ALT-6 Are Hybrid Cars Cool or Uncool – Cool
The word cool is one of the most subjective words in our lexicon. That said, I will in this article explain why I think that hybrid cars fit my particular definition of cool. First I need to explain my definition of coolness.
I do not go trolling for celebrity news or quotes but after Owen Wilson's supposed attempted suicide I went to his page on Internet Movie Database and read some of his quotes. The follow quote from him stood out to me:
"To me, being cool is just the opposite of living. It's about not getting too worked up about anything, by being 'Nyah, nyah, nyah,' and no big deal. I can't stand that. It's such a jaded, clichd posture to take. I get real enthusiastic about stuff. It's what I think is life-affirming."
Though he articulated his thoughts well there, I actually think just about the opposite of Wilson on this issue. To me nothing is cooler than passion. Look how much Pacino cares about things. Can you really say he is not cool?
To me being cool consists of two parts. One, being indifferent to the things that truly do not matter, such as the opinion of strangers. Feeling this need to impress others and fit in is to me the antithesis of cool. Two, being cool is about finding something to drive you, to move you emotionally and motivate you.
To me the people who sit in the shadows and point their fingers at those who try to live life to the fullest are engaging in the easiest form of human behavior possible. To me it is cheap living, not coolness. In fact I think Wilson is cool for exactly those reasons. He seems indifferent to the meaningless and in general enthusiastic about life.
I am not going to say I am a big environmentalist but I do think we should treat our planet better. I believe in the statement that we do not inherit the world from our fathers but rather borrow it form our children. I think there is a lot of truth in that.
Since I think it is cool to care, I think the environmentally safer hybrid vehicles are cool in terms of showing that people care about our planet. I do not see what would make a loud, gas guzzling monstrosity of a ride cooler than something more streamlined and efficient. If I want loud, I'll just turn the music up.
Since we are defining things along the lines of a high school analogy I will take it a step further. Let's say everyday you want to eat lunch. You need to do this to survive, right? Well what if the only option you had to get lunch was some shady character who overcharged you, sometimes would deny you access, clearly does not like you much, and often uses that very same lunch money to try and make your life miserable?
How cool would it be to be complacent relying on him for your well being?
To my mindset a truly cool individual would seek to get his lunch elsewhere for all the aforementioned reasons. Once we develop renewable technology to the fullest we will break our addiction to oil from countries such as Saudi Arabia, which coincidentally (or not) was the home of almost all of the hijackers in the September Eleventh Tragedy.
Hybrid cars are a huge step in the right direction. People who want to stick to antiquated methods of travel and continue to pollute our atmosphere when there is no longer a need to do so are to me the opposite of cool. Do not get me wrong-we are not there yet. This subset of the population has not yet had the chance to identify itself. But I am certain that once renewable energy technology becomes affordable and accessible for all (and the cars are modeled the same as any other on the outside) that some will hold on to their old habits... And if we think those people are the cool ones, all hope is lost and we might as well take our aerosol cans, aim them high, and let 'er rip.
I do not think so. Hybrid cars are evolution and evolution is about as cool as cool gets.
