figure—that it was too bad he didn’t have a sense 
of fun. McLuhan was always basically a playful 
person, and also as he put it once that people like 
Lang were trying to brainwash us all, so that we’d 
join in the tribal canoe or sort of merrily go along 
in the swamp of tribalism.

McLuhan was always sort of a proud and 
individualistic man, and I think we didn’t realize 
fully how much he hated the kind of new age, 
flower-child aspect of the ’60s and ’70s, but as far 
as the question about whether it was a natural 
progression to go to this cultural analysis, I think 
it was. Because I think from the very beginning,