Understanding McLuhan/Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso/pc/mcluhan.dxr/06584_Field_TCUM T149.txt

Text File | 1996-04-10 | 909b | 15 lines

come to be generally acknowledged that, in the words of
Wyndham Lewis, “The artist is always engaged in writing a
detailed history of the future because he is the only person
aware of the nature of the present.” Knowledge of this simple
fact is now needed for human survival. The ability of the artist
to sidestep the bully blow of new technology of any age, and to
parry such violence with full awareness, is age-old. Equally age-
old is the inability of the percussed victims, who cannot
sidestep the new violence, to recognize their need of the artist.
To reward and to make celebrities of artists can, also, be a way
of ignoring their prophetic work, and preventing its timely use
for survival. The artist is the man in any field, scientific or
humanistic, who grasps the implications of his actions and of
new knowledge in his own time. He is the man of integral
awareness.