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Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous Marshall McLuhan Quotes

“The ordinary person senses the greatness of the odds against him even without thought or analysis, and he adapts his attitudes unconsciously. A huge passivity has settled on industrial society. For people carried about in mechanical vehicles, earning their living by waiting on machines, listening much of the waking day to canned music, watching packaged movie entertainment and capsulated news, for such people it would require an exceptional degree of awareness and an especial heroism of effort to be anything but supine consumers of processed goods.”

PeoplePersonsWaitingEffortAttitudeAwarenessGreatnessHugeListeningDegreesNewsOrdinaryMachinesEntertainmentSensesConsumersAnalysisGoodsWakingVehicleHeroismOddsEarningExceptionalPassivityOrdinary Person
Author:Marshall McLuhan
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“[Cameras] tend to turn people into things and the photograph extends and multiplies the human image to the proportions of mass-produced merchandise and, [in the age of photography] the world itself becomes a sort of museum of objects that have been encountered before in some other museum and to say that the camera cannot lie is merely to underline the multiple deceits that are now practiced in its name.”

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“I am resolutely opposed to all innovation, all change, but I am determined to understand what’s happening. Because I don’t choose just to sit and let the juggernaut roll over me. Many people seem to think that if you talk about something recent, you’re in favor of it. The exact opposite is true in my case. Anything I talk about is almost certainly something I’m resolutely against. And it seems to me the best way to oppose it is to understand it. And then you know where to turn off the buttons.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWaySeemsTurnsCasesHappeningsOppositesInnovationDeterminedFavorsBest WayButtonsTurn OffI Am DeterminedJuggernaut
Author:Marshall McLuhan
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“Persons grouped around a fire or candle for warmth or light are less able to pursue independent thoughts, or even tasks, than people supplied with electric light. In the same way, the social and educational patterns latent in automation are those of self-employment and artistic autonomy.”

PeopleWayPersonsWarSelfLightAbleSocialTechnologyFireTasksIndependentPatternsEducationalPursueEmploymentArtisticWarmthCandleElectricAutonomyLatentIndependent ThoughtAutomationElectric Light
Author:Marshall McLuhan
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“Any expensive ad represents the toil, attention, testing, wit, art, and skill of many people. Far more thought and care go into the composition of any prominent ad in a newspaper or magazine than go into the writing of their features and editorials.”

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Author:Marshall McLuhan
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