The Rule of Cool

OK, there may have been a misunderstanding on my part. So, because I'm the coolest person in 'the Room' - I suppose I am the one who has to teach you a thing or two about it.

I guess ... first of all: The thing with Kids is that they kind of live in their own reality. There is no telling them, I mean, what is or isn't cool. That at least was my experience.
But that doesn't know that Kids intrinsically know the world or understand good from bad or right from wrong.

Like ... can we even assume or argue, or make a case for us adults having that kind of understanding? I mean, when putting it as "the Cat being out of the bag" - a bubble certainly has been popped. One of what kind of people I was living with the whole time. Presumably. Maybe not in the nearby - but Holy Shit! So ... arguing from an ethical or moral grounds is obviously too much to ask. So, there is an 'us' - but 'we' ... who would actually dare to believe in, have hopes for or at the very least entertain the concept of the good of humanity, ... uhm.
Well. I certainly ... have weird feelings - ... but all that's the opposite of cool.


And ... I don't know. But ... whatever.
I grew up with at first only the public broadcasting stations. So, Mickey Mouse Club it was. From friends with Cable or Satellite TV I caught glimpses of what else was out there. Saber Rider or what have you. Though I think the one and only thing that sold it to me, was the Music. The vibe it carried - and how it played into the action.
I eventually developed a fascination for Star Wars.

I didn't know ... much. My dad would record movies on VHS, label them with stuff from the TV Magazine - and from the Print Version of a Screenshot I remember a shot of Luke next to an X-Wing. From what little I remember, it was something people made a bit of a fuzz about - so, it was one of the things that I had heard someone talking or asking about - and at any rate I practically grew up with it - as by my own choice; Like, reading meta material about the world of Star Wars; And Star Wars and Star Trek have certainly also been social grounds for me. As in - IRL friendships tied together therein.

So, maybe I'm not an "OG" fan - though I'm probably close to as 'OG' as it can get.

But yea. Power Rangers, SNES games like Donkey Kong Country or Secret of Evermore - well, that was cool to me. "Supposedly" Mortal Kombat was Street Fighter "but Cool" - and that might be my first ... "incidence" with "the (mighty) Schism".


No, not good versus evil. That is like ... who cares at this point? Right? I mean, we get it! Or at least I thought we did. Or we kind of mostly just assumed - or at least within a certain hemisphere of privilege. Like loving parents or a social sphere that goes along with the ideals that are preached.
But no ... the moment where something you think is cooler ... is supposedly the less cooler thing. So that it perhaps takes over the social sphere where you would rather have something else.


But that is that. Child stuff. Or to me it would be. We grow up, we browse the catalogues for what resonates with us - we get experience with them, maybe - and if we don't it will still follow us throughout our lives. But so - as we can take inspiration from a broad range of things, we can develop our individual self to a higher degree. Like, if my entire reality consisted of like ... Polka, Bier and Lederhosn ... the range of things I could think are cool ... is like ... non existent.


And to their world, sure, I'd be a dress wearing dude. I get it. The degrees of understanding that are between that and what it takes to come to a reasonable acceptance of the reality of it are many. I would say.

It starts with how we live. If you're straight - that's fine. Peace be with you! You might need it. So, to not use any loaded language here, my relationship with straights is that I never wanted to have a piece of it. And by 'straight' I don't mean ... err, what I do mean is this ... behavior, of hetero couples. Like, I don't get it. I mean, I get the base instincts and so I do suppose that rationality ever so often takes a back seat when it comes to that.

So - if you're thinking of me as a woman that ought to be defined through your particular worldview, or your cultural framework, that might just be the first thing to note. Which I maybe should follow up with the remark, that there seems to be a certain blindness to the reality of the diverse - where it is they themselves that hyper-sexualize everything.

They call it natural or normal - and to put that vague savage instict of ours above reasoning is the closest thing to "becoming an Animal" we have in us.


Or so my point of view.
I like to chill. I like silence. I like it when people know how to occupy themselves.

Rule #1: Find Yourself

For, as Teal'C says, only so you can neutralize the effects of Goa'Uld brainwashing, or something. Uhm ...


-- zyoom --
What does it take?
I for myself would say that I learned "the Cool" from a homeless guy in LA. Quite possibly the craziest person that I've ever seen. Not crazy like in movies, but just gone but somehow still capable of doing his ... whatever he was doing during the day.
And thinking back of my time in LA, I rarely came to recall, I think, that I also went to church there. Mormon. And they also took me to a visit of the Temple there. ~If I recall correctly~. It is all ... kind of blurred sometimes.

How to put my experience into words? I don't know.
The thing though is this:


In this "game of Cool" - there is the kind of cool that comes from one's own interests; And the kind of Cool that comes from socializing. And both, I think, have derogatory terms for the other. In the grand scheme of things - well, Identities form. That much ... is evident to me. So, ... by default, in this modern day and age of saturation, or desaturation, us "modern day westerners" can be pretty much 'whatever'. We enjoyed certain privileges and now it seems like people need a sacrifical lamb to throw to the Dragon ... again.

And in this 'whatever' - there are all different kinds of ethnicities and each of them may have their own unique way of seeing the country they're living in. It's ... overall difficult to find ... some common identity. I mean, there are places where people meet around interests, so, but - so, here for me at least - it's all very 'you do you'.

These identities are somewhat shared pools of some kind of homogeneity. Well ... cultures.
Or ... more to the point: Sub-cultures.


And cool - I think, ultimately needs to bring us together. The opposite were ... uncool.


...