home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Understanding McLuhan
/
Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso
/
pc
/
mcluhan.dxr
/
06617_Field_TCUM T182.txt
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1996-04-10
|
899b
|
16 lines
a civilized individual, a man of visual organization who has
uniform attitudes, habits, and rights with all other civilized
individuals.
The Greek myth about the alphabet was that Cadmus,
reputedly the king who introduced the phonetic letters into
Greece, sowed the dragon’s teeth, and they sprang up armed
men. Like any other myth, this one capsulates a prolonged
process into a flashing insight. The alphabet meant power and
authority and control of military structures at a distance. When
combined with papyrus, the alphabet spelled the end of the
stationary temple bureaucracies and the priestly monopolies of
knowledge and power. Unlike pre-alphabetic writing, which with
its innumerable signs was difficult to master, the alphabet
could be learned in a few hours. The acquisition of so extensive
a knowledge and so complex a skill as pre-alphabetic writing