Читать книгу Homo Cypiens - Herlander Elias - Страница 21

It is often said that theory is different from practice. The theoreinimplies contemplation, knowing more, seeing more, whereas praxisimplies application. If theory allows us to see more and better, to know more and better, practice consolidates our experience. To this we may add that theory is extremely crucial these days because it provides us with conceptual tools for thinking about the world we are acting upon. A well-brought-up and well-educated citizen with learnt theory sees the world better prepared than the individual who does not know the city and culture, and who knows only praxis. The theory has repercussions on the real and it is a useful weapon to fight in the contemporary world where the obsession of quantitative and statistical data reigns. If knowledge is an armor and information is an instrument, then theory is like a kevlar — it is protective, it is an element that reinforces and explains the world and it consolidates a certain view of reality upon which we can act empowered. The theory is called kevlar because it works as a bulletproof vest, the bullet being the ignorance and the counter-arguments that we find in the most varied circumstances.

Having theory as a support we can understand the world and the great ideas that lead to its realization. The great creators, thinkers, philosophers, inventors and artists, designers and engineers, recognizers of standards and technologists have two points in common: not only do they know how to draw well, but how to think well. They are provided with theoretical tools and concepts that prepare them for the challenges of modern life. And modern life has no theory explicitly anywhere. Everything appears done. It's like watching an American movie where nobody reads, but the truth is that even the film itself implies a great cinematic and literary culture. We must understand that modern life implies knowing more, being ahead, thinking ahead, not suffering in anticipation, but anticipating so that one does not suffer later. The theory is the new bulletproof vest; theory teaches us to see the world through cultural aspects so that we are not naive, or even, duped.

The secret behind the theory is this: the best armor we can have to face the contemporary world is ideas. Ideas sell themselves, they make money, but they are also easily stolen. Ideas are something difficult to patent, but the execution of ideas in concrete things implies knowing how to interconnect them with reality. That is where genius comes in. Genius is very proficient at interconnecting things. Genius links theory to practice. The genius knows that theory protects and reinforces actions, that it empowers him or her and that theory implies performance. It is not by chance that the theory is said to be performative. Ideas are images. Mastering theory is mastering images of the world. The protection that theory gives us is the result of personal investment that we make in conceptual instruments. The great theorist knows best, and in the American perspective, a theorist has to be a genius to apply an idea to reality. When the theorist reaches this point, he is no longer just a theorist, but he/she is a creative, an entrepreneur, someone to whom the State should not create obstacles. The theorist of the future consists in being creative and protected by his own ideas, at the same time. Grain to grain, word to word, idea to idea, image to image, as in a kevlar vest, each tile of the micro-fabric allows at a macro level the individual to be protected by the wrapping equipment. The core of the matter is that ideas, small ideas, theories, small theories can be a kevlar — a potentiality, a protection. This means that theory should not be discredited nor overlooked.

Kevlar, which comes here as a metaphor, is also a new material. Nowadays, ideas and theory are also a new material. Practice and pragmatic reality confront us only with the tangible. Furthermore, the intangible or universe of mediation, meaning the "how" (and not only the "what"), is the most useful universe. For now, a good theory explains many things; it is the opposite of a shortened view of reality that only explains an object. Therein, there is a frailty or weakness. In the theoretical domain, the one who sees more and even further, observes and explains better the reality. Great creatives and entrepreneurs are adept at dealing with ideas and images, they know how to encode and decode. Public consumers only know how to receive, interact and consume. Creative publics try to understand, learn more and they have "the know how". They are self-taught and intend to continue to learn with new geniuses, new idealists and creators.

This is the kevlar theory because it separates those who possess knowledge from those who do not have it. In a world of unbridled consumerism, in which to buy things only because they are desirable and not because they are useful to us, the theory protects us from the quackery and the demagogy; theory explains to us that a certain new story copies an old narrative, that a new movie after all is nothing more than a remake, or that the new musician plays something that is reminiscent of something old. The theory shows us the new world as actually being a world of new mediations of the old. Theorists are the new heroes, the new homo cypienswho seek for more information and knowledge, ideas and patterns. Due to the impact of digital media, now everything is on the Net. It is both recent and old. We have reached a civilizational level in which the data we access empower us. Or rather, they do not potentiate, they can empower. To be a consumer is easy. To be a creator is difficult, but to be a theorist is even more difficult. The amount of information, old and new, is such that one must always learn to wear the kevlar vest of theory against ignorance and commonplace culture.