Understanding McLuhan/Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso/pc/mcluhan.dxr/06470_Field_TCUM T35.txt

Text File | 1996-04-10 | 1KB | 16 lines

     C. P. Snow, reviewing a book of A. L. Rowse (The New York
Times Book Review , December 24, 1961) on Appeasement  and
the road to Munich, describes the top level of British brains and
experience in the 1930s. “Their I.Q.s were much higher than
usual among political bosses. Why were they such a disaster?”
The view of Rowse, Snow approves: “They would not listen to
warnings because they did not wish to hear.” Being anti-Red
made it impossible for them to read the message of Hitler. But
their failure was as nothing compared to our present one. The
American stake in literacy as a technology or uniformity applied
to every level of education, government, industry, and social life
is totally threatened by the electric technology. The threat of
Stalin or Hitler was external. The electric technology is within
the gates, and we are numb, deaf, blind, and mute about its
encounter with the Gutenberg technology, on and through
which the American way of life was formed. It is, however, no