How Walski lost his Cool

Technorati tags: Opinion, Rant, Cool, Uncool

He doesn't know exactly how it happened, or when, but Walski's lost his Cool.

At least, he thinks he has. Gone – no longer cool. Dunno how or why, but he really thinks he’s lost it.

Maybe it's age, or maybe it's the over-exposure to the malignant race rhetoric of the many UMB-ecile fucktards he follows on Twitter. Yes, in part it's self-inflicted, perhaps. But whatever the case may be, Walski's lost his Cool.

And because he’s tried to engage these too-far-gone fellers – to no avail – perhaps it’s contributed to Walski no longer being cool. His own fault really – UMB-eciles simply want to remain the way they are, and stick to the way they think. Regardless of how facts usually fly in the face of their so-called “arguments”. Like a bouquet of brickbats.

But the UMB-eciles don’t care about facts – that’s one conclusion that Walski has arrived at, after enduring being called a bastard in more ways that you could imagine, and in more languages than he’d prefer. But that’s okay – stick and stones and all – no big loss. Except Walski’s Cool.

Maybe it's the fact that these days, it's not cool to be Cool. It's not kosher to think unlike the mainstream herd. It's unacceptable to go against the grain of the Borg-assimilated majority. It's just not "right" to have a differing viewpoint. It may be for some, or all of these reasons, but one thing is for sure - Walski's lost his Cool.

After all, Cool as we used to know it is no longer cool. And for that reason, more than any other, Walski is pretty darned sure he’s lost his Cool.
(uncool is the new Cool, and more, in the full post)

The world we live in has become much more superficialisticexpielidocious. And as much as the mainstream herd would like to think our nation should be insulated from reality, Malaysia hasn't been spared. Superficial is part of the new Cool. Being an asshole and a hypocrite? These days, that puts you in the ranks of the über-Cool. And you still think Walski hasn't lost his Cool?

And the manifestation of the new cool is everywhere – in social and mainstream media, in music, in the way most Malaysians drive, in the acceptance of how decrepit our nation’s become (and lovin’ it), and in the way most people choose to believe what they choose to believe.

Drive around the highways these days, it seems like nine out of every 10 car drivers are too cool to use their indicator lights. Yes, they know where they’re going, so why bother, right? Yeah, that’s the new cool, and it’s mantra seems to be “the oyster is my world, and fuck everyone else”.

Recycled music put to a new hippity-hoppity drum and bass track become instant one-hit wonders, which are then played to death on commercial radio – that, too, is part of the new cool. Who needs talent when you’ve got marketing, right?

There used to be a time when creativity and intelligence made one cool. Walski, sad to say, has a little bit of both. And that makes him, by the current measure of cool, rather uncool. Being creative means being able to think non-mainstream. And because mainstream is the new cool, by that measure Walski can safely say that he’s lost his Cool.

Intelligence? Hell, that certainly ain’t cool. Not anymore. What’s cool is allowing others to think on your behalf – usually in an unsolicited manner. Thinking on your own accord is fast becoming a cardinal sin, probably soon to be added to the list of things that can get one’s ass slaughtered. Particularly when it comes to religion.

God said that there is no compulsion in religion (Quran Chapter 2 Verse 256), a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Or it might as well have been, because the other gods seem to insist otherwise. And over the course of a millennium and a half, the voices of these living, and used-to-be-living, gods have overpowered that of God. No questions allowed. Lest you be deemed uncool. And because Walski holds His word in higher regard over theirs, Walski certainly has condemned himself to be in the category of one who’s lost his Cool.

You’ve all probably heard, or even used, the cliché “thinking out of the box” at some point in your life. That phrase became cliché because it used to be part of the then Cool. But it doesn’t seem to work that way anymore these days. Not in Malaysia at least. You can think out of the box, but your thoughts had damned well better be within the limits of the bigger box. Which, in a very obtuse way, kind of explains how ludicrous things like the lopsided IPP contracts (via The Malaysian Insider) we have to live with today could have been signed. And those were inked in the 90s. Two decades later, guess who’s still paying for that bit of cronynomics?

Those who harp on it, though, are probably considered uncool by today’s standards. By the mainstream at least. No, being today-cool means that you get reamed by the increasing cost of living, say “thank you”, then ask “can I have some more, sir?”. To be elevated to the ranks of the über-cool, however, you need to be the one doing the reaming, or at the very least be associated with the reamers in some way, shape or form.

And being that Walski is one of those who does harp on the opaqueness of these (and other) lopsided contracts, it’s another reason why he’s pretty sure that he’s lost his Cool.

But has all this changed Walski’s worldview? In a nutshell, No. And by today’s standards, it’s not a very cool nutshell.

That said, he’d rather lose his Cool, than to adopt the new cool. That’s just how Walski rolls. You might think he’s “cool” for being that way, but mainstream would probably disagree.

A word of advice: being today-uncool is taxing on one’s mind and psyche. Walski wouldn’t wish it on his enemies, much less his friends. Not even on the new-cool assholes and über-cool hypocrites.

You’ll be loathed by the mainstream, hated by the today-cool, and despised by those who prefer to not stick out like a sore thumb. Like Walski knows how he is frequently hated, loathed and despised.

Which is also how he knows, for damned sure, that Walski’s totally lost his Cool.