This article reflects on the ethos of the contemporary knowledge worker and its relevance for
the sciences of the spirit today as explored by Alan Liu in his book The laws of cool: knowledge
work and the culture of information. According to him the tone of contemporary life needs
repair. Why and what does this mean? Something must be wrong, but what? If one reads
between the lines it may have to do with “the ethos of ‘unknowing’”, referring to what has
been, in the framework of this ethos, abandoned through “creative destruction” (the established,
the customary, the familiar, the comfortable), and to what has vanished in terms of “cool” (when cool is interpreted as the techno-informatic vanishing point of contemporary aesthetic,
psychology, morality, politics, spirituality, and everything): the disastrous consequences of
“an ethos of unknowing”. In brief it can be stated that it is about the absence of or loss of
insight and wisdom in favour of calculation.
The ethos of unknowing puts obstacles in the way of knowing; it forbids access to certain
domains of knowledge; it reflects the culture of “creative destruction”. This refers specifically
to the currently forbidden domains of the sciences of the spirit, to the deeper senses of
knowledge. These deeper senses of knowledge are disturbing factors to the flow of information
and therefore it must itself be disturbed, even fatally if possible. These manifestations are all
linked: This is the contemporary tone of life that characterises societies in desperate need of
repair.
To help with this required repair it would be necessary to inform well. In order to inform
well in such a way that the tone of contemporary life can be repaired, we have to accept the
challenge posed by “the ethos of informationalism” with its focus on “creative destruction” (Castells) and with its solid involvement with operationalisation (Lash) and with the pertinent
implication of “an ethos of unknowing”. For this purpose a counter-ethos is suggested by Liu
when he inverted the question of Castells: The question should not be What is the ethical
foundation of the network enterprise or spirit of informationalism, but rather what ethical
foundation enables identities to live an un-networked, and counter-informational fantasy
within the spirit of informationalism? What room may there be for a counter-ethos within the
dominant ethos of informationalism? Although this spirit cannot be escaped the struggle
remains within it in order to overcome its absolutised position that can only materialise when
a life-informing attitude provides the inspiration towards “destructive creation”.
What is this life-informing attitude? It should be an attitude that does not primarily focus
on needs of whatever nature, or on problems in isolation. The life-informing attitude is
comprehensive and all-inclusive in nature and should focus on sense-giving and care-taking
that involves the whole person in a whole world. This is where spirituality comes into the
picture: wisdom is needed. Hereby emphasis is put on the capacity humans have, and only
humans, to be life-informing beings. That is precisely why the position and presence of the
sciences of the spirit ought to be non-negotiable.
What is the deepseated inspiration and mindset of the life-informing attitude? The answer
is: an awareness of and an indulgence in the ethos of the unknown that refers to the imagination
of the age of knowledge work, in other words to the capacity humans possess to penetrate right into what lies beyond it, and to what it does remind us of, as well as to what we can only
dream about or fantasise about. This is the reason why a counter informational fantasy is
necessary here – a fantasy about the currently forbidden domains or activities of the sciences
of the spirit. It is almost a matter of the absolutisation of the incalculable. We have to reintroduce
what is abandoned and what has vanished away, what is forbidden and what is
forgotten: comprehension, meaning, care – the spiritual, in other words – and life in particular,
a poetics of life.
Hierdie artikel besin oor die etos van die hedendaagse kenniswerker en die relevansie daarvan
vir die wetenskappe van die gees soos dit ontwikkel is in die boek van Alan Liu The laws of
cool: knowledge work and the culture of information. Volgens hom is “die toon of stand van
die hedendaagse samelewing” van so ʼn aard dat dit dringende herstel behoef. Die hedendaagse
lewe, die hedendaagse samelewing ly, is siek; ons ervaar ʼn sosiopatologie van kennisverlies
en word daarom bedreig deur ernstige katastrofes. Dit konfronteer ons met ʼn enorme uitdaging.
Om hierdie uitdaging die hoof te bied en aan die herstelproses mee te werk moet daarna gesoek
word om “goed in te lig of te informeer” waarvoor ʼn “lewe-informerende houding” die
noodsaaklike voorwaarde is. Die aard van die informeringstaak word bepaal deur die begrip
“lewe” en nie deur geld, of die Mark, of geïsoleerde probleme, of informasie nie, maar lewe.
Dit wil sê omvattend en diepgaande informering is nodig. Dit is die taak van die geletterdes
(wat geletterheidvolheid belewe en najaag): poëties, fiksioneel, wetenskaplik en wetevol,
hipertekstueel en multi-mediamatig, op voorwaarde dat nie een hiervan verblind mag word
deur en verbonde is aan ideologiese vertolkinge en verdraaiinge van die werklikheid nie wat
op alle gebiede oorvloedig in omloop is. Hierdie “nuwe literêres” wat in die werk van Liu
(2004) voorrang geniet, behoort versterk te word deur die ingesteldheid van diegene wat
geestelik toegerus is met die meervoudig-konnektiewe intelleksie, “die troebadoer van kennis”
van Michel Serres, wat terselfdertyd ook toegerus is met die etos van die onbekende. Wie ook
al sodanig toegerus is, sal ideale kandidate wees vir die verlangde sosioterapeutiese taak, in die belang van die herinvensie van kennis in die volle sin van die woord.
