A Theology for Hipsters (Part 6): The Evolution of Cool (Part 2)

Historian John Leland has contended that the history of “hip” is very much the history of America[1], and McCracken states that America was a nation born to be cool.[2] One need only reflect on the nature of the colonists’ experiment to see that they were submerged in concepts of cool: whether that be a counter-cultural disposition or independence. It’s not that all Americans were “hipsters,” but their philosophy and political theory was paving the way for hipsterism to emerge even in the early stages of American history. McCracken points to the literary world as prime examples of the individualism that breeds hipsterism. He notes authors like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman who wrote on the “non-conforming individual, civil disobedience, live-off-the-land naturalism, freewheeling mainstream society, embracing ‘authentic’ living, etc.”[3] This connection to the literary world is an important connection for, like most ideas, hipsterism has mostly been propagated through the arts.

In the late 18^th century Romanticism, as a cultural idea, placed a special importance on the artist and elevated him to a central role in society. Romanticism was a reaction to the scientific naturalism of the day, which had focused on deductive reasoning and scientific problem solving (thereby robbing the world, it was argued, of its wonder and beauty, and of religion). Romanticism was a hipster movement at many levels and its elevation of the role of the artist had influence on the New Republic. It would be through artists in this New Republic that ideas about individualism and freedom and counterculture would come. Works like Uncle Tom’s Cabin or just about any of the works of Mark Twain would be among the major challenges to cultural ideas in the new world. This was particularly true among minorities and especially African-Americans.

By the time we reach the 20^th century African-American artists were influencing ideas not simply among their own people but among white youth as well. It is in no small part owing to the influence of jazz music that the modern-day hipster would be born. Birthed out of the end of The Great War the 1920s, the Roaring 20s, were the start of a re-imagination of American life. World War I had dashed our hopes and put a strain on life as Americans knew it, but with the end of the war hope was reignited. In no small part this renewed hope was owed once again to artists (the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. Elliot, and Ernest Hemingway). Hope was once again dashed, however, with the onset of The Great Depression in the 30s and then World War II. To the watching world what Hitler was able to accomplish among a “free people” raised serious doubts about any centralized authority and general distrust of authority was bred among people everywhere. A dislike of the “establishment” and of mass-societal norms developed. Countercultural movements and ideas began to move more to the center of culture as distrust of authority went up. Brett McCracken explains it this way:

The monumental impact of the clashing of superpowers, the bloodshed of “isms,” and the scale of ideological aggression that was World War II gave a newfound legitimacy to the countercultural stance…

Cool became primarily about rebellion and protest, even if it was unclear what was being protested and why.[4]

Though the Jazz era had ended by this point its influence remained and particularly among white middle class youth who adopted Jazz as a way of rebelling against their parents’ authority and ideals. In places like Chicago and New York jazz clubs were hot spots for both African-Americans and whites; and counterculture was bread around race and music. With the end of the First World War as middle class whites were adopting jazz they birthed the Flapper culture. Flapper was the name given to young white females who began to wear short dresses, bob their hair, listen to jazz, get drunk, smoke and participate in casual sex. These girls were flouting the social norms of their day and rebelling against the cultural standards for young women. Though Flappers’ hedonism and care free lifestyle could not withstand the collapse of the stock market and the onset of World War II the habits they developed paved the way for further developments among would-be hipsters. This development is most clearly realized in the youth culture of the 1960s.