McLuhan lived by his confidence in the intelligibility of the world. It meant that there was no single thing in that world which was uninteresting. It meant that he could trust the patterns he was constantly discovering in life. Of course, McLuhan undoubtedly abused that confidence at times. His discoveries of patterns became almost obsessive—he came up with a theory to explain every passing fad, from the popularity of westerns on television in the ’50s, to long hair in the ’60s. And his conspiracy theories about the Masons—along with his other superstitions, such as a reverence for the number three—were a much too facile way of discerning order in the universe.
