home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Understanding McLuhan
/
Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso
/
pc
/
mcluhan.dxr
/
06439_Field_TCUM T4.txt
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1996-04-10
|
893b
|
16 lines
power to act without reacting. The advantages of fragmenting
himself in this way are seen in the case of the surgeon who
would be quite helpless if he were to become humanly involved
in his operation. We acquired the art of carrying out the most
dangerous social operations with complete detachment. But
our detachment was a posture of noninvolvement. In the
electric age, when our central nervous system is technologically
extended to involve us in the whole of mankind and to
incorporate the whole of mankind in us, we necessarily
participate, in depth, in the consequences of our every action.
It is no longer possible to adopt the aloof and dissociated role
of the literate Westerner.
The Theatre of the Absurd dramatizes this recent
dilemma of Western man, the man of action who appears not
to be involved in the action. Such is the origin and appeal of