If it works, it's obsolete. Marshall McLuhan More Quotes by Marshall McLuhan More Quotes From Marshall McLuhan Jokes are grievances. Marshall McLuhan jokesgrievance New media are new archetypes, at first disguised as degradations of older media. Marshall McLuhan degradationmediafirsts Youth instinctively understand the present environment - the electric drama. It lives mythically and in depth. Marshall McLuhan youthdepthdrama Whence did the wond'rous mystic art arise, / Of painting SPEECH, and speaking to the eyes? / That we by tracing magic lines are taught, / How to embody, and to colour THOUGHT? Marshall McLuhan magiceyeart The family circle has widened. The worldpool of information fathered by the electric media--movies, Telstar, flight--far surpassesany possible influence mom and dad can now bring to bear. Character no longer is shaped by only two earnest, fumbling experts. Now all the world's a sage. Marshall McLuhan dadmomcharacter Transmitted at the speed of light, all events on this planet are simultaneous. In the electric environment of information all events are simultaneous, there is no time or space separating events. Marshall McLuhan informationspacelight Artists in various fields are always the first to discover how to enable one medium or to release the power of another. Marshall McLuhan mediafieldsfirsts The young today cannot follow narrative but they are alert to drama. They cannot bear description but they love landscape and action. Marshall McLuhan landscapenarrativedrama Great art speaks a language which every intelligent person can understand. The people who call themselves modernists today speak a different language. Marshall McLuhan intelligentpeopleart Money is a poor man's credit card. Marshall McLuhan creditmencards Pornography and violence are by-products of societies in which private identity has been ... destroyed by sudden environmental change. Marshall McLuhan environmentalviolenceidentity Ads are carefully designed by the Madison Avenue frog-men of-the-mind for semiconscious exposure. Marshall McLuhan frogsmindmen The new electronic independence re-creates the world in the image of a global village. Marshall McLuhan independencescienceworld The movie stars and matinee idols are put into the public domain by photography. They become dreams that money can buy. They can be bought and thumbed more easily than public prostitutes. Marshall McLuhan starsphotographydream The new media are not ways of relating to us the 'real' world; they are the real world and they reshape what remains of the old world at will. Marshall McLuhan mediarealworld The logos of creation, 'And God Said ...' formed the basis of Christian interpretation of the 'Book of Nature. Marshall McLuhan logoschristianbook In the Phaedrus, Plato argued that the new arrival of writing would revolutionize culture for the worst. He suggested that it would substitute reminiscence for thought and mechanical learning for the true dialect of the living quest for truth by discourse and conversation. Marshall McLuhan mediaplatowriting The literate man is a sucker for propaganda...You cannot propagandize a native. You can sell him rum and trinkets, but you cannot sell him ideas. Marshall McLuhan propagandamenideas The business of the advertiser is to see that we go about our business with some magic spell or tune or slogan throbbing quietly in the background of our minds. Marshall McLuhan magictunesmind My main theme is the extension of the nervous system in the electric age, and thus, the complete break with five thousand years of mechanical technology. This I state over and over again. I do not say whether it is a good or bad thing. To do so would be meaningless and arrogant. Marshall McLuhan technologyageyears
