T-Shirts: Loneliness and The Pursuit of Cool

Custom T-shirt boutiques are sprouting up on the web. A recent count totaled 1500. People want a specific image and message that they want to project. This is the pursuit of cool. The cool seeker wants to be known/viewed as loveable, thoughtful, understanding, fearless, anti-cause, pro-cause, ad infinitum. In essence the T is a statement of philosophy. Aristotle said philosophy is an ornament in good times and a refuge in bad times. As with cool , the individual is even-keeled and able to cope with any contingencies. At least that is the message of cool. But does a cool or capable person need to be proactively advertising. One might deduce that since projection is necessay, a lack of confidence by the wearer of the T is somewhat apparent. Maybe cool is more about image .

Belonging, not being lonely and having friends are basic needs and goals. T-shirts are a way to advertise for those goals. But there is a better way not to be lonely. First be a comfort and friend to oneself. With that criical mass of personal security, others will gravitate instinctively. So how does one get real personal security ? Read the great philosophers. They all basically said the same thing because they were all truthful about what they saw. Some names to start with: Lao-Tzu; pre-Socratics; Socrates/Plato (Socrates never wrote anything, Plato was the biographer) ;Aristotle; Seneca; Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Know the truth of things and never be lonely again.