Classical Rhetoric Up In Smoke: Cool Persuasion, Digital Ethos, and Online Advocacy
by Mark D. Pepper | Utah Valley University
Cultural Cool:
A Brief History
"Cool" is certainly not a new concept. In fact, some scholars have argued that sensibilities resembling cool appeared in
Africa as early as 3000 B.C.E. However, what cool is and how cool operates must necessarily change as each new generation becomes
interested in the concept. If there are any threads that run through the ever-changing notion of cool, they may be
narcissism, ironic detachment, and hedonism in the name of a private rebellion that constantly accounts for its place within
the social.
What is Cool?
Trying to define cool? Well . . . that's not a very cool thing to do. This fact hasn't stopped various authors from trying. Some
of cool's greatest hits in an analytical vein include: Norman Mailer's (1957) essay "The White Negro"; Jean Baudrillard's (1990) Cool Memories;
Richard Majors and Janet Mancini Billson's (1992) Cool Pose: The Dilemmas of Black Manhood in America; and Marcel Danesi's (1994) Cool: The Signs and Meanings of Adolescence.
One of the more well-known works is Thomas Frank's (1997) The Conquest of Cool for its insightful linking of cool with
American capitalism. Although each work is helpful in its own right, Dick Pountain and David Robins (2000) noted: "it feels like they are
writing about five different 'cools'" (p. 11). In their own work, Pountain and Robins set
out to discover if there is an "underlying psychological stance or attitude" that can be found across each generation's redefining of
the general concept (p. 8-9).
"Is it a philosophy, a sensibility, a religion, an ideology, a personality type, a behavior pattern, an attitude, a zeitgeist, a
worldview? We shall not concern ourselves too deeply with this question here" (Poutain & Robins, 2000, p. 18). Pountain and Robins are perfectly capable of
addressing that question; this feels like a cool dodge that subtly evokes one of their key aspects of cool—its mutability. "Cool
is not something that inheres in artefacts themselves, but rather in people's attitude to them" (p. 18). Therefore, the what of
cool will keep changing across geographic, generational, and cultural boundaries, which makes the task of categorizing cool incredibly
tricky. Exactly what styles, music, books, movies, etc. are cool necessarily have to change over time since cool is "a permanent state
of private rebellion" (p. 19). There is obviously no rebellion in adopting behaviors or artefacts that previous generations elevated
to cool status (unless enough time has passed or if it's done ironically).
More interesting is Pountain and Robins's (2000) focus on "permanent" and "private." Although cool is obviously of interest to every generation
of teenagers, its series of negotiations never fully leave an adult's awareness since cool is "about becoming an individual while
still being accepted into a group—it's about both individuality and belonging, and the tension between the two" (p. 21).
Therefore, cool is not simple rebellion but rebelling in the right way so as to belong to one's peer group (a desire that seems
ageless). Further, cool is ultimately private since "cool is not a collective political response but a stance of individual defiance,
which does not announce itself in strident slogans but conceals its rebellion behind a mask of ironic impassivity" (p. 19). There are
contradictions here, but they only highlight the complicated nature of cool. Cool is the negotiating process of constantly heralding
one's individuality but only by comparing one's self to both similarly and dissimilarly minded people (all the while acting like none
of your actions matter that much or will have any intended effects beyond the individual ). The contradiction, of course, is that one's
sense of cool must necessarily come from other people despite cool's focus on private rebellion. This is why it's not so cool to
define cool. Cool's contradictions are socially useful ones and a deep analysis of its workings betrays the value of detached
impassivity.
Pountain and Robbins (2000) were at their most specific (and uncool) when they identified the three personality traits required for coolness:
narcissism, ironic detachment, and hedonism (p. 26). They argue that these traits remain constant throughout generations even if the
specific cool artefacts and behaviors change. Let's test this definition through a brief historical tour of cool. Obviously, a comprehensive list
is impossible and also largely subjective. Due to space, these analyses are also purposefully broad and lacking nuance that could be explored
elsewhere. I have also stopped the tour before the 2000s since much of the rest of this text will implicitly and explicitly be commenting on
the oughts.
A History of Cool
West Africa
Robert Farris Thompson (as cited in Pountain & Robins, 2000) suggested that the West African Yoruba people (and other African societies) had a concept called itutu as
early as 3000–2000 B.C.E. which bears a resemblance to cool. "Cool or itutu
contained meanings of conciliation and gentleness of character, the ability to defuse fights and disputes, of generosity and
grace" (Pountain & Robins, 2000, p. 36). Due to the harsh desert conditions of Africa, itutu also had connotations of literally staying "cool"
in harsh weather conditions. For the Yoruba to communicate with ancestral spirits they needed a disposition of ititu; in
other words, they needed to be in control of their emotions and body (most often expressed through ritualistic dance). Itutu
has a strong focus on helping others and lacks the hedonistic pleasures that mark today's cool; nonetheless, the focus on
presenting a calm and secure self in the face of adversity could be a foundation for cool. The possibility is stronger considering
Thompson's suggestion that cool arrived in the West when slaves had to adopt a subserviant and ironic outer face to their
owners that masked the hatred and rage inside (as cited in Pountain & Robins, 2000, p. 38). This pent up rage, and the need to express it in indirect manners,
would carry directly over into the new muscial forms of blues and jazz in the early twentieth century. CloseMore
Blues and Jazz
If cool originated in Africa, it's not surprising that some of cool's first North American origins come in the form of blues
music created by slaves. While some slaves (mainly the ones tasked with domestic duties) became Christian and combined African
rhythms with Christian spirituality in the form of gospel, others wrote the "devil's music" and sang an early form of blues
"appreciated by the lowest elements: the ditchdiggers, the convicts, the migrant labourers, the pimps and prostitutes" (Pountain & Robins, 2000, p. 43).
Richard Wright noted a theme of psychologically submerged guilt in the blues that seems to stem from "renounced rebellious
impulses" (as cited in Pountain & Robbins, p. 43). This guilt, Wright suggested, stems from slaves' inability to better their
circumstances and leads to a nihilistic and simultaneous fear/obsession with self-destruction (see any examples of satanic
imagery and domestic violence in blues lyrics). But this moral ambivalence is not the only aspect of the blues that would morph
into cool; the blues also contain "an almost exultant affirmation of life, of love, of sex, of movement, of hope" (p. 45) seen in
cool's most excessive and hedonistic activities. Some of this early cool affirmation (and rebellion) can be seen in the jazz music
of the 1940s which experimented with complex harmonies and melodies at least in part to frustrate white demand for "easy dance
music" (p. 47). CloseMore
The Lost Generation
"For the white populations of America and Europe the unimaginable horrors of the First World War
marked a watershed moment in the development of the Western psyche that prepared it for the coming of cool" (Pountain & Robins, 2000, p. 55). Dubbed the
"Lost Generation" by Gertrude Stein, they were on the forefront of breaking with
nineteenth–century tradition. Looking at authors such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Dos Passos, we can see the move towards a rugged, modern individualism that would lay the foundation for cool narcissism. Paul
Fussell has suggested that irony became a standard pose for people to deal with the horrors of the war (as cited in Pountain & Robins, 2000, p.
56), and such irony is on display in the more experimental works of authors like T. S. Elliot and e. e. cummings.
The collage and assemblage techniques of the Dadaists, along with their rejection of bourgeois values, represented a focused
rebellion on artistic and political sensibilities. The iconic figure of the flapper combined
cultural hedonism and attention to style in their flaunting of social norms. Though flappers' behavior, in hindsight, can be seen as politically charged, actual suffragettes of the time
saw them as vapid and spoiled. Actual political action? That wouldn't have been very cool. CloseMore
Elvis Presley
The history of rock and roll has been told and debated in any number of places. Despite competing versions of this story, it's
undeniable that a young man from Memphis, Tennessee, would alter the landscape of both popular music and cool forever. When the
owner of Sun records, Sam Philips, found "a pretty white boy who could sing as if he were black" (Pountain & Robins, 2000, p. 49), he opened up a blues-based
sound to a generation of white listeners who had previously shunned the sounds of African–American music. Starting with
"Heartbreak Hotel" in 1956, Presley quickly became a star of radio, television, and screen. From Pountain and Robbins's point
of view, this was the moment "cool in its modern form broke out of the ghetto and into mainstream society" (p. 49). Presley, with
his perfectly coiffed hair, long thick sideburns, and tightly pegged pants, understood the importance of a cool image that could
potentially outweigh the merits of the music (at a time when jazz musicians were focusing on increased musical virtuosity and
complexity). Gilbert B. Rodman (1996) has argued that even though Presley was only an average guitar player, the cover of his
debut album elevated the cool factor of the guitar over jazz's piano. Add in Presley's sexually charged performances (they didn't
call him the "pelvis" for nothing), and rock and roll had taken its first steps in becoming the younger generation's cool and
rebellious touchstone that was guaranteed to piss off their parents. CloseMore
The Beats
While Elvis was making cool available to white, suburban kids, another form of cool aligned with its dissident black
roots was forming around the literary authors now known as the Beat Generation. While Elvis (and other rock and roll artists) were making
inroads into white American culture, authors such as William Burroughs, Allen Ginsburg, and Jack Kerouac were challenging what
they saw as the tired status quo of America (as their name suggested: beaten down, weary, skeptical) by channeling black
subcultures. Beats also turned to many other places in their pursuit of cool: Eastern philosophies and hallucinatory drugs, to
name a few. As Pountain and Robins (2000) explained, "The beats regarded jobs, families, security, indeed any form of deferred
gratification as dull and conformist. They opted . . . to pursue immediate pleasures" (p. 67). While this statement is somewhat of a gross
simplification of the beats, it does capture both the hedonistic priorities of cool (with the beats' legendary consumption of hard drugs) and the
private rebellion of cool pursuits. The beats, as Pountain and Robins suggested, were not offering a rallying slogan or collective
political path; they positioned themselves as cool outsiders making their own journeys through American culture. CloseMore
Hippies
The hippies and the 1960s counterculture offer an interesting diversion in this historical tour of cool by radically changing some of the concept's fundamental
roots and failing in the process to create a more open and socially conscious coolness. Up to now, cool always had its elements of rebellion, but the hippies of the 1960s were not content to keep that rebellion
private or restricted beyond their immediate lives. From Woodstock to Monterey to the streets of San Francisco, the hippies
brought cool out into public (and they were hard to miss with their flamboyant dress, new slang, and public drug use). Although
some aspects of the hippie aesthetic had similar goals as the beats (unsettling the clean cut status quo), they accomplished these
goals quite differently with their long hair and colorful ethnically-inspired garb. But unlike the beats (and all the
aforementioned iterations of cool), the hippies were aiming for something grander—inspired by issues of civil rights and the
war in Vietnam, they wanted nothing less than to change the world for the better (or at least into a more hedonistic one). More
to the point, "Cool had, however briefly, switched from a passive to an active attitude" (Pountain & Robins, 2000, p. 73). An unintended effect of this
attitude was cool's further march into a commercialized attitude that could be packaged and sold with the right materialistic
items (an effect you can still see walking down Haight Street to this day). From the standpoint of cool, the hippies' desire to
change the world was ultimately their downfall. "The counter-culture was Cool's (doomed) attempt to become what it is not,
by proselytizing, converting, and embracing rather than excluding and mocking" (p. 80). CloseMore
With the failure of the counterculture, the 1970s saw cool morph into a mass marketable attitude while
simultaneously embracing its more violent side. Hippie politics
turned to terrorism (the Weathermen), major record companies made millionaires out of counterculture icons (simultaneously
marketing the cool hedonism that the bands' newfound money made even more accessible), and the killing sprees of Charles Manson's
gang and David Berkowitz (the Son of Sam), if not cool, certainly signified that the new form of cool would have to reflect the
current zeitgeist of helplessness. Pountain and Robins (2000) argued that "one way this nihilism expressed itself was through the
cultivation of revenge fantasies" (p. 99). If large scale political action wasn't possible, then individuals like Taxi
Driver's Travis Bickle or Dirty Harry's Harry Callahan could coolly (violently) take the law into their own hands (giving an interesting new spin to cool's brand of individual defiance).
Movies weren't alone, as the peace and love music of the 1960s was replaced by the thunderous and ominous tones of Black Sabbath
and Led Zeppelin. CloseMore
Punk
The story of punk has been told and reinterpreted in so many ways, it's impossible to adequately summarize here. However, in
relation to cool, a non-romantic reading of punk reveals an undeniable mark on how cool would subsequently operate. We might
say that punk was a cool that rejected even cool itself in its focused backlash against the peace and love idealism of the
counterculture and the vapid excesses of disco. Gone were the complex psychedelic soundscapes and "guitar gods" which were
replaced by a DIY ethic insinuating that anyone with three chords and an amp could make a riotous noise. Punk style took
everyday objects (safety pins, garbage bags, etc.) and repurposed them with leather, fishnet stockings, or even simple
T-shirts to create a secondhand look that set them apart from mainstream culture. The actual politics of punk
were complicated (from apolitical to anarchist tendencies) but expressions were consistently anti–establishment. For
Pountain and Robbins (2000), punk is most noticeable for "creating the template which all youth fashions since have worked from: invent
a distinctive haircut and clothes, find a new drug and a new music . . . and you have a new movement" (p. 101). This statement
aptly highlights cool's contradictions. Cool may be a private rebellion but one always partially borrowed or refashioned from
something else. The privacy of cool eventually attracts more people, cool attracts market attention, and suddenly mohawks
appear on New York fashion runways. When the privacy of cool is threatened, the ironic detachment of cool makes passionately
defending it impossible. There's nothing left to do but move on and start the template anew. CloseMore
Deep Throat
The hedonism of cool obviously lends itself to sexual excess, but for a curious moment in 1972, going to a movie theater to
watch other people engage in sexual activity on the big screen became a watershed moment in American cool. Pornographic films had
obviously been in production long before this time, and adult movie theaters had been popping up in larger American cities since the
1960s. Most of these early films lacked any kind of plot or production values, which immediately made Jerry Gerard's Deep Throat
(along with its star Linda Lovelace) a unique entry into the genre. With advertisements in the New York Times and celebrity
confessions about seeing the film, this 61-minute film about a woman whose clitoris is in her throat quickly became a cultural
curiosity. Years before VHS would make porn available for home viewing, millions of average citizens found themselves going to
a porno theater for the first time to see what all the fuss was about. In short, going to see Deep Throat became cool,
but cool had morphed once again. Though people went in droves, it was a private rebellion against one's own sense of proper
behavior to participate in such a publically hedonistic event. If we follow the logic of cool, most of these people weren't going
to the film out of primarily prurient interests (although those were likely in play too); rather, the film's popularity allowed
for a kind of ironic dis-attachment from the taboo that made it safe to narcissistically claim: "I saw Deep Throat." CloseMore
Hip-Hop
Like punk, hip-hop is difficult to summarize in a short blurb, and its many different permutations can easily take any
discussion into gross generalization. But as a sample of 1980s cool, no music or style better highlights cool's way of changing
while also drawing on the past. Hip-hop undeniably returned cool back to its African roots emerging out of predominantly
black neighborhoods of New York. Like cool doo-wop of the past, innovators like the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash
focused on vocal performance over complex musicality. A connection can even be drawn to punk considering the DIY aspects of not
needing a lot of skill with an instrument (Pountain & Robins, 2000, p. 110). Following the template, new music brought new fashions such as tracksuits,
sportswear, sneakers, bomber jackets, and bucket hats. But just as the 70s zeitgeist of nihilism birthed punk, the "greed is good"
mentality of the 1980s would alter the course of hip-hop's early focus on good time party music. By the time of NWA, Ice Cube,
and Snoop Dogg, hip-hop cool would become inescapably tied to narcissistic displays of wealth, street-cred, and the
hedonistic objectification of women. The cool violence of the 70s transformed from something enjoyed on the big screen to a very
real part of life in the cities hip-hop emerged from. Gangsta rap was widely embraced by white youth in the suburbs for
reasons beyond the allowances of this space, though its raw lyrics and focus on anti-establishment messages (now against
the police and more local authorities than punk usually attacked) were surely an effective route to "upset mums and dads who
grew up on 'All You Need is Love'" (Pountain & Robins, 2000, p. 110). CloseMore
Bill Clinton
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was likely the first cool president, and though he portrays a quite different cool, President Barack
Obama is currently this country's third cool president. But in between those two stands the figure of William Jefferson Clinton.
Cool and politics is a tricky combination, but Clinton managed to create the possibility of a cool administration, and his cool
persona proves just as powerful today (as evidenced by his reception at the Democratic National Convention of 2012). Clinton's
rise to cool began early on the 1992 campaign trail, whether he was playing saxophone on the popular Arsenio Hall Show or
discussing his underwear preferences with a live audience of MTV teens. Such populist appeals were virtually unheard of in
campaigns past and endeared Governor Clinton to a younger generation of voters who never thought of politics as cool. You want
narcissism? The image of President Clinton himself often threatened to overshadow the office. As the first baby boomer
to hold the office, media fascination focused on his every move both personal and professional. Whether he was endearingly
called "Bubba," or criticized with "Slick Willie," Clinton's grandiose personality was difficult to avoid. You want hedonism? From
his battle with McDonald's cheeseburgers, to love of fine cigars, to his extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky (and
other charges of sexual misconduct), the man was certainly known for his pursuit of pleasures. As the ultimate testimony to
the power of cool none of the criticism, scrutiny, or even impeachment could really touch him. Like the Yoruba notion of cool
that started this list (Toni Morrison [1988] even called Clinton the "first Black president"), all troubles seemed to slide off his
cool and calm demeanor. CloseMore
