Neil Postman counters that rather than the message the medium is in fact the metaphor.
I just pulled my copy of The Medium is the Massage off the shelf, and note the subtitle is An Inventory of Effects. McLuhan and Postman are both worth reading, as are Robert Jensen and others.
I thought of Postman when I read the original post too. Chris Hedges' Empire of Illusion is also worth reading.
When I was a kid discussion of McLuhan contrasted television with other media being consumed, and it was not only possible but completely natural to discuss television as being quite unlike the newspapers we read, or magazines like Life or National Geographic in general circulation. My 1970s junior high school computer room contained two teletypes clacking text onto rolls of yellow paper. Today we discuss how to speed up the video spewing from our computers. Something Postman does well is to point out not simply the amount of television Americans watch, but the extent to which, even in 1985, media like American magazines had changed their presentation to emulate television.
In the 21st Century along with the demise of print media the remaining news outlets which for decades had issued a printed product increasingly produce news packages which entertain, rather than inform, as does television. One effect of growing up in a world increasingly filled with video entertainment is that people see themselves as primarily entertaining rather than informing each other, and consumers rather than citizens.
More evidence is pointing toward a mysterious Neptune-sized planet lurking at the outer edges of our Solar System.
If no one has directly observed this planet how can we know it's lurking? Perhaps it's sauntering. Maybe walking assertively? Skipping? Where is the evidence for lurking?
Most prefferably, I'd want to have a longer dick. Not that mine is small. But I still want it bigger. Like mr. trump, he wants more and more voters vote for him.
How quickly this escalated from more brain cells to more voters for Trump. Even via a detour. All in one line.
It's because Donald Trump is like Hitler!
Ahhh....I see you're a simpleton.
Number of mass shootings (defined as four or more victims) since 1996 = ZERO.
See, readin' ain't that hard boy...yeehawww...
How do you categorize the 2014 Hunt family murders? That would seem to include four victims and the perpetrator, all shot with a shotgun.
Installing a Novell Network. We all gathered in the conference room to watch.
This seems like such an age-specific question. I expect most of us who were adults 30 years ago were just putting in our usual workday.
Yes. I remember pointing out to some coworkers that more than ten times the number of dead astronauts died on US highways every day, the majority of space funding went to military operations and I couldn't feel particularly terrible about the shuttle exploding. I wouldn't have guessed that 30 years later there'd be adults who saw this as some sort of watershed in their lives. My memories of 1986 are more about Iran-Contra.
How many invasions has the State of Israel conducted? (Hint: I'm not discussing military action after being hit by rockets from somewhere outside their country). Oh wait! The answer is ZERO!
The UN disagrees with you, see for instance United Nations Security Council Resolution 228. Do you rationalize the Six-Day War as not an invasion, but "military action after being hit by rockets"?
I hear the strange echos of conversations. People saying that if other people hand in their firearms then they will be perfectly safe from mass violence. People defending their use of firearm homicide statistics instead of using homicide statistics. People who said a couple in California with a garage full of pipe bombs wouldn't have killed anyone if they just didn't have black semiautomatic rifles.
Indeed. Today the Guardian UK had an article and a table of half-answered questions which claimed this last. I don't think many readers understand the Federal definition of an assault weapon and the absurdity of a bayonet mount or telescoping stock being seen as increasing lethality. I have not read of a shooting yet where someone was in addition bayoneted, or where the shooter would have been inhibited by a weapon with a solid stock.
Really? Every time some punk sends a stupid email, you're going to shut down an entire city?
First, there is no reason to take this stuff seriously. US deaths by terrorism is still in the ballpark of people dying of lightning strikes. If you insist on taking it seriously, give a 10% annual bonus to any teacher with a concealed carry license plus appropriate training. Problem solved.
How does a CCW assist in finding and defusing a bomb?
Related: a number of LA officers were googling how to get exactly 4 gallons of water into a 5 gallon jug, using only a 3 gallon jug as a measuring device.
It's 2015. Why is the US still using gallons?
It almost seems like someone/group is doing this because they know that people will overreact, and of course if something did happen people would be screaming bloody murder because they didn't overreact.
Duh. Anyone who remembers 9/11 probably knows someone whose business was interrupted by a random bomb threat or something. They were "a dime a dozen" back then. The vast majority of them were likely somebody either playing a prank or (more likely) somebody just trying to get some time off of work (or school, as in this case).
But the thing is -- they worked in keeping people scared. I had some friends back then who stayed away from any place large numbers of people might congregate for a while -- even things like shopping malls. They had heard so many random bomb threats that they assumed there must be terrorists everywhere. Same thing's going on now.
Absolutely! That went on for years. I grew up outside Philadelphia and for years after September 2001 a sister-in-law talked of being frightened to travel into the city for fear of terrorist attack. There is no publically available indication the Quebec and LA threats are related.
Except that California elected a Republican Arnold as Governor for a spell. Much of Cali's representation is also Republican despite the liberal cities such as San Fran.
Yes, and before Schwarzenegger in my memory we had Pete Wilson, Deukmejian, and Ronald Reagan as well as Gray Davis and Jerry Brown. In the Senate before Feinstein and Boxer we had Pete Wilson and Hayakawa as well as Cranston. California politics are a mixed bag. The state which launched both Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon on their paths to the White House can hardly be seen as the socialist paradise some provincial thinkers make it out to be.
System going down in 5 minutes.
