become even more cool as the Bundys make a debased joke of being the first family. Cool isn't dead, David, it's just on hiatus.
Engaging in discussions of cool isn't cool, but here I go nonetheless.
Brooks thinks cool is on its way out, but apparently so is his memory. For eight years, until the Trump train wreck crashed into the White House, it was inhabited by the coolest family of the 21st century.
I'd like to see Brooks tell me with a straight face that Barack or Michelle Obama weren't "trying to live by [their] own honor code in an absurd moral world".
The Obamas become even more cool as the Bundys make a debased joke of being the first family. Cool isn't dead, David, it's just on hiatus.
241
if they are so cool, why are the Obama's so checked out, too busy hanging with the rich to speak about the nuttiness that is engulfing us? I think they are textbook "posers." what we need is for their ilk to be woke. cool is past its expiry.
You can't be cool or woke unless you're young and it helps if sexy too.
Naw, William Burroughs was the ultimate in cool as an old man
How about making Integrity cool again. Without it you've got nothing to work with.
4
Oh Mr. Brooks, another eighth grade book report trying to masquerade as incisive sociopolitical commentary. You've lost your detachment and intellectual rigor sir, and now seem to be phoning it in. You wrote some thoughtful and intelligent stuff back in the day. Now, David, we hardly knew ye.
2
Woke up America!
Make America Woke Again!
Make America Woke Again!
David Byrne, George Clooney, Barak Obama and Thomas B. Edsall are cool.
2
Would Elon Musk and Richard Branson fit in?
Mr. Brooks is trying to define a word or perception that is fluid. As an example, Jimmy Carter was not considered cool by the majority but now is as cool as it gets. Media can change the definition just as the overall circumstances can. Mr. Brooks attempt to define cool isn't cool. Neither is Kid Rock running for elected office.
4
This was mildly cringeworthy, almost as much as 'How We Are Ruining America' from a couple of weeks ago. Good thing I'm somewhat woke or I'd probably be more upset. Trying to define cool is an exercise in futility; it's just too subjective, and I imagine some of those described as personifying 'cool' would be mortified. By the way, "stoical, emotionally controlled, never eager or needy, but instead mysterious, detached and self-possessed" presumably could be used to describe many of the characters John Wayne portrayed. I doubt seriously that Mr. Brooks would think of the Duke as 'cool'.
7
From what you are saying, Trump is neither cool nor woke. Perhaps a 'woke' exploiter?
1
"Cool" to my teenage daughter is synonymous with "interesting", as in, 'That's a cool jacket you're wearing'. In general usage, the word "cool" therefore lacks the intellectual resonance described in this article. In truth, I've tried my best to steer her away from "coolness" in character, as I think of it as a facade; that is, a wall behind which most people suffer in silence. It is far better to be "un-cool" and free, than "cool" and chained to society's expectations.
3
Samuel, I think you have inadvertently defined the real definition of cool. It's not a look, but a way of living.
Self reflection is cool. Service is cool. Civil listening is cool. Respect for the other. And we are surrounded by models of it - conservative, liberal, progressive, pious, agnostic. It's a way of living, of facing, indeed accepting, that life is struggle best managed together without imposition of a singular ideology or perspective. It doesn't require an appellation. It is entirely visible when you take the time to look. That's cool.
3
This is timely. My 18 year old daughter and I were talking about "cool" just yesterday. Her generation sees cool differently than ours, David. Cool to them means great Instagram pics with many followers, being rich, showing off. That did not define cool for our generation. Our generation looked up to the cool people, they actually enlightened the world a bit, through thought or entertainment.
Not anymore. I will tell you this, both generations agree Trump is not cool. His family is not cool. Maybe Melania, but she is relatively hidden. Our congress is full of old white men who define anti-cool. Is there a hero amongst them? ( I will give John McCain a pass--he is cool on his handling of the horrible glioma diagnosis). But besides him, seriously? Congress is a joke.
I think Macron seems cool. But maybe I am mistaking his young age for coolness. I guess we will see.
So, as much as we have admired cool, I would be happy with another C word for our leaders --competent. Maybe competent could be the new cool.
Not anymore. I will tell you this, both generations agree Trump is not cool. His family is not cool. Maybe Melania, but she is relatively hidden. Our congress is full of old white men who define anti-cool. Is there a hero amongst them? ( I will give John McCain a pass--he is cool on his handling of the horrible glioma diagnosis). But besides him, seriously? Congress is a joke.
I think Macron seems cool. But maybe I am mistaking his young age for coolness. I guess we will see.
So, as much as we have admired cool, I would be happy with another C word for our leaders --competent. Maybe competent could be the new cool.
11
Ultimate cool is Ronald Reagan who skated like an Olympian into the Republican crypt of heroes by excusing his sale of weapons to Iranian terrorists to fund an illegal war in Nicaragua with the following heartfelt words:
"A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not."
"A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not."
7
... and rather cooly greased the skids leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
N.
For my generation cool is part of the beat generation and Lawrence Ferlinghetti describes real cool and pseudo-cool in Sometime During Eternity.
When Reagan betrayed his guild members like Humphrey Bogart for a gig on the new medium of television he ended cool in America. Reagan was the antidote to cool. Cool only exists in the light of truth. Sadly we only know the beats from the hangers on who tried to be cool but truth was beyond their understanding.
I wish I could help American understand that prose is a recent phenomenon and in 1776 normal communication was done in poetry. It is sad that Americans know their Samuel Adams and Samuel Johnson who gave us language is almost unknown.
For my generation cool is part of the beat generation and Lawrence Ferlinghetti describes real cool and pseudo-cool in Sometime During Eternity.
When Reagan betrayed his guild members like Humphrey Bogart for a gig on the new medium of television he ended cool in America. Reagan was the antidote to cool. Cool only exists in the light of truth. Sadly we only know the beats from the hangers on who tried to be cool but truth was beyond their understanding.
I wish I could help American understand that prose is a recent phenomenon and in 1776 normal communication was done in poetry. It is sad that Americans know their Samuel Adams and Samuel Johnson who gave us language is almost unknown.
2
"My heart and my best intentions still tell me" that the American public were witnessing first hand President Reagan's Alzheimer's disease manifesting itself.
3
Cool and woke are too self-conscious and up "for sale" for me. I'm relieved to be past those ages where coolness is required for certain kinds of acceptance.
Life is not a movie. Jimmy Dean and Beyoncé, etc. are lost in being cool, woke, whatever. I am drawn to
people with true guts, who strive to live to help others: Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, and all of the unknown, unsung heroes. Coolness is cultural, yes, it's everywhere in our image- for-sale
society, but it's a big detour from searching for truth.
Life is not a movie. Jimmy Dean and Beyoncé, etc. are lost in being cool, woke, whatever. I am drawn to
people with true guts, who strive to live to help others: Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, and all of the unknown, unsung heroes. Coolness is cultural, yes, it's everywhere in our image- for-sale
society, but it's a big detour from searching for truth.
15
"B.L.M. is the most complete social movement in America today, as a communal, intellectual, moral and political force."
it may be communal and political, but intellectual ?
I have yet to hear a coherent view as to what the movement stands for.
it may be communal and political, but intellectual ?
I have yet to hear a coherent view as to what the movement stands for.
8
I remember when the word "cool" was obsolete -- remember actually discussing the word in a school class discussion about it in the early 70's. It was considered parallel with "gee willikers" and "peachy keen" (think "groovy" now). Then in two years, the TV show "Happy Days" came along, and "The Fonz" revived the word. I didn't think it would stick, but stick it did.
1
BLM seems very derived from Black Liberation Theology, which itself is a derivative (or application of) post-colonial Liberation theology, and post-historical theology in general. To sever this context and repackage it solely in terms of political activist consumption renders it dysfunctional, if not dangerous, as stressing the collective political aspects risks diluting the transformative power in the transcendence embedded in the theology.
3
I'm reminded of the moment in "Life of Brian" when the crowd chants in unison: "We are all individual!" Terms such as cool, hip, alternative and woke are the product of intelligent teenage and young adult minds trying to negotiate the balance between forging a unique identity and fitting in with a social group. They denote ways of presenting yourself to the world. Any specific political content associated with the terms is circumstantial. At best, they are way stations on the path to maturity. At worst, they become a permanent method of dodging the moral complexity of life.
16
Cool is actually caring--and choosing to be informed--and being curious and humble--and without pretense--not putting on airs---and admitting you could be wrong--and realizing your world view is not the only world view out there. Cool is way more broad and non-commercialized than Brooks could ever grasp--as it truly exists outside the radar of the so-called 'body-politic' world where he seems to spend most of his time and energy.
5
This is beyond ironic.
The concept of "woke" has been a popular urban concept since at least the early 90's well before EB (promoted strongly by the 5% Nation in its lessons). It appears that the author may not have been cool enough or aware enough, until being awoken by pop culture 20yrs later.
But whatever wakes ya, more power to you!
The concept of "woke" has been a popular urban concept since at least the early 90's well before EB (promoted strongly by the 5% Nation in its lessons). It appears that the author may not have been cool enough or aware enough, until being awoken by pop culture 20yrs later.
But whatever wakes ya, more power to you!
9
There are many cool folks around. Check out Doctors without Borders, those who serve in the Peace Corps, and other such organizations. They are cool, really cool !!
God bless them !
God bless them !
25
Talk about a wake-up call. I am pretty sure we all "woke" when Donald Trump prevailed in the Presidential election. Those who voted for him were energized and are hopeful their varied messages will now be heard. Those who did not vote for him are also energized - trying to make sense of how a person like Donald Trump could be possibly be elected to our country's most honored political position, which hopefully will involve really thinking about addressing those previously unheard or ignored messages. It does feel cool being woke; we've been asleep for a while.
10
There are a lot of cool people. Most are, unsurprisingly, not famous. In fact, in our current culture, famous and cool are virtually mutually exclusive.
31
It seems to me that there are a great many people who see Donald Trump as very cool and seek to emulate, or at least, eat the crumbs that fall from his table.
Speaks volumes about our current culture, doesn't it?
Speaks volumes about our current culture, doesn't it?
13
Cool is Jim Carrey driving Matthew McConaughy's Lincoln.
4
. . . plus Mr. Carrey wearing sun glasses and Mr. McConaughy's dogs are in the back seat eating burgers.
1
The fact that "woke" can be claimed by both the angry left and angry right show what a useless construct it is. Not to mention bad grammar.
29
Bernie Sanders is very cool. He has a personal moral code that smashes itself against the cruelty and brutality of the GOP. He may be quietly furious, disgusted with the fascists in power and endures their taunts with grounded certitude. He is the most feared man in American politics and has no meaningful opponents.
20
Sanders is the apotheosis of the uncool. He's a mooch.
"Culture is the collective response to the core problems of the times. I guess that means our present White House totally is lacking in culture. Certainly it can't be described as cool or woke.
8
The government is a downwardly spiraling circus, and you're writing about cool. Congrats on remaining utterly beside the point.
18
To say nothing of the risible lunacy of David Brooks presuming to be an authority on "cool."
1
Can we not discuss anything besides Trump? I'd really have to die of despair, which may actually be pretty cool right now.
Maybe he is just staying cool?
Our actions come out of our sense of Being Cool or Woke. I'm not a Christian but there is a beautiful story about Jesus going out into solitude and out of that mindset, he served others. It was Buddha's "woke" that is leading the compassion movement today. The Dalai Lama awakes everyday at 3:30 to meditate for 3 hours and then serves others. There is no one more "woke" than the Dalai Lama.
"You are never more fully yourself than when you are still inside." Eckhart Tolle
Stillness is woke and cool. It's our essence.
"You are never more fully yourself than when you are still inside." Eckhart Tolle
Stillness is woke and cool. It's our essence.
14
Bugs Bunny: "What's up, Doc?" Most definitely Barack.
7
Why in the world would anyone, including David Brooks, think the David Brooks has the slightest idea what "cool" is? And by the way, he is predictably lost in his attempt to define "woke." Wow.
21
Dear Mr. Brooks
I am a big fan of your writing, but 20+ million people are potentially getting set up to lose their health insurance today, Trump has nominated a guy who used to work for the Russians to run the Criminal Division of the US Justice Department while trying to depose his Attorney General, and you are writing about "cool"???
Talk about fiddling while Rome burns...
I am a big fan of your writing, but 20+ million people are potentially getting set up to lose their health insurance today, Trump has nominated a guy who used to work for the Russians to run the Criminal Division of the US Justice Department while trying to depose his Attorney General, and you are writing about "cool"???
Talk about fiddling while Rome burns...
134
tr,
My comments are not passing by the editors but Lawrence Ferlighetti's poem Sometime During Eternity is found on line at the poetry foundation. When Reagan betrayed his Guild members to J. Edgar and his G-men for thirty pieces of silver it was the end of cool for white America.
Here in Canada it is often cold but according to philosopher historian, and champion of press freedom John Ralston Saul cool is emerging.
Socrates was cool indeed and cool is more important than your healthcare laws and the Russians as cool has truth as its very essence.
Your healthcare debate is not about healthcare it is about wealth distribution and Russia is a drowning nation state thrashing about trying to remain afloat. Putin will not live forever and unlike North Korea there is no one to take his place.
My comments are not passing by the editors but Lawrence Ferlighetti's poem Sometime During Eternity is found on line at the poetry foundation. When Reagan betrayed his Guild members to J. Edgar and his G-men for thirty pieces of silver it was the end of cool for white America.
Here in Canada it is often cold but according to philosopher historian, and champion of press freedom John Ralston Saul cool is emerging.
Socrates was cool indeed and cool is more important than your healthcare laws and the Russians as cool has truth as its very essence.
Your healthcare debate is not about healthcare it is about wealth distribution and Russia is a drowning nation state thrashing about trying to remain afloat. Putin will not live forever and unlike North Korea there is no one to take his place.
1
tr,
Amen.
Amen.
1
Be cool TR!
1
What is "cool" and "woke?" To re-apply Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's comment, "I know it when I see it," but what I see as cool and woke is very different than Mr. Brook's definitions. Let's refine cool and woke to embody these attributes - selflessness, caring, giving, thinking about others, giving of not only money but time in the service of others across any and all political affiliations. You want to be cool and woke - find a cause that helps those in need of help - without judgment. I have a couple examples in mind of young people being cool and woke by my definition, and they'd be the last to think of themselves that way. It may be because they are too busy helping others to be concerned about their social media presence and/or have no interest in what others think of their service. That's "cool" and "woke," and I do know it when I see it.
5
Woke?
Cool column.
Thanks.
Thanks.
5
No who, but what....
Truth.
Sobriety.
Kindness.
Courage.....
The list goes on........
We ALL can be cool.....
BTW, self-promotion is off the list....
I think Jeff Bezos might be cool.....
Truth.
Sobriety.
Kindness.
Courage.....
The list goes on........
We ALL can be cool.....
BTW, self-promotion is off the list....
I think Jeff Bezos might be cool.....
2
David Brooks writes a whole column about cool without mentioning Barack Obama? Or Michelle Obama?
28
No, cool is not being nonchalant. "It's the fool who plays it cool by making his world a little colder." All the people you listed were anything but stoical. Still, cool is not wanting to "be like" them. Cool is being real to your heart.
76
The ultimate cool couple -Barack Obama and Michelle Obama doing anything.
Uncool couple- Entitled Ivanka filling in for Donald at G20 and entitled Jared in Ray Bans and a flak jacket fact finding in the Middle East.
Uncool couple- Entitled Ivanka filling in for Donald at G20 and entitled Jared in Ray Bans and a flak jacket fact finding in the Middle East.
18
Michael Jordan was up close and personal, but he was also cool.
3
To be cool, you have to be willing to swim in a different direction than the rest of the school of fish. Unaware or uncaring of the danger.
If, however, there is no school and every fish swims in his own direction, coolness loses its meaning.
If, however, there is no school and every fish swims in his own direction, coolness loses its meaning.
6
Barack Obama is one cool cat.
18
Obama is the last of cool.
13
The last cool Republican was Abraham Lincoln and they killed him. Scratch your head for days to come up with another one. Cool is one of those things that's almost undefinable, but you know it when you see it.
Pope Francis is cool, so are Jimmy Carter, the Obama and more. Many are gone like Muhammed Ali and MLK. None of them were or are detached, they're engaged fighting the good fight.
There are lots of unknown cools among us too. It takes bravery to be cool and you could scratch your head for days to find a few brave Republicans.
Pope Francis is cool, so are Jimmy Carter, the Obama and more. Many are gone like Muhammed Ali and MLK. None of them were or are detached, they're engaged fighting the good fight.
There are lots of unknown cools among us too. It takes bravery to be cool and you could scratch your head for days to find a few brave Republicans.
12
Calvin Coolidge. Margaret Chase Smith. Dwight Eisenhower. No head scratching required.
Daniel Craig comes to mind.
3
Cool... column...very much needed in these days...
2
Cool, woke, Lester Young. Yeah yeah yeah....
What would happen if David Brooks actually knew something and his soul couldn't find relief for what he's done to the body politic in his current reading list?
What would happen if David Brooks actually knew something and his soul couldn't find relief for what he's done to the body politic in his current reading list?
5
Is there a Pepe the Frog meme for "woke normals"?
Drivel.
Drivel.
7
Mr. Brooks should stop writing in his private jargon. English has words for whatever he wants to say, if he has anything to say today.
13
Good article, David. Seems you're getting "woke" yourself!
5
"The modern concept of woke began, as far as anybody can tell, with a 2008 song by Erykah Badu." This is factually incorrect. The term "woke" was coined in the 1960s by the experimental novelist William Melvin Kelley in the New York Times. You can read more about the recently departed Kelley here: http://www.publicbooks.org/if-youre-woke-you-dig-it-william-melvin-kelley/
3
Cool disintegrates almost immediately once you begin speculating whether or not you are....
9
wait...what...Pat Boone?...not cool?
2
Barack Obama is cool; the people who know that are woke.
24
Obama was cool.
15
How can any discussion of 'what it was to be 20th Century cool' not include a mention of Steve Mc Queen and Paul Newman?
13
The paradox: If woke is to succeed in the long run, it has to be cool.
2
The Kid Rock link basically justifies seriously considering Kid Rock for the Senate because it will annoy Democrats and George Will. If that passes for cool or woke, then include me out.
6
A white writer telling black people what is cool. Not Cool.
16
Didn't know he was only telling black readers. Guess he can't do anything about being white. He should only just listen since his opinion or thoughts don't matter to some.
1
What's considered cool now is what gets the most clicks and likes and what gets the most clicks and likes is what becomes cool and social media algorithms keep showing you what's cool so you keep clicking and liking
3
The epitome of Cool: Barack Obama.
14
Cool is about competence. Whether real or mythical, the cool person stands out with almost effortless skills or at least the ability to persevere (and succeed) in difficult situations, all without drama and emotion.
The current behavioral fads, including "woke", are much more about drama and outrage. And much of modern political philosophy, especially from the left, is about incompetence, focusing on very human but uncool issues like needs and victimhood.
Cool gets the job done, while others are shouting or debating or crying.
The current behavioral fads, including "woke", are much more about drama and outrage. And much of modern political philosophy, especially from the left, is about incompetence, focusing on very human but uncool issues like needs and victimhood.
Cool gets the job done, while others are shouting or debating or crying.
10
B. Krantz: "Cool is about competence. Whether real or mythical, the cool person stands out with almost effortless skills or at least the ability to persevere (and succeed) in difficult situations, all without drama and emotion."
Your definition of cool would encompass a lot of, say, engineers and scientists who largely work selflessly and anonymously. Their motivation often is the self satisfaction of getting something done for the public betterment.
Such individuals are regarded by many as being decidedly not "cool". What they lack to meet the popular notion of "cool" is a style or appearance chosen to draw attention to themselves in a way that appeals to their target audience, which style or appearance can be quite superficial.
Your definition of cool would encompass a lot of, say, engineers and scientists who largely work selflessly and anonymously. Their motivation often is the self satisfaction of getting something done for the public betterment.
Such individuals are regarded by many as being decidedly not "cool". What they lack to meet the popular notion of "cool" is a style or appearance chosen to draw attention to themselves in a way that appeals to their target audience, which style or appearance can be quite superficial.
I'd add Cary Grant.
The variety of examples here implicitly points out the difference between affecting a sense of cool from a position of relative privilege (like withholding affection or enthusiasm), which is less about "discipline" than narcissism, perhaps, and genuine discipline for the marginalized or threatened, of strategizing how to manage in a hostile environment or under outright siege.
And there is this remarkable artifact, How To Speak Hip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f-9r4WFPEw
The variety of examples here implicitly points out the difference between affecting a sense of cool from a position of relative privilege (like withholding affection or enthusiasm), which is less about "discipline" than narcissism, perhaps, and genuine discipline for the marginalized or threatened, of strategizing how to manage in a hostile environment or under outright siege.
And there is this remarkable artifact, How To Speak Hip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f-9r4WFPEw
4
"Cool" is not a condition, a lifestyle or a circumstance. It is a nebulous descriptive term imposed upon those whose behavior we find either "detached" or "apart" from our own existence. Miles Davis and James Dean never referred to themselves as "cool" - only an adoring public did that.
1
Twitter and the internet has killed cool. Most millineals are too absorbed in themselves and their phones to ever be cool. Hip hop is no longer cool because it's all about embracing materialism. Hipsters are no longer cool because there's way too many of them and they all live on their parents money. Rock is not cool because it is essentially pop. Trie cool rejects growth industry and thereby has become irrelevant with this cheesy world
8
I know David had to draw the line somewhere, but the omission of Frank Sinatra, Clint Eastwood and Diana Rigg from the "cool" list is gross negligence at a minimum.
1
I disagree. Outside of Diana Rigg, Sinatra and Eastwood don't belong on the list. There is lack of spiritual depth that was there in Bogart, etc. I grew wanting to have that self-possession that they had. I never wanted to be Sinatra or Eastwood despite their achievements.
5
If you're going to quibble, you have to mention Steve McQueen.
Agreed, Fumanchu.
If you've got to read about it and write about it, you ain't cool.
9
To analyze cool...is to lose it.
6
Currently in my late 70s, I know I was never cool and I doubt if I am wok. My 17 year-old grandson, on the other hand, introduced "wok" to us a few years ago. He seems now to have moved on to other teenage slangisms. I am sure that if he were to read David Brooks explaining "wok" it would be gone from his vocabulary forever.
7
Wok? I, too, am in my late 70s, and I had thought that a wok was a cooking bowl for Chinese stir-fry. Very cool in the 1970s. Now? Not so much.
4
A hot planet that is not cool.
8
David, please. The Hipster ethos one finds in coastal enclave like Brooklyn, the essence of cool?? The social ethos that one observes in a show like "Girls" is anything but cool. By the way, you left out Sidney Poitier.
5
Languages evolve and over time meanings sometimes shift not because a particular word has lost it's meaning but rather because the word is applied to areas not usually associated with that word. How many times do we hear that a particular app is "cool" or that a new iPhone is "cool" or that cloud computing is "cool". What exactly is "cool " referring to. A self driving car is described as "cool" because it is "smart" Are they saying that a self driving car is a way of being a part of the future, are they saying that it is un-cool to think that money should be invested in making cars more fuel efficient or that low cost electric cars are not "cool" ?
The obvious commercialization of the word "cool" today is an attempt to turn it into a commodity that can be consumed, making the consumer believe that consumption can be turned into a statement of values. Words get co-oped and over time lose the power to communicate vital information. I really don't see anything "cool " in computers or phones that take a hundred photos in a second .
Nor do I think going to work on a skate board is "cool"..it just seems juvenile to me. I do believe it would be "cool" if American heath care really covered all americans and a trip to the emergency room didn't cost a fortune..but I guess by having these concerns I must not be "cool" !
The obvious commercialization of the word "cool" today is an attempt to turn it into a commodity that can be consumed, making the consumer believe that consumption can be turned into a statement of values. Words get co-oped and over time lose the power to communicate vital information. I really don't see anything "cool " in computers or phones that take a hundred photos in a second .
Nor do I think going to work on a skate board is "cool"..it just seems juvenile to me. I do believe it would be "cool" if American heath care really covered all americans and a trip to the emergency room didn't cost a fortune..but I guess by having these concerns I must not be "cool" !
5
President Obama singing Al Green's, "Let's Stay Together" at the Apollo.
That was cool.
President Obama singing "Amazing Grace" at a eulogy for Pastor Pinckney.
That was cool, and powerful.
Funny how you always forget about President Obama, Mr. Brooks.
That was cool.
President Obama singing "Amazing Grace" at a eulogy for Pastor Pinckney.
That was cool, and powerful.
Funny how you always forget about President Obama, Mr. Brooks.
112
Oh David, David, David. You lost me in the second paragraph when you included Billie Holiday as "cool," which in your first paragraph is defined as, "stoical, emotionally controlled, never eager or needy, but instead mysterious, detached and self-possessed." Her wrenching, naked brilliancy is the opposite of what you are talking about.
I think it extremely, extremely interesting, however, that the only other woman you could come up with to fit your definition is Audrey Hepburn. Audrey Hepburn, elfin, wide-eyed, beautiful, innocent.
And, given your oddly convoluted description of "cool," it is also interesting that the only other person of color you list in this little pantheon is Jimi Hendrix.
Oh David, David, David. You are definitely not cool and I don't think you've done your research here.
I think it extremely, extremely interesting, however, that the only other woman you could come up with to fit your definition is Audrey Hepburn. Audrey Hepburn, elfin, wide-eyed, beautiful, innocent.
And, given your oddly convoluted description of "cool," it is also interesting that the only other person of color you list in this little pantheon is Jimi Hendrix.
Oh David, David, David. You are definitely not cool and I don't think you've done your research here.
12
Sorry, being 'woke' is being a populist. It invokes taking a moral high ground, and sets up an us vs. them argument, with little hope for reconciliation. No doubt, it's an appropriate position on some issues like police brutality. However, in other cases, it reflects our 140 character limit on reflection, nuance, and individual analysis of issues.
10
David if being cool, according to you assessment is stoicism, emotionally controlled, mysterious and detached and pretty much rejects applause has to include UG Krishnamurti, an Indian guru, (which he denies he is), who's coolness can be frightening. He can be viewed on youtube.
4
Somewhere between being a cynic and speaking truth to power?
1
Dear Mr. Brooks,
I woke long before 2008. Apparently you are still asleep. It is beyond ridiculous to claim "Embrace it or not, B.L.M. is the most complete social movement in America today, as a communal, intellectual, moral and political force." Tell that to the Churches, NRA, The Boy or Girl Scouts, The Salvation Army, the Red Cross or another large eleemosynary institution.
It is one thing to offer an opinion, to state this as fact contravenes reality on a grand scale. BTW - The anti-segregation marches of the civil rights movement were not cool, or hipster - it was "woke". Time for you to respect your predecessors - the ethical and moral imperatives of being woke stretch far back to the beginning of civilization.
I woke long before 2008. Apparently you are still asleep. It is beyond ridiculous to claim "Embrace it or not, B.L.M. is the most complete social movement in America today, as a communal, intellectual, moral and political force." Tell that to the Churches, NRA, The Boy or Girl Scouts, The Salvation Army, the Red Cross or another large eleemosynary institution.
It is one thing to offer an opinion, to state this as fact contravenes reality on a grand scale. BTW - The anti-segregation marches of the civil rights movement were not cool, or hipster - it was "woke". Time for you to respect your predecessors - the ethical and moral imperatives of being woke stretch far back to the beginning of civilization.
7
You say, "tell that to the Churches, NRA, The Boy or Girl Scouts, The Salvation Army, the Red Cross or another large eleemosynary institution."
These ancient, outdated "charities" aka corporations, with their profit-making agendas?
Take it from an insider, they could not be less woke.
These ancient, outdated "charities" aka corporations, with their profit-making agendas?
Take it from an insider, they could not be less woke.
3
To paraphrase the immortal Huey Lewis, it always has been, is now and forever shall be hip to be square.
4
This is a good essay, but it could have been great. The basic problem is that it starts with a flaw. Camus was cool because he tried to look like Bogart—who was cool. Bogart also described an action based on his character. To “bogart” someone or thing was to take something that should have been yours—if the playing field had been level.
Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm was trying to find a way to get money to urban centers—to Detroit—without angering the smaller white cities. She came up with the idea of “investing in cool cities.” The problem was she made “cool” a two-syllable word; like “coo-el” and the idea crashed without even getting off the ground.
Being “cool” is not not playing the Horatio Alger game, it’s waiting for an opening that turns a disadvantage into an advantage in all aspects of life not just in “smarmy games.”
The origin of “woke” is wrong leading you to an erroneous conclusion. The term comes from the expression, “...don’t woke him; let him slept,” which means don’t tell an enemy of his mistakes.
Being “cool” was never being “politically disconnected;” it meant observing—looking for a vulnerability which could be exploited in a non-political arena.
To determine “cool” today; it’s the anti-thesis of Trump.
Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm was trying to find a way to get money to urban centers—to Detroit—without angering the smaller white cities. She came up with the idea of “investing in cool cities.” The problem was she made “cool” a two-syllable word; like “coo-el” and the idea crashed without even getting off the ground.
Being “cool” is not not playing the Horatio Alger game, it’s waiting for an opening that turns a disadvantage into an advantage in all aspects of life not just in “smarmy games.”
The origin of “woke” is wrong leading you to an erroneous conclusion. The term comes from the expression, “...don’t woke him; let him slept,” which means don’t tell an enemy of his mistakes.
Being “cool” was never being “politically disconnected;” it meant observing—looking for a vulnerability which could be exploited in a non-political arena.
To determine “cool” today; it’s the anti-thesis of Trump.
50
Actually to "bogart'
was to hold on to something that was not yours to begin with, but you hold ontpo it .
Listen again to the song from "East Rider," "Don't Bogart that Joint, My Friend."
was to hold on to something that was not yours to begin with, but you hold ontpo it .
Listen again to the song from "East Rider," "Don't Bogart that Joint, My Friend."
Mr. Brooks. how could you write the essay you wrote and leave Barak and Michele Obama out of it. WOKE they are. Joe Biden is not far behind. Condoles Rice is in there too. The trouble is that a hero is what we need now and that take a certain stroke of fate.
Sadly, America use to be cool but we have lost that position.
Sadly, America use to be cool but we have lost that position.
7
I think humility surpasses cool.
10
David Brooks never seems to tire of labeling, pigeonholing and stereotyping. It is neither enlightening nor entertaining. There is a train wreck quality to his method that brings us back for more. How will he fill his word quota next?
21
Kudos to you sir. You are the last cool columnist in the major papers today. . .
I'll tell you who else is cool - Barack Obama!!
20
Lenny Kravitz
5
Where's Steve McQueen - the king of cool?
5
It seems you are saying that "cool" requires an aura of mystery, one that the spotlight of social media today doesn't permit. Let's not forget that Miles Davis was an abuser of women, often cruel to those who supported him, and others you mention lived far less than exemplary moral lives. Not cool. Perhaps cool requires an element of fake? Are we mourning the death of cool? Thanks for a thought provoking piece to start the day!
4
The American writer most concerned with "cool" was Ernest Hemingway, called it "grace under pressure." Hemingway once said to his friend F. Scott Fitzgerald that what "grace" came down to was "guts." More elaborately, he defined its embodiment as "a man who lives correctly, following the ideals of honor, courage and endurance in a world that is sometimes chaotic, often stressful, and always painful." Another writer who addressed the concept was Anton Chekhov, who came up with what I think is an even better definition of grace: 'When a man spends the least possible number of movements over some definite action, that is grace." In any case, to understand what "cool" or "grace" is not, you only need to look at the behavior of our current president.
9
Obama was the coolest President I have seen and could be the coolest of all
27
Cool? Oh, you mean Bernie Sanders.
10
A lot of cool people were part of the underground. Because of the internet and social media there is no more underground. Instead a lot of people want to be as well-known, famous, or have a lot of "likes," "friends," and "followers" as possible.
7
There is still an underground, it's just not showing up in google searches.
Really interesting, David. "To be woke is to be radically aware and justifiably paranoid."
Trump's speech to the boy scouts has me woke.
Please address this speech to "45,000" children. Please explain what kind of "education" this is. Please see us a way out of this nightmare.
Trump's speech to the boy scouts has me woke.
Please address this speech to "45,000" children. Please explain what kind of "education" this is. Please see us a way out of this nightmare.
13
Like Bernie?
Might "cool" have had its origin in "sprezzatura" of the Italian Renaissance?
The OED defines the latter as "studied carelessness," but I like the Wikipedia explanation of the term:
"Sprezzatura is an Italian word originating from Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier, where it is defined by the author as 'a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it.' It is the ability of the courtier to display 'an easy facility in accomplishing difficult actions which hides the conscious effort that went into them.' Sprezzatura has also been described 'as a form of defensive irony: the ability to disguise what one really desires, feels, thinks, and means or intends behind a mask of apparent reticence and nonchalance.'"
And that's cool, man.
The OED defines the latter as "studied carelessness," but I like the Wikipedia explanation of the term:
"Sprezzatura is an Italian word originating from Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier, where it is defined by the author as 'a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it.' It is the ability of the courtier to display 'an easy facility in accomplishing difficult actions which hides the conscious effort that went into them.' Sprezzatura has also been described 'as a form of defensive irony: the ability to disguise what one really desires, feels, thinks, and means or intends behind a mask of apparent reticence and nonchalance.'"
And that's cool, man.
14
The fellow explained the documented origin(s) of cool but I guess there are more to be explored! That said, I think Sprezzatura is a dope concept, a cool one. Thanks!
1
Your post reminds me of Niccolo Machiavelli,
the coolest writer in my library.
the coolest writer in my library.
1
If woke means being aware.. Knowing whats going on in the community and possessing a degree of intellectual superiority gained by reading, I was woke. I was also cool. Too bad there couldn't be a cool and woke judge.
6
living in a state of grace is cool. Not speaking of Religion, as any
institution loses its ability to maintain integrity in exponential proportion
to its size. Integrity is the first basis of cool. With respect, your WOKE
needs attention as anger and indignant get int in the way of what action
appropriate. "To be woke is radically aware and.." fearless.
institution loses its ability to maintain integrity in exponential proportion
to its size. Integrity is the first basis of cool. With respect, your WOKE
needs attention as anger and indignant get int in the way of what action
appropriate. "To be woke is radically aware and.." fearless.
It took me years.... decades, really.... before I concluded that I'm just trying to be as cool as Snoopy in shades.
11
The shock of Kurt Schlichter's "We Must Elect Senator Kid Rock" has eclipsed the awe of David Brook's "Road to McCool, the Worked Vote". In the age of Modern Day Presidential, to say that these revelations are stunning is akin to finding something truly mind-blowing. And I mean every definition, from the vat and pulled from a holster. In summary, Mega-donors are cray-cray and if I owned a gun, I might just pop a cap - just on principle.
The principle of this is messed up, why Brooks? Why?
The principle of this is messed up, why Brooks? Why?
5
Cool is the poor young violinists playing in the streets of Caracas in defiance of the Venezuelan military who have already killed over 90 protesters.
40
My Godson, a rap musician, appears to fit the definition of cool and just as I was about to forward this essay on the above to his parent for her view, I realized that she is the one who is truly cool. There is nothing worked in her make-up. It is in her nature, and you will not find her strumming the guitar.
Americans at times appear to be neurotic. David Brooks made me smile at the thought of wishing to be like Camus. Marcel Duchamp, the French artist, was cool and when asked what he was like recently, I replied 'quiet'.
Cool can be found in the 'Presence'. A friend from West Africa once persuaded me to join a small international speakers group and I tried to resist because I chatter away. She is the warmest person I have met in years. Here I have been trying to practice the art of benevolent detachment with alarming success.
Smiling at a memory where an awkward and angry participant finished his clip with 'You are All Awesome People', which was received tepidly by his audience, and of course, try telling an international group that they are all 'Winners' and this falls flat as a crepe suzette, or cheese souffle.
Americans have many attributes, but the Art of Coolness could use a revival.
Americans at times appear to be neurotic. David Brooks made me smile at the thought of wishing to be like Camus. Marcel Duchamp, the French artist, was cool and when asked what he was like recently, I replied 'quiet'.
Cool can be found in the 'Presence'. A friend from West Africa once persuaded me to join a small international speakers group and I tried to resist because I chatter away. She is the warmest person I have met in years. Here I have been trying to practice the art of benevolent detachment with alarming success.
Smiling at a memory where an awkward and angry participant finished his clip with 'You are All Awesome People', which was received tepidly by his audience, and of course, try telling an international group that they are all 'Winners' and this falls flat as a crepe suzette, or cheese souffle.
Americans have many attributes, but the Art of Coolness could use a revival.
5
In the British Army in my day it was "Never explain, Never complain." Has that changed?
3
In the American army, I made a vow to never "explain" or try to shift the blame - because that was all everybody was doing, from privates to generals, all the time. It was all about "Sergeant So-and-so told us to do it this way..." or "I told Specialist So-and-so an hour ago and he was supposed to..." It got really tiresome, and I wanted never to be like that. I have to admit, I haven't avoided it 100%, but I've made a real effort.
1
Generally, I am disgusted with "institutional culture-ism". Or cultural institutionalism. Or individualist "groupism"....it all just seems to be another form of currency to be bartered,bought,sold,exploited...and used for a one size fits all society into a society that thinks it values differences.
6
Among actors: Jeremy Irons was cool in "Margin Call"
Alan Rickman (Robin Hood, Die Hard, Harry Potter etc) was cool in just about any movie he was in.
David Bowie was cool.
Jagger is pretty cool.
Sorry they're all Brits!
Alan Rickman (Robin Hood, Die Hard, Harry Potter etc) was cool in just about any movie he was in.
David Bowie was cool.
Jagger is pretty cool.
Sorry they're all Brits!
10
I love your list. To me, Alan Rickman and that voice of his was the epitome of cool and then some. Gosh I miss him.
1
Jagger cool? No.
Wyman was cool. Charlie Watts remains cool.
Jagger had, and still has, a hot persona.
Wyman was cool. Charlie Watts remains cool.
Jagger had, and still has, a hot persona.
"Stoical, emotionally controlled, never eager or needy, but instead mysterious, detached and self-possessed. Gracefully competent with the skills you seek and with my own unique and authentic way of living with nonchalant intensity."
That's going to look good on my resume! Maybe a cool employer will hire me.
That's going to look good on my resume! Maybe a cool employer will hire me.
6
You sound like you're speaking of a Joseph Campbell "shaman." The shaman tells his dream to the people...the people think "that's just what I was thinking" and a movement is born. The human mind seems just as easily manipulated today as when we lived in caves. The Greeks called it rhetoric. The Church called it dogma. Trump calls it salesmanship. Psychologist call it illusion. History tells us this need falls pretty close to the need for food.
8
Mr Brooks, if Mr Schlichter is now considered "cool" or "woke" I don't ever want to be cool. He replaces debate on complex issues with bashing those who disagree with him. I just cant see how this provocative style of communication, now so prevalent in America, can lead us to improving ourselves. I guess I am still asleep.
6
Daniel Day-Lewis remains cool. While making "Lincoln" here he lived locally, hung out at normal places without an entourage, and kept his profile low.
From his Wikipedia entry: "Day-Lewis rarely discusses his personal life. Protective of his privacy, he described his life as a "lifelong study in evasion"
Rare in our age of social media expectations, but cool in the sense of the word Mr. Brooks employs. And Day-Lewis has quit the big screen. Go figure.
From his Wikipedia entry: "Day-Lewis rarely discusses his personal life. Protective of his privacy, he described his life as a "lifelong study in evasion"
Rare in our age of social media expectations, but cool in the sense of the word Mr. Brooks employs. And Day-Lewis has quit the big screen. Go figure.
14
"Emerged specifically within the African-American culture"? What? When I think of "cool", it seems to me, it was marketed to us in the 1950's. Guys with their collars up and muscle cars. Now, that's "cool", or it was supposed to be. I think of "The Fonz".
O.K., sure, I guess there is a rebellion inside, but it's just what every generation goes through as they move into adulthood. (You know, the terrible twos mimic the teen years....)
As far as, as the legends named in the beginning, I'm not sure some of these people had a chance at "cool" and "rebellion". They were thrown into WWII, fighting a stench never known to man. Cool is an insult. David, Bogie is dead, and so is Bacall.
O.K., sure, I guess there is a rebellion inside, but it's just what every generation goes through as they move into adulthood. (You know, the terrible twos mimic the teen years....)
As far as, as the legends named in the beginning, I'm not sure some of these people had a chance at "cool" and "rebellion". They were thrown into WWII, fighting a stench never known to man. Cool is an insult. David, Bogie is dead, and so is Bacall.
1
"Old institutions cannot be rooted up in an instant. Quiet argument may do more than wholesale condemnation. Avoid all appearance of sedition. Keep cool. Do not get angry. Do not hate anybody. Do not get excited over the noise which you have made."
-- Erasmus, letter to Martin Luther, circa 1519
Luther did not follow Erasmus's advice to stay cool. Luther was about as woke as it gets.
-- Erasmus, letter to Martin Luther, circa 1519
Luther did not follow Erasmus's advice to stay cool. Luther was about as woke as it gets.
3
But didn't they write in Latin? How cool was that?
1
Did I want to be Billie Holiday (died of cirrhosis, alcohol and drug abuse)? No. Katherine Hepburn (sustained a 26-year affair with a married depressed alcoholic named Spencer who kept her hidden from his wife)? Nope. Jimi Hendrix (overdosed on sleeping pills, age 27, and inhaled own vomit)? No. How about Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner (drunks). Naw. Janis Joplin (died young, drugs)? Ok, I've wanted to be Janis now and then all my life.
David Brooks aets up simplistic categories inspired by his own nostalgia. His list of cool folk mainly features artists ... musicians, actors, writers ... of the past. But today's shallow mechanized American culture can't support "cool" anymore. Artists are diverted to become activists. That's his theory.
Nonsense. Most of yesterday's "cool" artists were also hot, because they suffered. And there were plenty of activists yesterday. Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass. Suffragettes? Cool.
And although Mr. Brooks despairs of today's noisy, commercialized culture and implies that it can no longer generate "cool," there are lots of artists right outside his door. But they're still hidden in the woods, and the ones who will become famous tomorrow haven't yet been identified.
Yet they're out there. Working. Practicing. Auditioning. Seeking agents. Self-promoting. Sometimes despairing. That's how art and artists are made.
By the way, I consider Barack Obama to be way cool.
David Brooks aets up simplistic categories inspired by his own nostalgia. His list of cool folk mainly features artists ... musicians, actors, writers ... of the past. But today's shallow mechanized American culture can't support "cool" anymore. Artists are diverted to become activists. That's his theory.
Nonsense. Most of yesterday's "cool" artists were also hot, because they suffered. And there were plenty of activists yesterday. Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass. Suffragettes? Cool.
And although Mr. Brooks despairs of today's noisy, commercialized culture and implies that it can no longer generate "cool," there are lots of artists right outside his door. But they're still hidden in the woods, and the ones who will become famous tomorrow haven't yet been identified.
Yet they're out there. Working. Practicing. Auditioning. Seeking agents. Self-promoting. Sometimes despairing. That's how art and artists are made.
By the way, I consider Barack Obama to be way cool.
31
Bravo for your provocative, thought-provoking comments.
Obama: "Way cool."
Obama: "Way cool."
5
Audrey, not Katherine, but I take your point.
Anyone who thinks it is possible to define cool is not cool.
So is the following a shot at trump:
"...The cool person is gracefully competent at something, but doesn’t need the world’s applause to know his worth...."
It actually is a completely accurate description of Obama.
So is the following a shot at trump:
"...The cool person is gracefully competent at something, but doesn’t need the world’s applause to know his worth...."
It actually is a completely accurate description of Obama.
70
"The woke mentality has since been embraced on the populist right"
What??? David Brooks provides the first statement that I've heard of wokeness being associated with the right. As he notes, it originated in connection with BLM, and is part of the modern left mentality. It is the exact opposite of anything that the right espouses. The idea that any right-of-center people think that their political sentiments can be conveyed by wokeness shows just how willing they are to drink the cool-aid that the GOP and Fox News keeps feeding them.
What??? David Brooks provides the first statement that I've heard of wokeness being associated with the right. As he notes, it originated in connection with BLM, and is part of the modern left mentality. It is the exact opposite of anything that the right espouses. The idea that any right-of-center people think that their political sentiments can be conveyed by wokeness shows just how willing they are to drink the cool-aid that the GOP and Fox News keeps feeding them.
11
Authors James Baldwin and LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), although filled with rage at America's Jim Crow separate-but-equal society, expressed a knowledge and sophistication of history and current events that embodied cool. They were outspoken, yes, but very cool.
Actor Sidney Poitier, cool, calm and collected and, for the most part, emotionally controlled, was accepted by white audiences in the sixties because of his screen presence as well as his non-threatening demeanor that they could feel comfortable with.
President Barack Obama oozed cool from every pore. He was so cool he was "no drama Obama".
In today's political landscape, the Republican party and the president, even though "woke", Mr. Brooks, are very much asleep, if not completely unconscious and oblivious to how Americans feel, for example, about health care. The red tide is angry, intolerant, indignant and reactionary, which is why their representatives in Congress are paralyzed by inaction. Republicans have lost their way, Mr. Brooks. Today's GOP leadership is very uncool.
Actor Sidney Poitier, cool, calm and collected and, for the most part, emotionally controlled, was accepted by white audiences in the sixties because of his screen presence as well as his non-threatening demeanor that they could feel comfortable with.
President Barack Obama oozed cool from every pore. He was so cool he was "no drama Obama".
In today's political landscape, the Republican party and the president, even though "woke", Mr. Brooks, are very much asleep, if not completely unconscious and oblivious to how Americans feel, for example, about health care. The red tide is angry, intolerant, indignant and reactionary, which is why their representatives in Congress are paralyzed by inaction. Republicans have lost their way, Mr. Brooks. Today's GOP leadership is very uncool.
10
The Boomers killed cool. Once they stopped giving a care sbout social issues, went to Wall St, etc, and made money, they began to buy their cool off the shelves. A cool most never had, could now be put on like a unifirm, or more often driven, or used to accessorize their houses. Cool became an off the shelf uniform.
Then they bought their childrens cool, and made their self-esteem linked to their clothes, and latest gadgets, etc.
And it hasnt stopped. With Branding everything, linking virtue to consumption.
Yup, Boomers mucked up cool, and a whole lot of other stuff.
Then they bought their childrens cool, and made their self-esteem linked to their clothes, and latest gadgets, etc.
And it hasnt stopped. With Branding everything, linking virtue to consumption.
Yup, Boomers mucked up cool, and a whole lot of other stuff.
2
not every boomer went that route to wealth and materialism. I went into social work as did about three of my friends. Many others went into nursing and teaching and all worked for years in NYC so please don't put us all into one basket. I was present for the first earth day and will celebrate that until my end. I raised a socially conscious gen- x daughter. Post-consumer and recycle/reuse is my mantra. Peace.
10
As Lorraine points out, not all boomers went to work for Wall Street. Columnists (like Brooks) used to like to make huge unwarranted generalizations about how we were all idealistic hippies - but all along, there were plenty of us plugging away at our careers. Harvard Business School didn't go out of business. Probably in general the idealists are still idealists, and the go-getters are still going and getting.
It would be interesting to study the arrival of fake cool - you could relate it to fake rebellion, with pre-torn jeans. But I wouldn't blame it on the boomers in general. And I wouldn't despair of finding the real thing, probably as common as it ever was.
It would be interesting to study the arrival of fake cool - you could relate it to fake rebellion, with pre-torn jeans. But I wouldn't blame it on the boomers in general. And I wouldn't despair of finding the real thing, probably as common as it ever was.
1
Lorraine and John. Okay, always exceptions, can we just figure thats always true, and not have to listen to exception stories..? As a whole, The Boomers abandoned most of their idealism and anti-materialism, and fully embraced what they faulted their parents and grandparents...WW2 gen. Then put their twists on it. And that included buying goods to impress, and show-off. To be cooler then the next guy/gal, family, thru consumption, and over doing pretty much everything. Including how they raised their children. Bringing about the rise of the Child Obsession culture. Where life revolved completely around fulfilling every one of their childrens wishes (most what the Boomers wished their parents had done for them) and/or pushed their brand of consumerism on them.
Our obsessive consumption and Branding culture arose right out of The Boomer generation (mostly those who are now 60+) being the predominate leaders in product and/or marketing development in the US business realms. Buying products became their means to express themselves, or rather how they wanted to be perceived. Which is what their children and now grandchildren have adopted...rather been raised to believe in like its a religious faith.
Being mindless consumers amd show-offs about it is the largest legacy of The Boomers. Exceptions exist, but they didnt hold back the tide...did they?
Our obsessive consumption and Branding culture arose right out of The Boomer generation (mostly those who are now 60+) being the predominate leaders in product and/or marketing development in the US business realms. Buying products became their means to express themselves, or rather how they wanted to be perceived. Which is what their children and now grandchildren have adopted...rather been raised to believe in like its a religious faith.
Being mindless consumers amd show-offs about it is the largest legacy of The Boomers. Exceptions exist, but they didnt hold back the tide...did they?
Cool is just another fad word, like hip and groovy. The '60's was loaded with them; fab, far-out, swell, super, neat. Some fad words, like cool and hip, seem to have long lives drifting in and out of fashion. The omnipresent "awesome", encompassing everything but awe, has lasted longer than most. Will "woke" last? Who knows? All I'm sure of is that the search for deep meaning in fad words is simply a grand pursuit.
5
Interesting - it seems that "cool" has had pretty specific niche meanings, but has also been generalized to mean something just like "neat" - except now it also has a sense of agreeing to something - "Dunkin Donuts?" "Cool". But I haven't heard "woke" generalized beyond its original political sense.
Except in this column, where Brooks tries to extend it to include alt-right ranting, as well as the informed racial awareness it usually refers to.
Except in this column, where Brooks tries to extend it to include alt-right ranting, as well as the informed racial awareness it usually refers to.
1
Being cool in America (like this or that film icon, writer, musician)? How I managed to be as cool as I will ever be in America?
As a teenager it was pretty evident to me some people are just more original than others and they had time to develop that originality. Probably, mathematically, you can say the more a person is raised in this or that milieu, not stamped on, standardized and/or has sufficient time to develop "a way" the more original in some sense the person will be, and the more the forces of standardization step in the more the person had better have terrific natural force, an overwhelming bent to resist the masses and to develop originality.
What occurred with me is that I was raised traveling a lot, so already I was odd, then I dropped out of school and spent years reading books alone as a security guard at night, so I just became who I am, managed to grow at least some of the originality I possess...But without question I am also seriously damaged. I wish I had had greater natural force, to have resisted more early, more strongly, and with greater intelligence all the types of forces that really seem not to want an original person. In other words, if I could have a do over of my life, I would choose greater individuality rather than any turn to conformity and a worse fate, probably, than I am experiencing now!
American life now seems dedicated to reducing human, animal and plant life to a crop of Republicans or Democrats on increasingly barren soil.
As a teenager it was pretty evident to me some people are just more original than others and they had time to develop that originality. Probably, mathematically, you can say the more a person is raised in this or that milieu, not stamped on, standardized and/or has sufficient time to develop "a way" the more original in some sense the person will be, and the more the forces of standardization step in the more the person had better have terrific natural force, an overwhelming bent to resist the masses and to develop originality.
What occurred with me is that I was raised traveling a lot, so already I was odd, then I dropped out of school and spent years reading books alone as a security guard at night, so I just became who I am, managed to grow at least some of the originality I possess...But without question I am also seriously damaged. I wish I had had greater natural force, to have resisted more early, more strongly, and with greater intelligence all the types of forces that really seem not to want an original person. In other words, if I could have a do over of my life, I would choose greater individuality rather than any turn to conformity and a worse fate, probably, than I am experiencing now!
American life now seems dedicated to reducing human, animal and plant life to a crop of Republicans or Democrats on increasingly barren soil.
7
"Cool" was an individual characteristic. It was as much in the person who was "cool" as in the eyes and minds of the viewers. It was possible to maintain that aura because there was no 24/7 social media or TV coverage. There was a gap in terms of exposure between the viewer and the viewee, and the limited media coverage helped add to the aura of "cool."
Today, conditions have changed. With wall-2-wall coverage of any tiny incident, the ubiquitous media presence, and access to social media the exposure gap between the viewer and the viewee has shrunk. It has shrunk so much that the viewer is very often a peeping Tom. And often the viewee intentionally invites the viewer up close.
Instead, today, the gap is on the economic aspect: the haves and the have-less and the have-nots. And this is why "woke" is more in vogue. We need to be vigilant and resisting, sometimes it seems for ever. If you drop you guard, it seems the "cool" folks will siphon off more of our resources. That's why we need to be "woke."
Today, conditions have changed. With wall-2-wall coverage of any tiny incident, the ubiquitous media presence, and access to social media the exposure gap between the viewer and the viewee has shrunk. It has shrunk so much that the viewer is very often a peeping Tom. And often the viewee intentionally invites the viewer up close.
Instead, today, the gap is on the economic aspect: the haves and the have-less and the have-nots. And this is why "woke" is more in vogue. We need to be vigilant and resisting, sometimes it seems for ever. If you drop you guard, it seems the "cool" folks will siphon off more of our resources. That's why we need to be "woke."
1
This is an interesting choice of subject matter for you, Mr. Brooks. Cool needed an environment of possibility and an open-ended future glowing and promising on the horizon. We don't really have that luxurious option any longer, cool has become frivolous when we need the necessary. Cool wasn't reckoning with the realities of looming climate catastrophe and all that will entail. Hopefully Woke will wake to the realization that we are all in this together on our common home, Earth. We better get busy, we've got a lot of work to do, including waking up our so-called leaders...
1
I don't fully agree. To be truly cool is to be personally, intimately, locally cool. For society to recognize someone as cool is to end it. You can't be cool and known. Coolness is isolation.
The "cool" exemplars of the 20th century worked to cultivate their images - cool was what they wanted to be seen as. They might have been incipiently cool (personally, recognized as cool by only those nearby) but then they were "discovered" and needed to project coolness. Coolness is isolation.
To awaken to society's cruelties and let it be known is to be "woke". To have known of society's cruelties and keep it all to yourself is to be "cool". It's being out-there vs in-there. It's being extroverted and aggressive vs being introverted and passive aggressive.
I'm not sure why any of this matters, but it's academically interesting.
The "cool" exemplars of the 20th century worked to cultivate their images - cool was what they wanted to be seen as. They might have been incipiently cool (personally, recognized as cool by only those nearby) but then they were "discovered" and needed to project coolness. Coolness is isolation.
To awaken to society's cruelties and let it be known is to be "woke". To have known of society's cruelties and keep it all to yourself is to be "cool". It's being out-there vs in-there. It's being extroverted and aggressive vs being introverted and passive aggressive.
I'm not sure why any of this matters, but it's academically interesting.
4
When I think of "cool," the first name that comes to mind is Steve Mcqueen who, though he never proclaimed it himself, was known, for obvious and subtle reasons, as "The King of Cool". I also think of the great Cleveland Browns running back, Jim Brown. When he scored a touchdown or made a great play, he simply handed the ball to the ref and walked back to the huddle or sideline. I believe he himself described it as "acting like you'd been there". Contrast that with today's athletes, with their chest-thumping and ball-spiking, even after a two-yard stumble. Very uncool. I also recall JFK, with his wit and self-deprecating humor that charmed and engaged journalists and the general public alike. To provide a current presidential counterexample would be too easy, uncool, demonstrate "how cool DOESN'T work in America today.
4
David (if I may), you love to build your arguments on binaries, in this case cool v woke. It makes for tidy discussions, necessary for a columnist, but they too often leave out other possible categories, in this case, irony, which is surely the prevailing ethos, and has been for some time.
Also, consider that words shift meaning over time. Nerdiness is cool, which is ironic, but not just ironic because the meaning of cool has shifted. Someone like Elvis used to be cool, but once the cultural aesthetic shifted to a more Beatles-like ethos, Elvis became uncool, at least fir a certain part of society, until he became cool in an ironic sense.
And what about nice? Tony Bennett is nice. Betty White is nice. Ella Fitzgerald was nice. That's the best, and most enduring, way to be. I am not sure where Sinatra is these days. He was supremely cool, but never became ironically cool. Some people defy categorization. Redd Foxx . . . in a category of one as far as I'm concerned.
Also, consider that words shift meaning over time. Nerdiness is cool, which is ironic, but not just ironic because the meaning of cool has shifted. Someone like Elvis used to be cool, but once the cultural aesthetic shifted to a more Beatles-like ethos, Elvis became uncool, at least fir a certain part of society, until he became cool in an ironic sense.
And what about nice? Tony Bennett is nice. Betty White is nice. Ella Fitzgerald was nice. That's the best, and most enduring, way to be. I am not sure where Sinatra is these days. He was supremely cool, but never became ironically cool. Some people defy categorization. Redd Foxx . . . in a category of one as far as I'm concerned.
4
David continues his safari through the world of books, apparently searching for meaning. Not cool! Among his exemplars of cool, so few women. He might enjoy revisiting that.
We're in the age of entertainment. It's a glutinous age, chewing people up and spitting them out relentlessly. Bacon and Streep seem to resist that admirably. So far, Jeopardy contestants seem to keep it in check, but it seems that most other TV "shows" (no programs anymore) require a constant supply of manic participants, whether in Breaking News or Family Feud. It's the advertising money, ennit?
We're in the age of entertainment. It's a glutinous age, chewing people up and spitting them out relentlessly. Bacon and Streep seem to resist that admirably. So far, Jeopardy contestants seem to keep it in check, but it seems that most other TV "shows" (no programs anymore) require a constant supply of manic participants, whether in Breaking News or Family Feud. It's the advertising money, ennit?
5
One of the least cool persons of the 20th Century tries to explain cool in the 21st.
12
This column begs the question: where was Mr. Brooks in the late 60s early 70s in America.
So "cool" was politically detached? Not really.
As a hippie college student and member of SDS in the late 60s I considered Jimi to be very cool but he was not politically detached. Jim Morrison was very cool but not politically detached. Country Joe McDonald was very cool but not politically detached. The Dead, the Stones and, oh yes-that group Brooks may not have heard of, The Beatles, not politically detached.
I and so many like me were cool but not politically detached; we were Volunteers of America in the Airplane sense, and many of us still are:
"Look what's happening on the street,
Got a revolution, got to revolution"
Volunteers
Jefferson Airplane, 1969
So "cool" was politically detached? Not really.
As a hippie college student and member of SDS in the late 60s I considered Jimi to be very cool but he was not politically detached. Jim Morrison was very cool but not politically detached. Country Joe McDonald was very cool but not politically detached. The Dead, the Stones and, oh yes-that group Brooks may not have heard of, The Beatles, not politically detached.
I and so many like me were cool but not politically detached; we were Volunteers of America in the Airplane sense, and many of us still are:
"Look what's happening on the street,
Got a revolution, got to revolution"
Volunteers
Jefferson Airplane, 1969
4
Senator "Kid Rock" as a way of being "...radically aware and justifiably paranoid"?
If that is "woke", it's into a bad dream.
People are disappointed in the "Establishment" parties? Well, I am disappointed to hear that hundreds of thousands of lives are lost in errors made by health professionals.
But, I'm not hiring Kid Rock-- or The Donald -- to be my doctor.
If that is "woke", it's into a bad dream.
People are disappointed in the "Establishment" parties? Well, I am disappointed to hear that hundreds of thousands of lives are lost in errors made by health professionals.
But, I'm not hiring Kid Rock-- or The Donald -- to be my doctor.
4
Having a label like cool is uncool. Period.
2
Cool is controlled swagger, plain and simple. JFK had it. FDR had it and he couldn't even walk. You could argue that Obama had it, merely by noting he never lost it in public. Completely unruffled no matter how high the heat was. Steve McQueen famously had it. Roger Federer mostly has it. Today, look up Alex Honnold. He's the essence of cool because he does what he's doing not to show off but to achieve personal goals.
1
Elon Musk thinks he is cool. Rather he is, in the immortal words of George Will,
an intergalactic bore.
I think cool needs the backdrop of a sense of humour and lightness. Something like the Seinfeld days. Neither is in abundance in the hyper-literal Age of Trump.
an intergalactic bore.
I think cool needs the backdrop of a sense of humour and lightness. Something like the Seinfeld days. Neither is in abundance in the hyper-literal Age of Trump.
5
"Cool" and "woke" are a "culture," not just a mannerism and a popular or even a collective affectation? And Camus would be "cool"? That's news to me. This piece is unconvincing, and is merely reaching in order to be or seem to be about something. What about the fad of all those who feel compelled to start every sentence or declaration with "So..."? As in "So, I was on my way to work and..." Is that also a new cultural movement "in response to the core problems of the times"? I don't think so.
1
Definitely uncool is any column by Mr. Brooks, who is better served by the word "derivative." His junior-high-school teachers would be pleased that he remembers how to write a book report. That's not cool, man. Definitely not cool. Rejecting the profit motive and the market forces that lead to ecological disasters would be cool, Mr. Brooks, as would rejecting the incessant wars and the remote control bombing by drones. That would be cool, even if your style remained square.
2
My "cool" icon growing up in the seventies was Steve McQueen in the movie "Bullet". In the 21st century, it would be someone like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk who created new visions of technology and its impact on society.
Someone—I forget who—pointed out that, although the particular postures and attitudes that defined “cool” frequently changed in the course of the 20th century, there was one outward and visible manifestation of it that remained constant: dark glasses.
At the risk of spoiling you fun, I'd point out that Obama is cool. Don't be distracted by the prevailing din of gloomy prophets of doom like Donald or Hilary or Bernie shouting everything all of the time. Cool is cool because the world is a mess.
1
Integral to cool is the quality of truthfulness in a connection with nature beyond that of the normal person. That truthfulness might manifest itself as a skill. Miles's horn and Jimi's guitar spoke truth. More than a reaction against society, it is an understanding beyond society.
Your page reminded me of the lyrics of "Cool", in the movie "West Side Story", trying to show restraint and prudence (to act when necessary to fight evil, even or despite the risks involved). Being cool requires feeling at easy, comfortable, with yourself, without pretending to be someone you are not; introspection may be a lost art these days, but of great value to disengage from popular currency others impel you to follow. It reminds me of the purity (if there ever was one) of liking the things one does...as opposed to doing only the things we like; this, and being an 'amateur', doing the things you enjoy for it's pure pleasure, with no monetary gain, and without seeking glory nor a diploma of recognition. 'Cool' is the complete opposite of hot-headed dimwitted bully Trump, a brutish beast seeking adulation while destroying the very folks supporting him. You get the point.
1
A Republican/Conservative singing the praises of a community activists/organizer as cool - well that would mean that we should elect one as President! The US voters did that and the Republican/Conservatives did nothing for 8 years but hound and obstruct him at every turn. Not believable Mr. Brooks.
4
Nice is always cool. Just be nice.
5
I predict woke won't catch on the way cool did. Even today, many people still want to be cool. Woke, the word itself, doesn't have the same magnetic quality because it signifies something abrupt. Plus, if you look around these days, many people seem to think ignorance is bliss (e.g., how we got the show Donald in Charge).
2
Cool is dead. Any culture that tolerates the Katdashians, Tom Brady and Ted Cruz has no capacity for cool.
But woke is here, and it is not always driven only by anger. There are those who are happy warriors, mainly driven by hope and the desire to help others. There are woke folks who see value in the collective.
“Hope is more the consequence of action than its cause. As the experience of the spectator favors fatalism, so the experience of the agent produces hope”. (Roberto Unger, Cornell West)
But woke is here, and it is not always driven only by anger. There are those who are happy warriors, mainly driven by hope and the desire to help others. There are woke folks who see value in the collective.
“Hope is more the consequence of action than its cause. As the experience of the spectator favors fatalism, so the experience of the agent produces hope”. (Roberto Unger, Cornell West)
1
The Obamas were the very embodiment of “cool”, and not only in their presentation and demeanor. They encouraged everyone around the world to be more empathic, to look at issues from both sides, to try to understand each other rather than kill each other, either physically or psychologically. We were on our way to this being the epitome of cool: super smart, emotional yet still reserved, and calm and steady while facing extreme criticism, some of which was shameful. They were a living representation of the evolution of humanity.
4
The essence of cool was rebellion against the collectivist 50's conformity exemplified by William Whyte's "Organization Man". The essence of cool was rebellion. Albert Camus' existentialism rebelled against the reality of death by choosing to live life on your own terms. Camus and Bogart were linked by a trench coat scruffiness that codified moral ambiguity. The ambiguous sexuality of Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Elvis Presley, were a frontal assault on sexual mores. Jack Kerouac's " On the Road" was a quest for meaning and freedom exemplified by the iconic " Wither thou goest America in thy shiny car in the night". It was the isolation and struggle of the individual, soundtracked by the haunting vocals of Roy Orbison in " Only the Lonely"and "Crying". Today's cool is Ta-Nehisi Coates telling us "American Exceptionalism understands itself as God's handiwork, but the Black Body is the clearest proof that America is the work of men". "Barack Obama walked on ice and never fell", but he never gained traction either."
It is hard to stay cool when the mercury is breaking record highs and the President is propelling us to constitutional crisis.
4
"Cool" is simply defined as a person who marches to their own drummer no matter what the general population thinks or says.
Most people have "cool" in them but they are too afraid to leave the sheep line.
Most people have "cool" in them but they are too afraid to leave the sheep line.
3
Barack Obama is who comes to mind when I think of cool.
Quick smile, easy grace, keen intellect. Self aware. Kind.
Children love him. They can tell.
President Obama is cool.
Quick smile, easy grace, keen intellect. Self aware. Kind.
Children love him. They can tell.
President Obama is cool.
8
Animals love him too. Nature loves him, the planet loves him and he loves them all back.
1
Mr. Brooks,
While a "woke" ethos may have succeeded cool it cannot by definition be coolness itself. If supplanted by its opposite then, except in some Hegelian construct of reality awaiting synthesis, it is no more.
Cool detachment has been replaced by engaged by in your face confrontation. Are you seeking to be merely the privileged observer or the maker of a social comment?
While a "woke" ethos may have succeeded cool it cannot by definition be coolness itself. If supplanted by its opposite then, except in some Hegelian construct of reality awaiting synthesis, it is no more.
Cool detachment has been replaced by engaged by in your face confrontation. Are you seeking to be merely the privileged observer or the maker of a social comment?
David has been really struggling to figure out what has gone wrong.
Forays into moral decline, the failure of anything to replace conventional religious cultures and norms, and now the transposition of cool and woke. Cool was reserved, woke is radical.
Maybe we are at precisely the point one could expect in a society in which the replacement for religious structure is capitalism and moneymaking. In a place in which technology is an asset but people are liabilities. Where today's dollar is more important than next year's survival. Where things are valued only for the price they fetch on the market.
In a place in which job defines class, but more and more employers don't want to hire people, leaving more an more in the lowest caste of workers.
"Woke" comes from different places; conservatives may be trying to bring God, religion, patriotism to the fore; BLM looks at systemic injustice and policies which bleed the black community; Trump voters know they got the shaft but can't figure out what to do about it. Any change must be good change.
Fundamentally we need to stop making Mammon our idol, and start seeing people as the real reason that government exists.
We'd not have to worry about woke versus cool. We'd be worrying about people.
Forays into moral decline, the failure of anything to replace conventional religious cultures and norms, and now the transposition of cool and woke. Cool was reserved, woke is radical.
Maybe we are at precisely the point one could expect in a society in which the replacement for religious structure is capitalism and moneymaking. In a place in which technology is an asset but people are liabilities. Where today's dollar is more important than next year's survival. Where things are valued only for the price they fetch on the market.
In a place in which job defines class, but more and more employers don't want to hire people, leaving more an more in the lowest caste of workers.
"Woke" comes from different places; conservatives may be trying to bring God, religion, patriotism to the fore; BLM looks at systemic injustice and policies which bleed the black community; Trump voters know they got the shaft but can't figure out what to do about it. Any change must be good change.
Fundamentally we need to stop making Mammon our idol, and start seeing people as the real reason that government exists.
We'd not have to worry about woke versus cool. We'd be worrying about people.
1
Cool is a form of rejectionism, one that says, "You're wrong, but you're so insignificant I don't care."
Unfortunately there's also the hot version of rejectionism, which has become the staple of our politics, especially on the right.
All you people being cool? You need to vote, or those people being hot are going to keep running things.
Unfortunately there's also the hot version of rejectionism, which has become the staple of our politics, especially on the right.
All you people being cool? You need to vote, or those people being hot are going to keep running things.
2
“If you grew up in the 20th century, there’s a decent chance you wanted to be like Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Humphrey Bogart, Albert Camus, Audrey Hepburn, James Dean or Jimi Hendrix. In their own ways, these people defined cool.”
Well chosen examples, Mr. Brooks. I remember, as a 20 year old, growing up in segregated central Florida in the late 50’s and very early 60’s, sneaking into a completely black jazz club (located across the appropriately named, “Division Street” in the all black area) to listen to some of the local talent hammering out Miles’ chromatic, “Kinda Blue” chords. For an “ivy league,”dressed, buttoned-down kid from a white middle class family, nursing a fantasy that he and his trumpet could sit in some really cool jam sessions, nothing could compare to being accepted as part of the cool set by those folks at the club. Striving to “be cool” fixed my cultural attitudes, clothing choices and politics, vestiges of which persist to this day, almost 60 years later. There was nothing better than being part of that “scene.” It was my personal, “Birth of the Cool.”
Well chosen examples, Mr. Brooks. I remember, as a 20 year old, growing up in segregated central Florida in the late 50’s and very early 60’s, sneaking into a completely black jazz club (located across the appropriately named, “Division Street” in the all black area) to listen to some of the local talent hammering out Miles’ chromatic, “Kinda Blue” chords. For an “ivy league,”dressed, buttoned-down kid from a white middle class family, nursing a fantasy that he and his trumpet could sit in some really cool jam sessions, nothing could compare to being accepted as part of the cool set by those folks at the club. Striving to “be cool” fixed my cultural attitudes, clothing choices and politics, vestiges of which persist to this day, almost 60 years later. There was nothing better than being part of that “scene.” It was my personal, “Birth of the Cool.”
1
Oh, Mr Brooks, you mention cool people, Miles Davis and a host of others, but in the next paragraph describe these people of color and creativity in the guise of a silent tough guy... yes, he's the silent action hero, John Wayne and early Clint Eastwood come to mind. Those heroes don't dap or rap or even bother to explain.
Anything. But failure to explain...anything... means artists are out. It's what they do, they explain.
Mr. Brooks, I don't know about 'checking your white privilege', but I do know a limited purview when I see it, all broad brush strokes without detail, from a spot near the window of a fine, fine house, where outside blue fists of water are tossed on putting greens and security teams drowse in cruisers parked under the stars.
-- I'm reminded of a sophomore lit and visual arts class. And an artist who challenged orthodoxy and ways of thinking about the world, and the remittance from a grateful culture? Zero. Why, you'd think the artist was living in a hedge fund world of characters named "The Mooch" for all those Philistines could see about his art. But read further, Mr. Brooks, into the fine brush strokes, and further, into his personal suffering -- and then you'll know you have the story all wrong.
Poverty and struggle aren't ennobling. Most people it simply crushes.
Yes, how everyone loves the story of Vincent Van Gogh.
But honestly, nobody in Brooks America really wants to be him.
Anything. But failure to explain...anything... means artists are out. It's what they do, they explain.
Mr. Brooks, I don't know about 'checking your white privilege', but I do know a limited purview when I see it, all broad brush strokes without detail, from a spot near the window of a fine, fine house, where outside blue fists of water are tossed on putting greens and security teams drowse in cruisers parked under the stars.
-- I'm reminded of a sophomore lit and visual arts class. And an artist who challenged orthodoxy and ways of thinking about the world, and the remittance from a grateful culture? Zero. Why, you'd think the artist was living in a hedge fund world of characters named "The Mooch" for all those Philistines could see about his art. But read further, Mr. Brooks, into the fine brush strokes, and further, into his personal suffering -- and then you'll know you have the story all wrong.
Poverty and struggle aren't ennobling. Most people it simply crushes.
Yes, how everyone loves the story of Vincent Van Gogh.
But honestly, nobody in Brooks America really wants to be him.
We'll probably never again see such abrupt a change in cool as the transition from Obama to Trump. Obama never really "gave it away." Always kept something to himself -- for himself. Did anybody fully understand Barack Obama? Donald Trump does nothing of the sort. He shares himself -- all of it -- with all of us every single day. Nothing is shrouded, held back, left unsaid. Everything is revealed. It's a Tweetathon every morning. Stop, Mr. Trump. You're overdone and overplayed, and it's boring. Politics aside, you simply try too hard. And that's not cool.
Unwoke is David Brooks. BLM is significant but so are Bernie progressives and Trump's regressives.
Reading David Brooks on the topic of "cool" feels like reading Donald Trump musing about nuclear physics.
4
"To be woke is to be radically aware and justifiably paranoid. It is to be cognizant of the rot pervading the power structures. "
This certainly would not characterize "conservative" thinkers in 1988 as Ronald Reagan ignored a Congressional law not to sell weapons to Iran, and, then, funneled the money off to corrupt "rebels" in South America who were otherwise just violent thugs killing people. Nobody awake then eh?
Then, for conservatives, "woke" meant quietly showing open admiration for Oliver North's profoundly capable lying in front of Congress.
Then, "woke" meant standing by and listening to pure, unadulterated lying by both the President and a Republican Congress about "Star Wars"; the trillion dollar program where all the money was spent, but, no result was produced. Imagine if the electrical grid had been the priority instead?
Back in 1988, "conservatives" certainly were "woke" enough to cover for all of the laws that Reagan put in place that resulted in the elimination of the middle class, supported "Neutron Jack" at GE as he began the onslaught on American trained talent, supported the elimination and destruction of Unions....the list is vile and goes on and one.
But, now? "woke" means what to conservative writers? Well, I read this column today and still don't know what "woke" means for those guilty of handing America over to the crooks in the first place.
"Conservatives". Now they are "woke" up. Wow. Too little, too late.
This certainly would not characterize "conservative" thinkers in 1988 as Ronald Reagan ignored a Congressional law not to sell weapons to Iran, and, then, funneled the money off to corrupt "rebels" in South America who were otherwise just violent thugs killing people. Nobody awake then eh?
Then, for conservatives, "woke" meant quietly showing open admiration for Oliver North's profoundly capable lying in front of Congress.
Then, "woke" meant standing by and listening to pure, unadulterated lying by both the President and a Republican Congress about "Star Wars"; the trillion dollar program where all the money was spent, but, no result was produced. Imagine if the electrical grid had been the priority instead?
Back in 1988, "conservatives" certainly were "woke" enough to cover for all of the laws that Reagan put in place that resulted in the elimination of the middle class, supported "Neutron Jack" at GE as he began the onslaught on American trained talent, supported the elimination and destruction of Unions....the list is vile and goes on and one.
But, now? "woke" means what to conservative writers? Well, I read this column today and still don't know what "woke" means for those guilty of handing America over to the crooks in the first place.
"Conservatives". Now they are "woke" up. Wow. Too little, too late.
2
Cool is kind, which makes it morally sound, and kind of cool.
1
You left out the KING OF COOL: Steve McQueen.
Audrey Hepburn was, is, will always be...my idol and a woman to emulate.... (sigh...)
1
This article reminds me of the mid 1950's when the publication of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" illuminated a generation of writers who were inspired by a jazz ethos. When asked, Kerouac referred to them as "the beats" a a combination of people filled with a beatitude but who were also "beaten down". People like this writer looked upon "the beats" externally, distorted their message into a cartoonish vision of chin beards and bongos most exemplified by Maynard Krebs on "The Dobie Gillis Show". Beatniks.
Et tu, Brooks?
Et tu, Brooks?
1
I'm surprised that you didn't mention President Obama (remember 'no drama Obama'?) and First Lady Michelle Obama as contemporary exemplars of 'cool'. They never cracked under years of ridicule and undermining. Michelle's comment, "When they go low, you go high" is a great example of both the cool and woke ethos. In fact, both Barack Obama and Michelle Obama embody a unique combination of the cool and woke characteristics.
3
Not all "cool" persons exhibit every characteristic or embrace each attitude described by Mr. Brooks. But at the heart of this persona or outlook lies a commitment to self-control, a determination to remain a master of one's emotions rather than their servant. The motive might arise from a resolution to preserve autonomy in response to a threatening environment or it might reflect a conviction that emotional outbursts undermine personal dignity.
In either case, the cool person can strike others as remote, even incapable of love. This was the impression the Dr. Spock character on Star Trek made on many people. But coolness does not stem from a lack of emotion, just from a refusal to allow them to dictate one's behavior. In this respect, President Obama, "no drama Obama," qualifies as the epitome of coolness.
A number of observers remarked on his detachment, on a lack of neediness remarkable in a politician. This sense of self sufficiency apparently made it difficult for him to engage in the kind of fake camaraderie with other politicians that facilitates dealmaking.
But Mr. Obama's deep capacity for affection revealed itself in his relations with his family, in his spontaneous reactions to children, and in the deep anger and sadness he displayed in the face of national tragedies. This emotional core distinguishes him sharply from Donald Trump, whose "uncoolness" exhibits itself both in the absence of emotional control and in his stunted potential for affection.
In either case, the cool person can strike others as remote, even incapable of love. This was the impression the Dr. Spock character on Star Trek made on many people. But coolness does not stem from a lack of emotion, just from a refusal to allow them to dictate one's behavior. In this respect, President Obama, "no drama Obama," qualifies as the epitome of coolness.
A number of observers remarked on his detachment, on a lack of neediness remarkable in a politician. This sense of self sufficiency apparently made it difficult for him to engage in the kind of fake camaraderie with other politicians that facilitates dealmaking.
But Mr. Obama's deep capacity for affection revealed itself in his relations with his family, in his spontaneous reactions to children, and in the deep anger and sadness he displayed in the face of national tragedies. This emotional core distinguishes him sharply from Donald Trump, whose "uncoolness" exhibits itself both in the absence of emotional control and in his stunted potential for affection.
360
Well, where to start? Obama was cool acting, but his legacy is Trump.
I think everyone can agree that a big part of being a successful President is being a great politician. Yes, back slapping, and socially friendly with the skin of a rhinoceros. Obama, clearly, made many Americans feel left out, and we all know now who filled that vacuum.
He was hamstrung by his race. Never the slightest display of anger. How can you be President and not get angry?
And, where was Obama touring the country hammering the intransigence of Congress or arguing for single payer, or breaking up the banks? Donald Trump gets his disingenuous, completely fictional message out practically on a weekly bases. Obama, for reasons only he knows, kept the bold face truth hidden, so the Republicans could push their own narrative. "Obamacare", "death-panels", "death tax."
I voted for him twice, and was glad he was elected, but today, living with, you know who, I realize how flawed he was.
I think everyone can agree that a big part of being a successful President is being a great politician. Yes, back slapping, and socially friendly with the skin of a rhinoceros. Obama, clearly, made many Americans feel left out, and we all know now who filled that vacuum.
He was hamstrung by his race. Never the slightest display of anger. How can you be President and not get angry?
And, where was Obama touring the country hammering the intransigence of Congress or arguing for single payer, or breaking up the banks? Donald Trump gets his disingenuous, completely fictional message out practically on a weekly bases. Obama, for reasons only he knows, kept the bold face truth hidden, so the Republicans could push their own narrative. "Obamacare", "death-panels", "death tax."
I voted for him twice, and was glad he was elected, but today, living with, you know who, I realize how flawed he was.
1
As a kid growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, I did not want to be Albert Camus, Jimi Hendrix, or and of the other luminaries that Brooks randomly picks. I did not want to be cool. I had a "cool dad" who spent his high school years running around NJ living what Springsteen sings about (my mom was a senior at Freehold Boro when Bruce was a freshman). My cool dad got a few bad grades while being cool at Rutgers and found himself holding a draft card. He put his '55 Chevy hot rod that he dragged raced at Old Bridge in storage, went to Vietnam, produced me along the way and took us all over Europe as he "reupped" (which in his time was the only uncool thing he ever did). After the service, he landed a dream job working for a cool company. Bought a cool house and proceeded to continue to be cool by living vicariously through his kids who went on to be successful at all emotional and psychological costs in order to keep up the appearance of cool. I proffer that my experience was not a solitary one.
Cool is not morally ambiguous. It is not detachment in any spiritual sense of the word. It is an affectation conjured by the American culture as a justification and a masking of an incredible ability to be violent and superficial. A grand example of this real American cool is "Natural Born Killers."
You can be a victim of this sort of cool. Ask any child of any baby boomer who has to deal with cool mom and dad.
Cool is not morally ambiguous. It is not detachment in any spiritual sense of the word. It is an affectation conjured by the American culture as a justification and a masking of an incredible ability to be violent and superficial. A grand example of this real American cool is "Natural Born Killers."
You can be a victim of this sort of cool. Ask any child of any baby boomer who has to deal with cool mom and dad.
127
You paint an interesting sociological picture, but an identity that can be put in quotes is practically by definition not cool, so this doesn't really get at what cool is, except maybe by giving another example of what isn't.
My own experience is that this affectational version of "cool" can be a cover for deep feelings of inadequacy. It can also be a way of joining a community (as the punk community in Boston, 1980's).
It is hard to imagine how a person could continue this through the years of fatherhood and adult responsibilities, which tend to be exhausting and unmasking---particularly since the supporting alternative communities tend to disappear as fashions change. Perhaps your father's cool company was the support?
Sorry for your troubled relationship!
It is hard to imagine how a person could continue this through the years of fatherhood and adult responsibilities, which tend to be exhausting and unmasking---particularly since the supporting alternative communities tend to disappear as fashions change. Perhaps your father's cool company was the support?
Sorry for your troubled relationship!
1
Cool seems to have morphed more than once since the Miles Davis days. The truly cool person then may have found an authentic way of living, not caring about what others thought. Too soon, though, cool people became those who simply took their coolness for granted, not confident because of some inner philosophical strength, but because they had whatever the market deemed was cool.
Now, among the late-twenties and earlyl-thirties people I know, being cool, contradictory as it sounds, has become the antithesis of cool. They call themselves awkward nerds or geeks with a certain amount of pride.
The problem with words like cool and woke is that when they are adopted as poses, which they often are, their meanings are changed and diluted. Coolness as a pose can become simply consumerism. Wokeness as a pose, just anger.
What we should be after is neither coolness nor wokeness, but informed authenticity. The way to foment that authenticity is to provide education and enough security to allow people the luxury of time to think and discuss not just get and spend. Institutions that provide for those things are institutions people, both woke and cool, will buy into.
Now, among the late-twenties and earlyl-thirties people I know, being cool, contradictory as it sounds, has become the antithesis of cool. They call themselves awkward nerds or geeks with a certain amount of pride.
The problem with words like cool and woke is that when they are adopted as poses, which they often are, their meanings are changed and diluted. Coolness as a pose can become simply consumerism. Wokeness as a pose, just anger.
What we should be after is neither coolness nor wokeness, but informed authenticity. The way to foment that authenticity is to provide education and enough security to allow people the luxury of time to think and discuss not just get and spend. Institutions that provide for those things are institutions people, both woke and cool, will buy into.
2
Mr. Brooks, I was always black but I was *never* cool. It's not a disguise that you can put on or a role you consciously play; you are or you are not. Simple as that. I always admired people like Ms. Hepburn: "keep calm and carry on."
Being black in America in the 1950's (or at any other time) was never easy; to be cool while being surrounded by the powerful forces of rejection, racism and separatism; from the oppressive hypocrisy of the moral rot of mainstream America (Republicanism, Father Knows Best, Our Miss Brooks, Brown vs. Topeka's fierce urgency of "all deliberate speed"), there was no time to study up, as it were, on how to "be cool." Just surviving was what would be referred to in the late 60's as "a real trip."
I'll be 73 early next month and I'm not hip to "woke." As we would say, back in the day, I'm "lame" or "square," or other sub-divisions of the term that exposes the awkwardness of social wallflowers. Like me. I couldn't dance and I was black. Chew on that anti-stereotype.
But we come, Mr. Brooks, to President Barack Obama. We, on the other side of the conservative (read: right-wing, racist, insular, tribal, exclusionary, reactionary, "evangelical," Congressional) divide revered him for being cool. He was Mr. Cool, just like Sidney Poitier was "they call me Mr. Tibbs!" in his classic pushback to Rod Steiger in deep Mississippi. Our cool and detached Mr. President got things done.
Now, can you think of anyone today in Washington who is "cool?" Is No. 45?
Being black in America in the 1950's (or at any other time) was never easy; to be cool while being surrounded by the powerful forces of rejection, racism and separatism; from the oppressive hypocrisy of the moral rot of mainstream America (Republicanism, Father Knows Best, Our Miss Brooks, Brown vs. Topeka's fierce urgency of "all deliberate speed"), there was no time to study up, as it were, on how to "be cool." Just surviving was what would be referred to in the late 60's as "a real trip."
I'll be 73 early next month and I'm not hip to "woke." As we would say, back in the day, I'm "lame" or "square," or other sub-divisions of the term that exposes the awkwardness of social wallflowers. Like me. I couldn't dance and I was black. Chew on that anti-stereotype.
But we come, Mr. Brooks, to President Barack Obama. We, on the other side of the conservative (read: right-wing, racist, insular, tribal, exclusionary, reactionary, "evangelical," Congressional) divide revered him for being cool. He was Mr. Cool, just like Sidney Poitier was "they call me Mr. Tibbs!" in his classic pushback to Rod Steiger in deep Mississippi. Our cool and detached Mr. President got things done.
Now, can you think of anyone today in Washington who is "cool?" Is No. 45?
582
Obama was so cool that his critics lost their minds and chose Trump the icon of UN-cool. W.was so uncool that it made Obama the clear choice of rational people. McConnell and Ryan are uncool very uncool. Ayn rand is uniquely uncool and her fans have pushed Sanders. Into the spotlight.
1
soxared: Beautifully expressed. In answer to your question, Bernie Sanders fits the definition of Davids "woke" to a tee. B.T.W. Thanks for your many terrific comments.
4
Trump is to cool, what KFC is to gourmet food. Everything about him is so not cool. Hes a square for sure...
1
Sorry, David but cool was not to be "morally ambiguous". It was to be "obviously moral" but in recognition that the morality was yours, the individual's and trying to project that out into the group while fully realizing that any positive effect could only be manifested by personal example. People that become true leaders have learned how to truly be "cool".
So, "Be cool, man".
So, "Be cool, man".
1
President Obama is cool. Ultimate cool.
Bernie Sanders is woke and cool.
John McCain was cool until he fell off the rails and picked Palin as his running mate.
Al Franken has great potential to be cool and woke.
It seems to be, are you a real person, or a manufactured entity.
Bernie Sanders is woke and cool.
John McCain was cool until he fell off the rails and picked Palin as his running mate.
Al Franken has great potential to be cool and woke.
It seems to be, are you a real person, or a manufactured entity.
15
Talk to millennials, if you care the slightest bit (NYT columnists do not care the tiniest bit), they will tell you how cool Bernie is, with tears in their eyes. Bernie spoke directly to their hearts and souls and they felt him in their veins. The political pundits and talking heads dismissed it as a cult, as the young only hankered after free college empty promises. Hah. How Little do these arrogant elitists know. I met a college professor in Brooklyn over the weekend and he too felt the Bern, intensely. But don't go asking Paul Krugman in the UWS, he is still drowning incrementally as the sea levels rise..
3
A discussion of cool in the 20th century and no mention of Steve McQueen? Bad oversight.
2
Cool is mostly an image. Sure, that image may be built on values and deeds. I believe it is cooler to focus on those than be distracted by image. Not easy.
12
A wonderful essay, David. But do consider the Merriam Webster def. of 'culture' first before denuding the word of meaning: "the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties especially by education." Culture is more than a response of a particular society to its times. The traditional meaning wasn't so relative; it implied depth, purpose and commitment, i.e., to be a 'cultured' person was admirable, an asset to society. Otherwise, a very cool essay.
7
Cool to me growing up were scientists, people like Albert Schweitzer, the local vet who took care of our farm animals and people I knew who cared for others at some sacrifice to themselves. My career as a scientist, married to a career scientist, and our lifelong commitment to non profit service fulfilled both our dreams. We didn't care whether it was cool.
18
The concept of cool, I'd argue, goes back to the Renaissance and is embodied in the concept of sprezattura, first defined by Castiglione in The Book of the Courtier: "a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it". The idea is not to do anything with evident effort since one is so superior in one's abilities and being that nothing one does is really a challenge. Cool was initially something for members of the nobility. (See the difference between the attitude of the nobleman and Jewish fellow in regard to running in Chariots of Fire.) Modern versions of cool--Brando in The Wild One--are middle and lower class versions of something only the nobility once had.
6
I have another name for cool: James Baldwin. Cool in every way.
19
Cool to me is someone who cares and is not afraid to show it. Cool is also the willingness to act to right a wrong
It is sadly lacking in our elected government officials and those appointed by Trump. I am sure that once these people find out that they can be cool by "doing the right thing" they will act accordingly, like fair wages, health care for all and voting rights for all. Now that would be really cool!
It is sadly lacking in our elected government officials and those appointed by Trump. I am sure that once these people find out that they can be cool by "doing the right thing" they will act accordingly, like fair wages, health care for all and voting rights for all. Now that would be really cool!
14
President Obama and Michelle Obama are the coolest.
381
Mrs. Obama has passions; her husband is too self-involved to be involved. His "cerebral" approach to his role as POTUS masked his basic lack of involvement in the affairs of the world and the welfare of his electorate.
The essence of the 'cool esthetic' was to be undefinable by society's conventional standards. Cool might mean one thing in one context, and something completely different in another.
Cool isn't simply in opposition to convention. It's the belief that one can not only function outside of the box, but that we should smash the box and out of its pieces create a mosaic or a cross or just a pile of splinters.
Cool always asserted that if you needed labels and definitions for understanding, you would never really understand. So nice try David, but the piece is still very uncool.
Cool isn't simply in opposition to convention. It's the belief that one can not only function outside of the box, but that we should smash the box and out of its pieces create a mosaic or a cross or just a pile of splinters.
Cool always asserted that if you needed labels and definitions for understanding, you would never really understand. So nice try David, but the piece is still very uncool.
13
Cool is indifferent to the fate of the box.
Ditto.
Funny you should mention cool and woke and Brooklyn. Having spend much of the weekend in Prospect Park we saw it alive. Amidst the trees and picnic spaces, people are alive and progressives hipsters of all generations had gathered to spend Summer weekends. Birds singing, pigeons feasting, children and adults of all ethnicities (you could hear a different language at each step) barbecuing, playing baseball and soccer and grandparents cooing over their brand new grandchildren...the scenes reminded us of rejuvenation. At the gates activists distributed literature of their favorite passion and cause, at the moment. No matter what the political mood and discourse in the country is, in a city that never sleeps, people are Cool, Woke and tremendously aware.
Back in April 2016, at this same park in Brooklyn, Bernie's rally drew a crowd of more than 28,000 folks of all ages shapes sizes colors ethnicities. Young children witnessed first hand something so beautiful so powerful, it was truly historic!!
Back in April 2016, at this same park in Brooklyn, Bernie's rally drew a crowd of more than 28,000 folks of all ages shapes sizes colors ethnicities. Young children witnessed first hand something so beautiful so powerful, it was truly historic!!
35
Bernie Bros are the epitome of uncool, and so was Bernie. Had the bros gone out and voted for the good not the perfect candidate, had bernie given his wholehearted support to HRC sooner-- we would be living in a very different moment.
An excellent article.
Two quick points: on the rejection of the -isms of Communism and Fascism; a major rejection in the Western Civilization was Materialism, fostering a range of responses from the hippies to striving toward community values and sharing.
Two: On the matter of who is now cool, we perhaps still have that in certain extraordinary athletes. Michael Jordan was cool; Cristiano Ronaldo is cool; Ma Long is cool; Steph Curry is cool, Jordan Spieth is cool. They have the required aura and the exceptionalism and just a touch of the mysterious.
Two quick points: on the rejection of the -isms of Communism and Fascism; a major rejection in the Western Civilization was Materialism, fostering a range of responses from the hippies to striving toward community values and sharing.
Two: On the matter of who is now cool, we perhaps still have that in certain extraordinary athletes. Michael Jordan was cool; Cristiano Ronaldo is cool; Ma Long is cool; Steph Curry is cool, Jordan Spieth is cool. They have the required aura and the exceptionalism and just a touch of the mysterious.
1
If you're using jazz to define cool, you're missing an essential element of cool -- engagement in a skill that takes constant effort (it's called practice) to master so that you can improvise with others in the moment, making a music that's greater than the sum of its parts.
Woke, on the other hand, is the the audience awareness of what's happening on the stage, even if they're unaware of the effort put into mastering the many skills required to improvise jazz, they understand something is going down.
I lament there's no mention of the effort put into the detachment required to be cool, and little appreciation of the awareness required to be woke.
For jazz is at it's best live, where there's a feedback loop between the cool musicians on the stage and the woke audience they play for.
Woke, on the other hand, is the the audience awareness of what's happening on the stage, even if they're unaware of the effort put into mastering the many skills required to improvise jazz, they understand something is going down.
I lament there's no mention of the effort put into the detachment required to be cool, and little appreciation of the awareness required to be woke.
For jazz is at it's best live, where there's a feedback loop between the cool musicians on the stage and the woke audience they play for.
41
"Cool" is President Obama and President Carter! Astute and unflappable.
200
David, I think there are better things to ruminate about in these truly awful times.
Whether you're "cool" or "woke" in promulgating your resistance, really doesn't matter. The point is, what can you achieve?
I'd venture to say, a heck of a lot! Remember the biggest march of all was the one on January 21 when a female cohort of Trump resisters demonstrated the scope and breadth of their convictions.
Since January 21, the "woke" females have been joined by many others in protesting the moves of this administration.
So, whatever you want to call it, rebellion is becoming the new normal. It remains to be seen how that anger and energy can be channeled into results for the American people, whose voice has certainly been minimized by a president who only sees room for one--his own.
Whether you're "cool" or "woke" in promulgating your resistance, really doesn't matter. The point is, what can you achieve?
I'd venture to say, a heck of a lot! Remember the biggest march of all was the one on January 21 when a female cohort of Trump resisters demonstrated the scope and breadth of their convictions.
Since January 21, the "woke" females have been joined by many others in protesting the moves of this administration.
So, whatever you want to call it, rebellion is becoming the new normal. It remains to be seen how that anger and energy can be channeled into results for the American people, whose voice has certainly been minimized by a president who only sees room for one--his own.
157
I don't know, I think taking a step back to ruminate about what makes us human and what cultural trends are affecting us can be very useful in determining what action to take going forward.
Brooks is not just a political commentator; he's also a cultural commentator. We need writers like him who make us pause, who ask as to think about issues that go beyond the news. I appreciate taking those pauses and think we all need to take them more often.
Brooks is not just a political commentator; he's also a cultural commentator. We need writers like him who make us pause, who ask as to think about issues that go beyond the news. I appreciate taking those pauses and think we all need to take them more often.
3
Mr Brooks- you always have the most incredible take on the underlying zeitgeist of the times. So expansive and intuitive. You always make me think. Thank you.
16
laura m, you are right about David, in spite of the fact that he is a Republican. How uncool is that?
1
There is “cool”, there is “woke”, and then there is the realistic appraisal of the way the world works (or doesn’t), informed by experience, but more so by paying attention and developing one’s own views, rather than absorbing received truths and adopting the behaviors of one’s tribe. Call it “savvy”, a rare quality.
51
It's great to hear the names of two of my heroes, Miles Davis and Billie Holiday, evoked in a 21st century opinion article by a conservative columnist no less. I've spent my life as a jazz recording engineer chasing after the feeling those two great musicians gave me while growing up and have succeeded in meeting some of the hippest, smartest people in the world while helping them document their music. Miles and Billie were incredibly abused at times by the society they lived in and being cool was a coping mechanism to stay focused in the face of great negativity. Where Mr. Brooks gets it wrong is to interpret this attitude as being detached and uninvolved and nothing could be further from the truth. Being cool is to be connected to what's going on around you and caring about your fellow man at all times. There's a reason David why I've met very few jazz musicians who are Republicans. They are, as we say in the music world, not happening.
95
You know who was 'cool' - and I say this as a devout atheist - Jesus Christ, who shared a lot of cool thoughts including the Golden Rule, “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.”
That incredibly fine Jewish boy traipsed around Galilee without a shekl to his name while spreading nothing but human decency, compassion and honesty.
Imagine if Jesus Christ visited the USA today and took a look at the pharisees, hypocrites and Prosperity Gospellers that stole his name and hijacked his message into modern-day Republistan, where Fake Christians arouse the bible-thumping and spiteful masses to gild the rich under the 'God-Guns-Gays' Three-Card Monte deception umbrella ?
Imagine if Jesus Christ visited present-day Republistan and their Lecherous Loudmouth Lothario cheerleading the Grand Old Phony Congress into slaughtering the American healthcare system in exchange for a few gold bars.
Jesus would not be keeping his cool for the Grand Old Perversion of Donald Trump and Republican intellectual, moral, economic and religious hypocrisy that sells his name in political fraud.
We saw cool a year ago in another nice Jewish boy, Bernie Sanders, who was cool because he pointed out that America's oligarchy and fraudulent economics require a humane transformation.
Instead, America has an uncool Con-Artist working with an uncool Congress to rip off the very uncool 'Christians' that defy every tenet of Christianity.
Ripping off Jesus for personal profit: GOP 2017
So uncool.
That incredibly fine Jewish boy traipsed around Galilee without a shekl to his name while spreading nothing but human decency, compassion and honesty.
Imagine if Jesus Christ visited the USA today and took a look at the pharisees, hypocrites and Prosperity Gospellers that stole his name and hijacked his message into modern-day Republistan, where Fake Christians arouse the bible-thumping and spiteful masses to gild the rich under the 'God-Guns-Gays' Three-Card Monte deception umbrella ?
Imagine if Jesus Christ visited present-day Republistan and their Lecherous Loudmouth Lothario cheerleading the Grand Old Phony Congress into slaughtering the American healthcare system in exchange for a few gold bars.
Jesus would not be keeping his cool for the Grand Old Perversion of Donald Trump and Republican intellectual, moral, economic and religious hypocrisy that sells his name in political fraud.
We saw cool a year ago in another nice Jewish boy, Bernie Sanders, who was cool because he pointed out that America's oligarchy and fraudulent economics require a humane transformation.
Instead, America has an uncool Con-Artist working with an uncool Congress to rip off the very uncool 'Christians' that defy every tenet of Christianity.
Ripping off Jesus for personal profit: GOP 2017
So uncool.
678
Geld the Oligarchy !
17
To Socrates - very moving. Thank you for your contributions to the conversation. I'm with you.
7
I have enjoyed reading Socrates' comments for some time now--not always agreeing, but always enjoying.
To this one I am compelled to reply: BRILLIANT!
To this one I am compelled to reply: BRILLIANT!
11
In the context of this column, Barack Obama is perhaps the coolest cat around. Not perfect, but entirely cool. And woke too. As is his beautiful wife. I miss them, god knows how much. So does this country, and the planet. Soon we'll all realize just how much.
809
We have realized how much since Nov. 10th
2
I would not describe Barack Obama as "woke." He did little to nothing during his time as president to challenge the entrenched power structures that "wokeness" is specifically antagonistic towards. He always chose a middle of the road path that, for better or for worse, is the opposite of what it means to be "woke" right now.
Hmmm; Brooks's definition of the new cool - woke - seems to match the definition of the term 'patriotic' as Progressives are using it. Wonder what that means ?
16
Anything that you have to look at a phone or a screen to see is not cool. No exceptions. That's why cool has mostly disappeared.
101
Certainly cool is individualist. It's Zen Buddism compared to the Catholicism of politics and consumerism.
29
Gobbledygook
273
Phyliss,
I think you are probably right, and I think your good note points to another truth. I think our senses are more than we usually think they are. Smell, in particular, seems to include chemicals of mood and verity as well as just "smell." Might there also be chemical or hormonal signals for ability, inclination, societal attitude and more?
I think you are probably right, and I think your good note points to another truth. I think our senses are more than we usually think they are. Smell, in particular, seems to include chemicals of mood and verity as well as just "smell." Might there also be chemical or hormonal signals for ability, inclination, societal attitude and more?
@Ann-Marie Hislop
Actually kinda icky, like a David-Brooks wannabe explaining the birds and the bees to his 26 year old who will never, ever again mention the word "girlfriend."
Or, if Marshall McLuhan did stand up comedy, this is how The Medium is the Message would come out.
Brooks needs a vacation spent with earphones and Ipad and no absolutely no books.
Actually kinda icky, like a David-Brooks wannabe explaining the birds and the bees to his 26 year old who will never, ever again mention the word "girlfriend."
Or, if Marshall McLuhan did stand up comedy, this is how The Medium is the Message would come out.
Brooks needs a vacation spent with earphones and Ipad and no absolutely no books.
2
Anne-Marie,
Quite right. Poor Brooks has been totally unmoored for the last few weeks. Here, as usual, he dreams up a cloud and declares he's found land at last.
Quite right. Poor Brooks has been totally unmoored for the last few weeks. Here, as usual, he dreams up a cloud and declares he's found land at last.
3
In Ivolutionary terms (Ivolution being the evolution of human self-consciousness) cool is understood as being an Iwarrior (experienced or ‘old soul’) on the return path as opposed to being an Ewarrior on the outward path. The “cool” of an Iwarrior is based on experience gained in many lives.
James Dean was cool not primarily because of his good looks, but because he was an “experienced” soul. His favorite book, the 1939 classic Pain, Sex, and Time by Gerald Heard is a difficult read and only meaningful for an experienced soul.
“He jests at scars that never felt a wound” Shakespeare.
“Are you experienced?” Jimi Hendrix.
Cool is a natural by-product of experience - and experience alone.
James Dean was cool not primarily because of his good looks, but because he was an “experienced” soul. His favorite book, the 1939 classic Pain, Sex, and Time by Gerald Heard is a difficult read and only meaningful for an experienced soul.
“He jests at scars that never felt a wound” Shakespeare.
“Are you experienced?” Jimi Hendrix.
Cool is a natural by-product of experience - and experience alone.
28
Gunter, with all due respect, I think you are mistaken about the Shakespeare quote. Romeo is really saying, and I paraphrase, He who never felt a wound (by experiencing love) jests as my scars (of falling in love). Romeo is lamenting that his friend Mercutio is not cool by not understanding his (Romeo's) pain.
This is definitely not cool of me to explain the quote, but I am defending the coolest playwright that ever lived.
This is definitely not cool of me to explain the quote, but I am defending the coolest playwright that ever lived.
You mean he lacks experience.
2
Yes, cool is detached and does have African-American roots. But I think it's also worth remembering that it replaced the "swell" ethos that preceded it. In the 1920s, swell had the aura of youthful rebelliousness that cool came to have in the 1960s.
http://cultureworld21c.blogspot.com/2010/12/cool-roots.html
http://cultureworld21c.blogspot.com/2010/12/cool-roots.html
18
So's your old man!
1
"woke is angry, passionate and indignant." Anger, passion and indignation are poor foundations for clear thinking and analysis. BLM and Trumpism, among other social movements, are plagued with far too much self-indulgent emotional excess. If you read just a little history, you would appreciate that modern Western civilization works pretty well, and we should aim to improve our existing institutions while preserving the immense benefits they provide.
103
Cool isn't really quite alive any longer in its original sense. its still acknowledged but there's no longer much there there. I go to coffee houses where the Vibe is a version of the old 'Cool' and is an atmosphere appreciated inside by those who would enter and partake.
Outside the Wokes are a more active phenomenon. Young people with few prospects, the males often wearing shapeless, no-form beards, clothes deliberately unstylish. The girls that gather at low priced taverns as fierce as the men. College is no longer a widely accepted goal, trying to get along whatever the circumstances is the attainable goal. They're angry but they keep it in check. The philosophy is to stand up to it whatever it is.
How do Trump and the politicos do with either of these groups? It can and does go either way as does all politics today. The parents of these groups talk about politics incessantly. Today's Cool and the Wokes, not so much. They don't see much relief in that direction.
Outside the Wokes are a more active phenomenon. Young people with few prospects, the males often wearing shapeless, no-form beards, clothes deliberately unstylish. The girls that gather at low priced taverns as fierce as the men. College is no longer a widely accepted goal, trying to get along whatever the circumstances is the attainable goal. They're angry but they keep it in check. The philosophy is to stand up to it whatever it is.
How do Trump and the politicos do with either of these groups? It can and does go either way as does all politics today. The parents of these groups talk about politics incessantly. Today's Cool and the Wokes, not so much. They don't see much relief in that direction.
11
Cool:
My mother would ask from time to time "Does it do him any good?"
I must ask about Trump and comp, the politically powerful and wealthy, does it do them any good?
Woke is yet to wake. Next economic downturn will force reality to raise its voice. It might be louder and more terrible than we ever could have imagined.
My mother would ask from time to time "Does it do him any good?"
I must ask about Trump and comp, the politically powerful and wealthy, does it do them any good?
Woke is yet to wake. Next economic downturn will force reality to raise its voice. It might be louder and more terrible than we ever could have imagined.
14
Decline of "Cool" in American life--loss of figures such as Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Marlon Brando, and the French influence such as Camus and Sartre?
The primary reason is probably rapid technological advance and standardization of life. We like to say life is better than ever before, that children are getting a better education, each person is getting better opportunity, but the fact is individuality, the foundation of cool, the original person, is declining. So much of what we call cool depended on a person being able to grow, to develop a view on own, to be raised in this or that section of the nation or in another culture. In modern times technology cuts into every aspect of life, standardizing people, and should a person miraculously become original, well technology exists to locate that person more easily and any number of collective powers can give the thumbs up or down as to whether that person should be allowed to enter the public sphere.
Technology, computer, education, has not increased the number of original individuals, has not given us a public sphere of increased intensities in literature, music, art, film, science but rather a public sphere of collective movements, specifically of course right and left wing politics, a war to standardize U.S. life as it was never standardized before. The people of the U.S. were never really standardized in the past, but now the war exists between left and right to stamp us all as made in the U.S.A. for better or worse.
The primary reason is probably rapid technological advance and standardization of life. We like to say life is better than ever before, that children are getting a better education, each person is getting better opportunity, but the fact is individuality, the foundation of cool, the original person, is declining. So much of what we call cool depended on a person being able to grow, to develop a view on own, to be raised in this or that section of the nation or in another culture. In modern times technology cuts into every aspect of life, standardizing people, and should a person miraculously become original, well technology exists to locate that person more easily and any number of collective powers can give the thumbs up or down as to whether that person should be allowed to enter the public sphere.
Technology, computer, education, has not increased the number of original individuals, has not given us a public sphere of increased intensities in literature, music, art, film, science but rather a public sphere of collective movements, specifically of course right and left wing politics, a war to standardize U.S. life as it was never standardized before. The people of the U.S. were never really standardized in the past, but now the war exists between left and right to stamp us all as made in the U.S.A. for better or worse.
44
By David's definition, I guess I be "woke". While not now and never a "conservative normal", I certainly have developed great contempt for establishments on BOTH sides, which have become so frozen in their polar visions of ideological purity that for the life of them they can't actually DO anything, which requires impure compromise.
But I've probably always been too engaged and cared too much to be "cool".
Ah, well ... James Dean had his way of attracting the ladies. But it was never the ONLY way.
But I've probably always been too engaged and cared too much to be "cool".
Ah, well ... James Dean had his way of attracting the ladies. But it was never the ONLY way.
16
James Dean was gay. Cogito ergo ...James Dean had his way of attracting the boys...
5
David gives it away when he classifies Lester Young as cool--a saxophonist in the hottest swing band in America! Old films focus (Ken Burn's "Jazz") on young whites moving their feet to Count Basie's band in the slickest jive America's seen before or since! David's misappropriation reminds me of a story told to me by the legendary tap dancer Sandman Sims. He danced on a few grains of sand in a box, the sand moving as his feet made mood postures from romantic to jive on sand. Sandman was a keen observer of America's cultural ambitions, the transactions that shared our common culture and expiated our progress and attitudes. Sand (The son of an LA barber, he said when he hit New York the paperboys had steps! He was the hook man on Live at the Apollo.) narrated how Gene Kelly, the extraordinary dancer (known for his movie work, esp. in "Singing in the Rain") once filmed a tap scene--but the sound was someone else's feet; a different, hipper rhythm, moving in contrast to Kelly's feet!
David's overlay of cool and "woke" is the same misappropriation of ideas. Different eras call for different poses/postures; each milieu has its own mien. But David brings his usual confusion: Cool was never detached; always engaged, it was distilled. "Woke" is awareness--broad awareness. Some of us be woke (the subjunctive, conditional tense!). Cool is form. Woke is content. They both share creative invention, and elements of resistance.
David's overlay of cool and "woke" is the same misappropriation of ideas. Different eras call for different poses/postures; each milieu has its own mien. But David brings his usual confusion: Cool was never detached; always engaged, it was distilled. "Woke" is awareness--broad awareness. Some of us be woke (the subjunctive, conditional tense!). Cool is form. Woke is content. They both share creative invention, and elements of resistance.
218
David widely misses the mark when he suggested cool was a posture of hopelessness, of "who didn’t see any way to change their political situation." There was never a time and never a case where African-Americans thought this to be true! (Even today preachers tell us "it ain't necessarily so!")
To the point, recall the movie character Stepin Fechit. ihe work of Stepin Fetchit is radical cool, a revolutionary cautionary tale. Deliberately calculated, it made fun of the fears of lynching and brutality and mocked the physical forces that regulated black life for a privileged citizenry.
His exaggerated lazy (he was known as the laziest man in the world!) merged/mocked the persona of the gentlemen of ease and wealth–and with the resistance of those exploited and robbed of their labor’s value--those who faced a world of harsh, brutal, incidental hostility and waste.
Step's grotesque comedic rendering gave a new, unspoken meaning to these dangers. He was laughed at, and put down. But he never sold out. His speech and his gait pointed to the price of his hurt. His agony was visible behind every laugh.
He made the mask transparent to those who knew its code. Some of us see America with his eyes. We are looking at you.
To the point, recall the movie character Stepin Fechit. ihe work of Stepin Fetchit is radical cool, a revolutionary cautionary tale. Deliberately calculated, it made fun of the fears of lynching and brutality and mocked the physical forces that regulated black life for a privileged citizenry.
His exaggerated lazy (he was known as the laziest man in the world!) merged/mocked the persona of the gentlemen of ease and wealth–and with the resistance of those exploited and robbed of their labor’s value--those who faced a world of harsh, brutal, incidental hostility and waste.
Step's grotesque comedic rendering gave a new, unspoken meaning to these dangers. He was laughed at, and put down. But he never sold out. His speech and his gait pointed to the price of his hurt. His agony was visible behind every laugh.
He made the mask transparent to those who knew its code. Some of us see America with his eyes. We are looking at you.
69
Thank you for that clarification. In my life, I never have dreamed anyone would think of cool as detached. The "coolest" people I've ever met were not just engaged, they were on fire, but it was a "cool" (not controlled) fire; spontaneous, organic, natural, you just marveled at how effortlessly "cool" they were (or they be).
thank you.
thank you.
11
walterhett,
The idea of coolness cuts across many cultures and of course Lester Prez Young was very cool and the African idea of cool stretches back at least 600 years cool has always been with us. Arguably Socrates was so hot he was cool and Ferlinghetti's Sometime during Eternity extols the virtue of coolness in a Semitic reality.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42860/sometime-during-eternity-
The idea of coolness cuts across many cultures and of course Lester Prez Young was very cool and the African idea of cool stretches back at least 600 years cool has always been with us. Arguably Socrates was so hot he was cool and Ferlinghetti's Sometime during Eternity extols the virtue of coolness in a Semitic reality.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42860/sometime-during-eternity-
1
"It was a way to assert the value of the individual in response to failed collectivisms — to communism and fascism, to organized religion."
America at the time thought it was displaying individualism, not collectivism. The archetype was the "cowboy" meaning gunslinger. Shane. Also the individualism of John Wayne in any movie, since he always played himself. Also the lone sheriff Gary Cooper in High Noon.
Cools was not even an entirely different sort of individualism. Shane was cool in the definition Brooks gives here.
Brooks does a good job explaining cool, not so good explaining America.
Even more interesting to me is the woke ethos he describes.
Our media has not really reported on "B.L.M. [as] the most complete social movement in America today, as a communal, intellectual, moral and political force." It flag gets waved, but this does not get explained nor reported in any detail.
That may be because our media also has refused to report "“normals” who are disgusted with what they see as the thorough corruption of the Republican and Democratic establishments."
That is not the picture of the two parties we see reported here, even if it is the picture of Trump himself these days. It was not the contest in the recent election as reported here. Our reporting has been oblivious to not "cognizant of the rot pervading the power structures."
Voters noticed, and gave a result that surprised those who were not reporting "woke" or why.
They did not understand America either.
America at the time thought it was displaying individualism, not collectivism. The archetype was the "cowboy" meaning gunslinger. Shane. Also the individualism of John Wayne in any movie, since he always played himself. Also the lone sheriff Gary Cooper in High Noon.
Cools was not even an entirely different sort of individualism. Shane was cool in the definition Brooks gives here.
Brooks does a good job explaining cool, not so good explaining America.
Even more interesting to me is the woke ethos he describes.
Our media has not really reported on "B.L.M. [as] the most complete social movement in America today, as a communal, intellectual, moral and political force." It flag gets waved, but this does not get explained nor reported in any detail.
That may be because our media also has refused to report "“normals” who are disgusted with what they see as the thorough corruption of the Republican and Democratic establishments."
That is not the picture of the two parties we see reported here, even if it is the picture of Trump himself these days. It was not the contest in the recent election as reported here. Our reporting has been oblivious to not "cognizant of the rot pervading the power structures."
Voters noticed, and gave a result that surprised those who were not reporting "woke" or why.
They did not understand America either.
11
Poor Mark; racism has never been and never will be "cool".
2
Neal -- Of course racism isn't "cool." I wonder what makes you think that calls for a "Poor Mark."
2
I have the distinct feeling that ''cool'' in our century to come is going to be a mix of people that save us from ourselves.
They are going to be the scientists that develop ways to harness power without destroying our planet. They are going to be the doctors that cure such afflictions that were once thought to be incurable. They are going to be the people that selflessly act to offer humanity all that they are.
Giving is going to be cool.
They are going to be the scientists that develop ways to harness power without destroying our planet. They are going to be the doctors that cure such afflictions that were once thought to be incurable. They are going to be the people that selflessly act to offer humanity all that they are.
Giving is going to be cool.
370
in other words, cool means to produce something for the benefit of humanity. To filter all the nonsense surrounding us today and focus on a goal. And, to get an education. Interesting, and I hope you are right, that education would once again be considered cool.
4
So very true! But to enable such things to be possible one must first become an individual capable of independent thought, a progressive thinker not afraid to stand alone in total obscurity so that their ideas have time to come to life and be alive for the rest of humanity--with the only single desire the selfless wish to serve humanity. I think this is only possible if one is aware of their gifts at a very early age and receives the right nurturance and support to find a voice that devotes itself to the pure service of others. We're so very far away in our current society. Pearls are enclosed tightly within their shells. If you look in Art, History, Science, Literature, you will see clearly that those who really were "cool" and left great gifts were those who only had one thought in mind: Sharing those gifts with the world. Think of Vincent Van Gogh. One of the greatest minds (read his letters!) and yet so fully repulsed from normal daily society---shunned by it because he didn't fit the "cool" but worked alone, hungry, lonely, and almost mad from his passion and his desire to share his gifts. That is true "cool" to me. And genius too! I always say with a very humble heart," Love is such an easy birth" and it IS!
A note to the Editor: Will you please give FunkyIrishman a Green check box! He is worthy of sharing his wisdom, which he does daily, and his voice should be heard by those who don't get his "cool". He along with Socrates, others, he keeps me sane!
A note to the Editor: Will you please give FunkyIrishman a Green check box! He is worthy of sharing his wisdom, which he does daily, and his voice should be heard by those who don't get his "cool". He along with Socrates, others, he keeps me sane!
3
Giving has always been cool....generosity is greatness of spirit.
2
It's the least "woke" thing I've ever read. Just because the author uses the word, doesn't mean he isn't just trying to co-opt it.
I'll hold out for Senator Iggy Pop.