Nick Carr has an thought-provoking article on the revival of Marshall McLuhan's media theories on his blog that was also published at The Guardian. It's well worth the read. Especially sobering to me is his citing McLuhan's statement from Understanding Media, explicating his views on commercial exploitation of electric media:
"Once we have surrendered our senses and nervous systems to the private manipulation of those who would try to benefit by taking a lease on our eyes and ears and nerves, we don't really have any rights left."
The limited ownership of our nation's media, concentrating so much power and influence in the hands of so very few, is of enormous concern to me. If, in the Marxist's opinion, religion was the opiate of the people, in our nation today, the opiate of the people has become a pervasive and continuous diet of media, making the typical American mentally fat, out of shape, and lazy. We have become overweight media slobs.
Thinking isn't dangerous, it's responsible.
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