Title : What Does It Mean To Be Cool?

By: Thorsten Botz-Bornstien

Central Argument: To be cool is to submit and subvert.

To stay cool may mean different things to different people. To some it may mean to stay calm. To others it may mean to be awesome. But above all it means to submit and subvert to the higher power. What does cool do to you or to the other powerful person when you submit and subvert? As said by the article “What Does It Mean To be Cool” the person who uses subversion and submission to resist a power without physically harming anyone. We can see examples of staying cool in many movies such as The Help, or in our daily lives. We may not realize it, however, we use this technique many times to resist an authority. We must balance the submission with subversion in order to fully put this technique into place. Neither one or the other alone can be powerful enough to use on its own. In order to make this technique most effective we must use it in balance.

In the movie The Help the main character who is the help looks after white children of the rich family. She is constantly abused and mistreated, however, through all these difficulties she keeps calm. The movie is set during the time of slavery and focuses on the perspective of the African Americans who are treated unjustly. The help, who are the black maids are mistreated by their masters through out the movie. However, the main character finds an inner strength to deal with this crisis. She says “Yes Mam” pleasantly and does her work diligently, no matter how many times she is screamed at. The master blames the help for having stolen the silver cutlery, however, the help makes it clear that through all the years she has lived she has not stolen and would not do it ever. This makes the main character realize that her master does not care, and the best is to leave the job. The help at first submits to her masters every single decision, only to realize later that she has had enough and she is going to stand up for herself. She quits the job without hurting anyone. This helps the master to see what she is missing and for the help to realize that being submitted isn't always good. Eventually you have to stand up for yourself.

At times I too get have to follow this technique to resist authority and find my own way. With other elder people around me I have to be careful to have the balance between submission and subversion. When people tell me to keep doing their things for them at first I do them. But eventually I realize they are just using me for the benefit of themselves. They do not say thank you, or ask for help instead they order, and expect me to do the things for them. I stop submitting by simply doing what I am told with a smile so the person realizes that he or she is being abusive of her or his power. Or I simply stop doing it and ask the person to go to it on their own. This way they realize what kind of effort it takes to do the certain job.

People should balance their life with submission and subversion. At times it is okay to submit, but only to the certain point that the submitting does not become abusive.