Don't ask whether it is right or wrong. Instead try to find out what is going on. Marshall McLuhan More Quotes by Marshall McLuhan More Quotes From Marshall McLuhan We impose the form of the old on the content of the new. Marshall McLuhan form The 'content' of any medium is always another medium. Marshall McLuhan mediums There is a real, living unity in our time, as in any other, but it lies submerged under a superficial hubbub of sensation. Marshall McLuhan unityreallying The criminal, like the artist, is a social explorer. Marshall McLuhan criminalsartistsocial One matter Englishmen don't think in the least funny is their happy consciousness of possessing a deep sense of humor. Marshall McLuhan sense-of-humormatterthinking I do not say whether it is a good or bad thing. To do so would be meaningless and arrogant. Marshall McLuhan arrogantthings-to-dowould-be The modern nose, like the modern eye, has developed a sort of microscopic, intercellular intensity which makes our human contactspainful and revolting. Marshall McLuhan moderneyenoses Relativity theory forced the abandonment, in principle, of absolute space and absolute time. Marshall McLuhan spaceprinciplestime Language is a form of organized stutter. Marshall McLuhan definitionsformlanguage Antipathy, dissimilarity of views, hate, contempt, can accompany true love. Marshall McLuhan hateviewslove TV acting is so extremely intimate, because of the peculiar involvement of the viewer with the completion or "closing" of the TV image, that the actor must achieve a great degree of spontaneous casualness that would be irrelevant in movie and lost on the stage. For the audience participates in the inner life of the TV actor as fully as in the outer life of the movie star. Technically, TV tends to be a close-up medium. The close-up that in the movie is used for shock is, on TV, a quite casual thing. Marshall McLuhan actorsactingstars Our technology forces us to live mythically, but we continue to think fragmentarily, and on single, separate planes. Marshall McLuhan forcetechnologythinking The electric light is pure information. It is a medium without a message Marshall McLuhan informationlightmessages The hallucinogenic world, in environmental terms, can be considered as a forlorn effort of man to match the speed of power of hisextended nervous system (which we call the "electronic world") by intensifying the activity of his inner nervous system. Marshall McLuhan effortmenworld Today, the mass audience (the successor to the "public") can be used as a creative, participating force. It is, instead, merely given packages of passive entertainment. Politics offers yesterday's answers to today's questions. Marshall McLuhan creativeyesterdaytoday One main condition of aristocratic life was present in the South and not in the North--personal responsibility to other human beings for education and material welfare. (A Carnegie or a Ford, like a bureaucracy, molds the lives of millions without taking any responsibility.) Marshall McLuhan welfaremoldresponsibility The content or time-clothing of any medium or culture is the preceding medium or culture. Marshall McLuhan mediumstimeculture The modern Little Red Riding Hood, reared on singing commercials, has no objection to being eaten by the wolf. Marshall McLuhan advertising-businessridingsinging Typographic man can express but is helpless to read the configurations of print technology. Marshall McLuhan printtechnologymen In a cool medium, the audience is an active constituent of the viewing or listening experience. A girl wearing open-mesh silk stockings or glasses is inherently cool and sensual because the eye acts as a surrogate hand in filling in the low-definition image thus engendered. Which is why boys make passes at girls who wear glasses. Marshall McLuhan girleyeboys
