communication, for that matter as a ritual extension of his 
body. Once men have adopted the visual dynamic of the 
phonetic alphabet, they begin to lose the tribal man’s 
obsession with cosmic order and ritual as recurrent in the 
physical organs and their social extension. Indifference to the 
cosmic, however, fosters intense concentration on minute 
segments and specialist tasks, which is the unique strength of 
Western man. For the specialist is one who never makes small 
mistakes while moving toward the grand fallacy.

     Men live in round houses until they become sedentary and 
specialized in their work organization. Anthropologists have 
often noted this change from round to square without knowing 
its cause. The media analyst can help the anthropologist in this 
matter, although the explanation will not be obvious to people 
of visual culture. The visual man, likewise, cannot see much