Understanding McLuhan/Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso/pc/mcluhan.dxr/07021_Field_TCUM T586.txt

Text File | 1996-04-10 | 915b | 16 lines

waste” or “conspicuous consumption” become lost causes, and
even the hardiest of the rich dwindle into modest ways of timid
service to mankind.

     At this point, some may still inquire why the telegraph
should create “human interest,” and why the earlier press did
not. The section on The Press may help these readers. But
there may also be a lurking obstacle to perception. The instant
all-at-onceness and total involvement of the telegraphic form
still repels some literary sophisticates. For them, visual
continuity and fixed “point of view” render the immediate
participation of the instant media as distasteful and
unwelcome as popular sports. These people are as much media
victims, unwittingly mutilated by their studies and toil, as
children in a Victorian blacking factory. For many people, then,
who have had their sensibilities irremediably skewed and locked