My dealing with the limitations of a world juxtaposed with the social and moral issues of the day filtered through narrative, poetry, philosophy and social ethic.
Marshall McLuhan developed unique philosophies on media and
how humans interact with it, popularizing the phrases “The medium is the
message” and “Global Village.” Along with Teilhard de Chardin (Noosphere), he
is thought to have predicted the Internet in his book, The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of the Typographic Man (1962). The
“global village” would be an age characterized by people forming communities
through technology. McLuhan posited that the method of communication would
become more influential than the information itself, ergo “the medium is the
message”.
McLuhan helps us to better see ourselves with in a media-saturated global society/reality. Technology has become extensions of consciousness and even our
nervous systems.
[A]ll media,
from the phonetic alphabet to the computer, are extensions of man
that cause deep and lasting changes in him and transform his environment. Such
an extension is an intensification, an amplification of an organ, sense or
function, and whenever it takes place, the central nervous system appears to
institute a self-protective numbing of the affected area, insulating and
anesthetizing it from conscious awareness of what's happening to it. It's a
process rather like that which occurs to the body under shock or stress
conditions, or to the mind in line with the Freudian concept of repression. I
call this peculiar form of self-hypnosis Narcissus narcosis, a
syndrome whereby man remains as unaware of the psychic and social effects of
his new technology as a fish of the water it swims in. As a result, precisely
at the point where a new media-induced environment becomes all pervasive and
transmogrifies our sensory balance, it also becomes invisible. [“The PlayboyInterview: Marshall McLuhan”, PlayboyMagazine, March 1969.]
How do we continue to make sense of our human evolution with
an exponentially expanding ocean of information and perpetual connectivity? In
the words of McLuhan during his interview with Playboy, "I merely try
to understand."
"This is our threshold moment and we need to get on board with evolution. And if we get nothing else straight about our present moment, it should be this: Stability is an illusion. The only real stability is the future. Our moment of evolution requires revolution, and one of the main forces that must make a complete turnaround is religion."
