HW # 35 - Cool Paper Rough Draft

Cool Paper Draft (To Be Edited Tonight)


“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”
Macbeth act V scene V

“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Hamlet act I scene iii

When it comes to describing “cool,” Shakespeare has something to say worth hearing from a once cool guy, Macbeth, who makes terrible decisions and becomes extremely “uncool” and from a truly cool guy, Polonius. Macbeth’s quote sums up the meaninglessness of his life when this former war hero is about to be revealed as a murderer of his king and others due to his lust for power and pressure from his wife, who has just committed suicide out of guilt. Polonius on the other hand can be thought of as a “cool” guy for sharing his wisdom with his son Laertes, who is about to go out into the world on his own. Polonius’s most important advice is always to be honest with yourself so that you will show yourself as honest to others and be honest with them. Shakespeare’s plays have lasted because he wrote about human nature and he understood people’s weaknesses, that is their desire to elevate themselves in their own minds and everyone else’s. If having an awareness of what it is to be cool is a part of our human nature as well as a product of our own social environment, and there are serious dangers involved with trying to be cool, then our society needs to help us appreciate our own individuality and responsibility as a member of something bigger than our own social environment, and that thing is humanity. Three of the biggest dangers of trying to
be cool are too much consumption of “cool” products, having an identity that depends on what other people think, and having an identity that is completely selfish. When we give in to these dangers, we give up having meaning in our lives and any chance of looking back on our life and considering that we were actually “cool” people.

Today, for too many kids the use of cool digital products like Ipods, Iphones, Facebook, and video games takes up too much after school and weekend time. For younger kids their addiction to video games is dangerous because they are not developing their coordination through team sports, individual sports, dance, or even just recreational activities like throwing a football, swimming, or playing ping pong. They are not developing the habit of exercise which is necessary for a healthy life. Having physical activity everyday is also important because it helps refresh the brain. For older kids violent video games involve them in dangerous action that is probably more apt to lead to aggressive behavior than listening to some violent rap songs and watching violent movies. Another problem for older kids with this emphasis on being cool is that the use of texting, Facebook, and Twitter get our minds in the habit of writing in an abbreviated way. The aim is for speed so the thinking is off the top of our heads. Being asked to write a five-page paper with thought-out analysis is torture by comparison. If I were texting a friend to say “It was nice to see you,” I would write “It wz (smiley face) to c u.” The goal is to shorten words and sentences as much as possible to get a message out as fast as possible and get one back. The article, “British Researcher Says Facebook A Brain Drain” by Robert Mitchum, says that an Oxford neuroscientist thinks that online social networking could be dangerous for our brains and behavior. She predicts that "the mid-21st century mind might almost be infantilized, characterized by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathize and a shaky sense of identity." M. T. Anderson’s book, Feed

A second danger of trying too hard to be cool is illustrated by the character Ivan Ilych from Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich, who suffers from an extreme fear of death which leads him to be critical of the way he has lived his life as he looks back at an earlier, happier time in his life before coming to the realization that he has cared too much about money and social status. The way Ivan lives his life Ivan is contrasted with other characters in the story who are more open and honest about the way they live their lives, the peasant Gerasim for example, who truly cares for Ivan. Ivan, a judge who does not live for himself but for the purpose of social climbing blindly adopts values of an aristocratic society. He believes that if he emulates the materialistic life of high society he will find meaning in his own life. He marries not because of love but because he has found a woman who socially acceptable and decorates his house with fancy material objects to try to cement his upper class status. The Death of Ivan Ilych is a sophisticated psychological story about a man who is having what seems to me like an existential experience trying to figure out his own nature. Tolstoy is using Ivan Ilych to illustrate the moral that to have a good life people have to care about their fellow human beings and not be focused on trying to be "cool" in other people's eyes in a way that makes their world revolve only around them.


Having an identity that is completely selfish and shuts out other people is a third kind of dangerous way of trying to be cool is completely un-cool. Bullies, for example, make themselves feel good at the expense of others. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian Junior, a Native American freshman who upon entering an all-white high school was told by as a senior named Roger“ You know Indians are living proof that niggers fuck buffalo.” Roger, the bully had claimed the spotlight for that ten second span and the laughter that would follow was enough to satisfy his ego for some time. His reward was Junior’s pain. In the novel, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Ebenezer Scrooge starts to reflect on a life he has not lived well because of a supernatural experience when the ghost of Christmas Yet To Come shows him his own grave thanks to a visit from his dead partner Jacob Marley, who does not want Scrooge to suffer his fate of spending eternity in chains because of the greedy life he led. He has been shown by the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Christmas Present and of Christmas Yet to Come what a selfish miserable life he has had. Ivan has to reflects on his selfish life all on his own after an accident begins to cause him great pain and slowly kills him. He is searching for meaning in his life because he knows it is going to end and, as he says "... I did everything properly." He means that he did everything he thought the society he wanted to be in expected him to do. After shutting out society for so long Scrooge finally becomes a member of humanity.