The rebel sell - Joseph Heath

ON REBELLION: rebellion is one of the most powerful sources of distinction in the modern world. As a result, people are willing to pay good money for a piece of it, just as they are willing to pay for access to any other form of social status.

ON THE WORKPLACE:
What people yearn for these days is no longer an old–fashioned
status
job, like being a Doctor. The
cool job
has become the holy grail of the modern economy. Corporate America has been tuned in to this for a long time. A visitor from the
50s would not recognise the modern no–collar workplace, with its casual dress codes and flexible working hours, designed to reflect the ebb and flow of creative ideas. The whole thing is like a hippie commune under professional management.

ON THE NATURE OF COOL:
It is best to think of cool as the central status hierarchy in contemporary urban society. And like traditional forms of status such as class, cool is an intrinsically positional good. Just as not everyone can be upper class and not everyone can have good taste, not everyone can be cool.