Hw 37 essay

Cool is inevitably a part of everyone’s life whether we like it or not. It's a major piece of the foundation for our society. We are helplessly slaves of cool. We depend on it, yearn for it, and praise it. In today’s society peoples lives revolve around cool. It is a determining factor for whom and what we will be in the future, yet many people ignore the fact that they constantly seek coolness. People will go to extreme lengths to be cool and conform to certain ideas of cool. People have learned to listen to the ones considered cool and have learned to play their roles. It is quite obvious that so many people rely on cool that need cool to have meaning in their lives. Where does this constant need for cool come from? Why have we become so reliant on ideas of what someone should be? Why is it that we try so hard to fit in to certain molds? Cool is an addiction that society seems incapable of stopping. Our addiction from cool comes from many different places and the source does not lie in one place. However there are a few key reasons we are always in a desperate search for cool. The human need for cool derives from personal needs for connection with other human beings, options society presents to us, our surroundings, and a need for sense of importance and meaning.

Connection is an essential part of life. From birth we are in need of connection. We seek connection from our families, friends, co-workers, and everyone else around us. A large majority of our daily actions are done for the approval of others. The things we wear, the way we act, the things we like are all different ways we try to connect to other people. When a child is young there usually a connection with the parent and the child is loved and is given attention for simply being alive. However, as this kid begins to grow up and more people enter their life they try to find new ways to get attention and connect with people. To do so they try to impress them and seem important to them. We go to great lengths and put ourselves through extreme circumstances to connect with others. We are willing to pierce our skin and have tattoos drawn on our skin. We are willing to dye our hair, burn our hair, wear fake hair just to impress and connect with others. We even have surgery to change our appearance so that we can feel more accepted and connected to others. Although this is something that many people would deny it is quite obvious that no matter how original you try to be you are conforming to certain group and a certain image and we try our best to fit in to these images.

A need for connection is not a negative thing and should not be looked at negatively. However, the things people have resorted to doing to fulfill their need of connection is something that we should be ashamed of. We are savages when it comes to seeking cool. We contradict all the things we say we believe in. Dignity, pride and many other "American" values are thrown out the window in the quest for cool, yet somehow we still convince ourselves of our coolness. We practice our cool so much we actually believe we are what we are pretend to be, except in the end we are still pretending to fit a certain character. The choice of cool as one of the primary coping mechanism for connection is not necessarily the fault of the individual. We have grown up in a society which values competition, individualism, and the idea of cool. We grow up wanting to be the best and wanting to stand out yet still wanting to fit in and connect with everyone around us or our specific preference of people we choose to connect to.

Although our need for connection drives us to find ways we are presented with a way by society, we are presented with cool. We are taught cool will attract people to us, and that cool will make us important. We are taught that cool is a sense of confidence and that once we obtain cool the rest of our social needs will fall in to place and be fulfilled. We idolize cool and the people who portray cool; we turn our society in to a social hierarchy in which cool rules everything else. We have become slaves of cool. Cool is an idea that has helped society thrive socially and economically. However this comes at a price, the cost of cool is that many of the people who are poor will find cool as an outlet to their issues and remain poor. The people that are rich will remain rich and the two sides will hardly ever interact and mix. Cool not only has us trapped but is also pinning us down, yet it seems almost impossible to escape cool.

In our society we are taught to become independent individuals, who can care for themselves, provide for themselves, and handle their own lives. However the way we are raised and the way society function around us does not mix. As children we are loved for simply being alive. We are adored by our parents, family, and even strangers. However, as we grow older this starts to fade away and our need for a sense of connection and importance kicks in. We are then put out on our own to find the same admiration from people we had when we were younger. Yet when someone seeks attention they are frowned upon. We do not receive cool or the effects of cool for simply being alive as we once did. It seems that people do not value human life as much once a certain age is reached. There is a quick change from constant love to being out on your own and this is because that is the way we are taught to be. Our quick change from loved to individual leaves us in a bad position where we have little options and almost every time we turn to cool as our savior.

We have acknowledged a need for human connection and the outlet society gives us. However, there is one remaining major factor that plays into the cool dilemma. Importance, we need to feel important and meaningful or else it will seem as though our life is pointless. We have ambition and drive to accomplish things in our life. We strive to accomplish the societal norm of success and be looked at as an important successful person. We need this sense of something to look forward to feel as though we are occupied in our lives and are of meaning. This is another trap of cool. We do certain things in life to seem cool, not only does cool give us connection but it gives us power in our social hierarchy. The cooler we are the more connection we have and the more important we are to those around us. Cool is a replacement for us when we can’t find meaning in our lives. Many times people think they find meaning but it is simply a false meaning that society has presented to us. We have become inevitably trapped in cool due to the fact that cool is one of the main things our society and system revolves around.

Cool has consumed us due to our needs for human connection, options provided to us by society, and for a sense of importance/meaning. We have come to idolize cool without realizing it is hurting. We have been so wrapped up in following cool we have failed to notice it's true effects on us. Cool many times keeps us from having true connection with people, from doing the things we want to do from life, and from living our lives in the most complete way possible, whatever that may be for each individual person. To truly be free from the pressures of society and the expectations put on people the idea of cool must be abolished. If we fail to do so we will continue or chase of cool which we have noticed is the human parallel of a dog chasing its tail. We simply can't be the individuals we wish we were with cool. We are in need of different ways to go about our lives and cool is one thing that must go.

HW 36

Esther


You have a very good rough draft. Your main point in this essay is that we are all slaves of cool and almost every way we act revolves around cool. Our presentation of self are presentation of our idea of cool. I don't know if that's any better so if it isn't sorry...

I think you do a good job of getting your point across in this essay. However, the more you hammer the point across with a variety of different pieces of evidence or situations the stronger your essay will be and the more effective it will be in influencing people. If you talk about all different types of cool and the way cool affects them personally the more people will understand cool is a universal thing and not something that counts for only specific groups of people.

So overall in your next essay focus on more situation, expanding on some you already have, and going deeper into any vague points you have. Overall very good essay.

Sandy

You have a great start, I can tell it's going to be a great essay. Your main point is that cool is impossible to truly obtain, since we all constantly feign for cool and that's uncool. The more we seek cool the less cool we are if we claim coolness already we again fail. No matter our approach it seems that we fail to become cool.

I think you have a very good essay and you use your evidence very well and you make your point clear. However I think more specific evidence on actual situations and people would help. For example using what you or your friends do or what you see other people do as evidence. The other point you should make is that the cool pose applies to everyone and that eveeryone is trying to be cool no matter what their view of cool is. I think if you make this point that your essay will complete. Great essay.

I think your main focus should be making a few different points like the one I mentioned above, as well as fixing any minor problems you have in existing paragraphs.

rough draft

Cool is inevitably a part of everyones life whether we like it or not. It's the a piece of the foundation for our society. We are helplessly slaves of cool. We depend on it, yearn for it, and praise it. In todays society peoples lives revolve around cool. It is a determining factor for who and what we will be in the future, yet many people ignore the fact that they constantly seek coolness. People will go to extreme lengths to be cool and conform to certain ideas of cool. People have learned to listen to the ones considered cool and have learned to play their roles. It is quite obvious that so many people rely on cool that need cool to have meaning in their lives. Where does this constant need for cool come from. Why have we become so reliant on ideas of what someone should be? Why is it that we try so hard to fit in to certain molds? Cool is an addiction that society seems incapable of stopping. Our addiction from cool comes from many different places and the source does not lie in one place. However there are a few key reason we are always in a desperate search for cool. The human need for cool derives from personal needs for connection with other human beings, options society presents to us, our surroundings, and a need for sense of importance and meaning.

Connection is an essential part of life. From birth we are in need of connection. We seek connection from our families, friends, co-workers, and everyone else around us. A large majority of our daily actions are done for the approval of others. The things we wear, the way we act, the things we like are all different ways we try to connect to other people. When a child is young there usually a connection with the parent and the child is loved and is given attention for simply being alive. However, as this kid begins to grow up and more people enter their life they try to find new ways to get attention and connect with people. To do so they try to impress them and seem important to them. We go to great lengths and put ourselves through extreme circumstances to connect with others. We are willing to pierce our skin and have tattoos drawn on our skin. We are willing to dye our hair, burn our hair, wear fake hair just to impress and connect with others. We even have surgery to change our appearance so that we can feel more accepted and connected to others. Although this is something that many people would deny it is quite obvious that no matter how original you try to be you are conforming to certain group and a certain image and we try our best to fit in to these images.

A need for connection is not a negative thing and should not be looked at negatively. However, the things people have resorted to doing to fulfill their need of connection is something that we should be ashamed of. We are savages when it comes to seeking cool. We contradict all the things we say we believe in. Dignity, pride and many other "American" values are thrown out the window in the quest for cool, yet somehow we still convince ourselves of our coolness. We practice our cool so much we actually believe we are what we are pretend to be, except in the end we are still pretending to fit a certain character. The choice of cool as one of the primary coping mechanism for connection is not necessarily the fault of the individual. We have grown up in a society which values competition, individualism, and the idea of cool. We grow up wanting to be the best and wanting to stand out yet still wanting to fit in and connect with everyone around us or our specific preference of people we choose to connect to.

Hw 34

Cool is a very general idea that is specific in different people lives. However for many there are general common ideas of cool. It is very common for the people with similar ideas to be of the same race, economic class, neighborhood, etc. For example a white rich kid who goes to a private school most likely wont be dressing the same as a poor black kid who lives in a project building. These two people who grew up in completely different environments value different things due to the environment they grew up in and currently live in and the expectation that are supposed to meet. Basically these two kids have completely different maps. These maps are constructed what people in their situation did in the past and what they are expected to do by their parents and peers. I don't think any of the types of cools can be considered cooler than others because to that specific group their identity of cool is considered the coolest and anyone who doesn't fit this runs the risk of being ridiculed by others.

I am not sure that coolness compensates for having less in life for all people. However in certain cases specifically with people who are poor cool gives them a meaning and outlet to turn to. For example someone who is poor and lives in the projects but has 500 hundred dollar shoes is giving off the image that they have money to the people around them and are therefore considered cool in their neighborhood or group of friends. In other groups the ones who do the best in school and get in tot he best college and end up making the most money are considered the coolest and most successful.

The idea of cool and the reason for putting on our cool performances and the situation cool puts us in are two contradicting things. We put on cool performances to seem cool yet many times cool restrains from getting the places we want to get or of having a good life(good life meaning in terms of todays idea of good life ie: a lot of money, pretty wife, etc.). People who start out poor play the cool roll which most often includes not caring about school and therefore many times not going to college or even finishing high school. When people are rich and they value money and power and are very greedy they lose a lot in relationships with others and miss out on certain parts of life that people who have different vales experience. No matter the case trying to be cool will hold us back from living ways many of us might like and cool is something that we are virtually stuck in.

Hw #33 (Outline)

Main idea of thesis(will be worded differently and maybe slightly changed): The human need for derives from personal needs for connection with other human beings, options society gives us, our surroundings, and a need for sense of importance and meaningful direction.

Argument 1: People naturally need to connect with others and interact. We constantly find our selves trying to connect with others in conscious and sub-conscious ways. We try extremely hard to seem important to others and gain the respect of others. We are willing to go to extreme lengths to feel as if we are liked and wanted by others.

ARGUMENT 2: Our need to please other really helps us feel as if our life is meaningful and as if we are doing what we are doing for a reason. This plays in to the idea of living for a reason and have a meaning or direction we base our life around.

ARGUMENT 3: We have these needs that connect our selves and others and we need a way to go about fulfilling these needs and society provides different roles and so called maps that show us socially acceptable ways to go about doing so.

ARGUMENT 4: This connects to paragraph 3. Our societal roles and maps are decided by our surroundings including: family situation, the neighborhood you live in, the friends you have, the places you go, etc.

More paragraphs may come from these ideas but these are the main ideas I want to explore. Argument 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 tie together I want to try to find a way to tie these together with out having too many paragraphs and with out having extremely long paragraphs as was one of the issues with my last essay in this class.

HW #32

Tattoos have become embedded in our culture in the same way peircings have. People are willing to permenately mark their bodies with ink as a way of being cool and sometimes for other reasons. What is that has caused people to do such absurd things? What is it that has made such acts socially acceptable? Many people tell them selves they have their own personal reasons to get tattoos and that they get the tattoos for themselves and not for other people. The reality is that a tattoo signifies that you are filling or attempting to fill a certain role; This role being 'badass' or 'punk rocker' etc. Tattoos are a more extreme version of the way you dress yourself or the accessories you choose to wear simply because they are long lasting. Essentially the idea of getting a tattoo for someone who wants to fit into a group where people wear tattoos is the same as some one trying to fit a rap role and wearing a big flashy gold chain or having gold teeth. A tattoo may seem a bit extreme but it is simply just another way for people to say 'I belong to this group of people.'

I don't think it is a particularly good idea to get a tattoo but the idea of resisting this trend or act seems insignificant in the bigger picture. The idea of a getting a tattoo seems absurd and the act can be revolting to some yet the idea of getting a tattoo is an idea that applies to many other things and for this reason it is insignificant to focus on rebelling against tattoos. It is not the act that causes but the idea.

The tattoo simply represents the lengths we are willing to go to fit in to groups and have other people believe our performances. The tattoo shows that we are willing to potentially harm our selves and endure pain to feel important or liked by others. This is simply another addition to our repertoire of tools we use to make others believe our performances. The scariest thing about tattoos is that we have shown a pattern and our willingness to seem cool get more and more outrageous.

E.C 1

How does Ivan's quest for status, advancement, prestige, and generally the approval of others endanger his chance to live a more meaningful life?

As a society we try to find roles and fill them. We find roles that we can connect our lives to and we live up to these roles. We follow a 'cultural map' based on the roles we choose to follow. Ivan is no different. He follows the role of someone who is financially and socially successful according to our society. He works as a lawyer has a family is able to provide for them. He has a good social life with many friends is a friendly person who gets along with others. He plays cards with his fellow coworkers and works hard at playing the role of a successful male in all aspects of the role. However as Ivan suffers from terminal illness he realizes that his life was not what he thought it was. He realizes that in fact his 'success' is meaningless. His desire to live up to a role restricted him from living a truly meaningful life.

Ivan's life was based around a societal map that is a sure road to failure if you look to live a meaningful life. We spend all our lives looking for more and more acceptance and never find ourselves to be satisfied. Ivan realized that his life was miserably meaningless he was angry at his wife for her materialistic ways he felt bad for his son and he started to realize his mistakes.

Ivan's 'quest for status' was a representation of what everyone does in their sometimes with some kind of variation but essentially everyone is doing what Ivan did. Ivan's life was symbolic of our lives. He was blinded by his societal map and was not able to see through the flaws of his lifestyle and was not able to see his mistakes until he started dying. Most people live their whole lives without thinking back on the path they chosen to take and what it has led to. Many people do not realize that the roles and map society presents us with do not lead to meaningful lives. The story of Ivan's life signifies the story of most of our societies life and the same thing that restricts him from having no meaning in his life is the same thing that restricts us. Basically Ivan is us and we are Ivan.