Information blackout

“Upgrade”, in the sense of bringing up to date, of refreshing one’s knowledge, practices and style, seems to be the catchword of the moment.
One’s very survival seems to depend on it! But it’s an imperative that induces a sense of anxiety at the thought of being out-of-step; of being left behind; of redundancy. It’s a sense of anxiety that lays waste heritages and legacies, that dissipates a more distended use of time, which in any case is slipping through our fingers more and more like quick sand everyday.
Always being on the ball, indeed ahead of it, so as to be able to anticipate events, to come out on top of them affords a sense of mastery that averts that unpleasant feeling of being left stuck out in the cold, of having been shunted off onto some branch-line of history. Which means having to suffer the consequences of decisions taken elsewhere, or in any case of not being able to cope with what makes the cutting-edge.

An information blackout can mean missing out on the latest trends: just try skipping a fashion show and six months hence you’ll be eligible for Jurassic Park.
More than simply being out of touch it’s a question of looking pathetic.
Having to hectically keep abreast of things has very much turned into a question of style. It has to do with the art of survival, and of showing it. As a sort of substitute to real empowerment, it works as a trump card to play in the game of social approbation.
Most of all, though, it’s a personal issue one has with encroaching time.
It’s a ball game, in which at times one seems to have scored and won. But it often turns out to be a poor joke.
The fact is that there’s got to be something really new to upgrade to, something that really needs changing, something that’s truly enriching to make the effort of upgrading worth while.
We’re talking about something that’s got to be substantial, and that’s the sort of thing that needs time to come to fruition. It’s the outcome of ongoing reflection and action, day by day. It’s witnesses to real-life experiences and to projects grappled to future scenarios more or less defined on the basis of one’s expectations and aspirations.

Thus considered, upgrading also means looking back at where one comes from, re-construing what has befallen us and trying to make sense of it, musing on one’s thoughts at the time and the reasons built up in the course of these events to provide us with guidelines for our day to day living.
So framed, any upgrading operation is far from merely being an attempt to curtail our ignorance with respect to a novelty or to refresh our image. It’s indeed a complex time-consuming adventure in which all our cherished beliefs are challenged and put to the test, as are our most tried-and-tested customary practices and ways of doing things, including the rules fine-tuned over time governing our social skills; the social relations that we’ve managed to turn into assets and those that have failed and turned into liabilities; our legacies and heritage; our habits; our omissions; our way of basically relating to things.
It’s exactly the reverse of that bite-off-and-devour concept that induces one to have to fretfully and continually reposition oneself – a concept cheerfully and chirpily endorsed by crusading theories lauding to the fable of how good it is for us to be always and unremittingly up-to-date.

That such a version of the concept of upgrading is clearly a travesty is further borne out by the lack of an essential prerequisite that triggers, energises and drives the real process that induces a revision of cultural modes and mores, namely: curiosity.
It’s essential that we let ourselves go to some intellectual (and sentimental) roaming to truly appreciate to what extent we need to put our system of knowledge on the line and to adapt our practices accordingly. That’s the only way we can hope to explore new domains off the beaten track, to make new and unexpected encounters, to question and review tested and tired yet reassuring thought patterns and ways of doing things.
It’s the kind of upgrading that’s truly “refreshing”, the kind that makes the difference between the latest gimmickry trend to be compulsively pursued and the real innovation to be lived out to the full. It’s the kind of upgrading that’s springs from a basic discontent, from a subtle restlessness that undermines our dead certainties, that are in any case irremediably provisional and transitory, and opens us up and out to the spirit of inquiry, of exploration.
Indeed, it’s what spurs us on to want to continually refashion our prospects, confident that there’s still and always something that’s not been fully revealed and that its discovery is well worth the effort.

It’s essentially the curiosity of the unsatisfied lover compounded by the interest-free prodding and prompting of those who, not having anything at stake, are free to challenge rules and conventions without feeling obliged to have to tow the line.