WEBVTT 00:00:00.050 --> 00:00:03.060 lighten though that the university has 00:00:03.060 --> 00:00:05.670 come through with payment on its own we 00:00:05.670 --> 00:00:07.470 should pause a woman to thank command 00:00:07.470 --> 00:00:09.420 most responsible for carrying through 00:00:09.420 --> 00:00:12.059 father John Culkin father would you 00:00:12.059 --> 00:00:20.699 stand up and take a bow one more thing 00:00:20.699 --> 00:00:23.760 which might make dr. McLuhan slightly 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:26.789 more understandable he is a Texan by 00:00:26.789 --> 00:00:33.200 marriage his wife is from Fort Worden 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:35.460 now it gives me pleasure to introduce 00:00:35.460 --> 00:00:39.480 our seeing-eye dog for the day dr. Ralph 00:00:39.480 --> 00:00:41.940 Baldwin who will be followed by dr. 00:00:41.940 --> 00:00:47.070 McLuhan topic open mind surgery dr. 00:00:47.070 --> 00:00:49.250 Malden 00:01:10.939 --> 00:01:14.340 Thank You Ralph Thank You mr. chairman 00:01:14.340 --> 00:01:17.640 mr. Jacobs it's good to be here with all 00:01:17.640 --> 00:01:19.470 of you although I can't profess that 00:01:19.470 --> 00:01:20.640 this is the very moment I've been 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:27.869 waiting for the young the young I'm very 00:01:27.869 --> 00:01:29.670 indebted to Steve Allen for an 00:01:29.670 --> 00:01:34.170 observation he made long time ago the 00:01:34.170 --> 00:01:37.250 funny man is a man with a grievance I 00:01:37.250 --> 00:01:40.380 tried that one backwards and said all 00:01:40.380 --> 00:01:42.240 right then where there are grievances 00:01:42.240 --> 00:01:47.459 there should be lots of jokes and mostly 00:01:47.459 --> 00:01:50.369 it proves that way in French Canada 00:01:50.369 --> 00:01:52.799 there lots of grievances and remember 00:01:52.799 --> 00:01:54.899 how General de Gaulle offered to free 00:01:54.899 --> 00:01:58.830 French Canada recently he offered to 00:01:58.830 --> 00:02:00.539 free the Scots - that didn't make the 00:02:00.539 --> 00:02:04.350 press quite as excited as it should have 00:02:04.350 --> 00:02:07.319 I didn't dream of freeing the Irish said 00:02:07.319 --> 00:02:08.630 I think there would have been a storm 00:02:08.630 --> 00:02:13.530 but the goal is you know a new 00:02:13.530 --> 00:02:20.160 lalibertĂŠ huh but as a result of paying 00:02:20.160 --> 00:02:21.989 attention to grievances I've discovered 00:02:21.989 --> 00:02:24.600 to play quite a batch of jokes and I pay 00:02:24.600 --> 00:02:29.940 special attention to media jokes like 00:02:29.940 --> 00:02:31.859 the one of the teachers speaking to a 00:02:31.859 --> 00:02:35.250 class and saying now class what does 00:02:35.250 --> 00:02:39.720 this century almost - Thomas Edison and 00:02:39.720 --> 00:02:42.329 the hand went up and said teacher if it 00:02:42.329 --> 00:02:44.310 weren't for Thomas Edison we would be 00:02:44.310 --> 00:02:47.870 watching TV by candlelight 00:02:53.190 --> 00:02:57.250 the French Canadians raveling jokes like 00:02:57.250 --> 00:02:59.140 the one about the president of Canadians 00:02:59.140 --> 00:03:02.350 shell mmm chatting on the phone with the 00:03:02.350 --> 00:03:04.510 president of American shell couple years 00:03:04.510 --> 00:03:07.750 hence and the Canadian present president 00:03:07.750 --> 00:03:10.000 is saying Diamond Lee and we must have a 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:12.580 big personnel program in Sherbrooke and 00:03:12.580 --> 00:03:14.200 the total reorganization see whole 00:03:14.200 --> 00:03:16.960 sheltered suite was a pause and voice 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:19.270 from the American end says hey 00:03:19.270 --> 00:03:20.890 well thank you thank you talking to 00:03:20.890 --> 00:03:23.250 white boy 00:03:36.920 --> 00:03:39.540 it was quite it was quite recently that 00:03:39.540 --> 00:03:41.160 I began to pay a little attention to the 00:03:41.160 --> 00:03:45.690 effect of radio on the huntys and as you 00:03:45.690 --> 00:03:47.430 know it brought in the Jazz Age and the 00:03:47.430 --> 00:03:52.500 jazz babies it brought in Hitler that is 00:03:52.500 --> 00:03:54.990 Hitler as a man who played it by ear and 00:03:54.990 --> 00:03:57.990 who will I was a region a retry belies 00:03:57.990 --> 00:04:03.180 man who had a new message to offer to 00:04:03.180 --> 00:04:05.010 the Germans by way of their Ruggeri 00:04:05.010 --> 00:04:10.320 gaining their tribal identity the other 00:04:10.320 --> 00:04:12.270 night the CBS show on Germany was 00:04:12.270 --> 00:04:16.140 terrifying it revealed that the Germans 00:04:16.140 --> 00:04:18.779 are desperately seeking for a new tribal 00:04:18.779 --> 00:04:22.530 identity it was Ray Bradbury who pointed 00:04:22.530 --> 00:04:25.350 out maybe others too but I just happened 00:04:25.350 --> 00:04:28.890 to hear him say this violence is the 00:04:28.890 --> 00:04:32.250 quest for identity and whether you do it 00:04:32.250 --> 00:04:36.500 a lie John Wayne or Ella Negro riots 00:04:36.500 --> 00:04:38.640 whether you do it individually or 00:04:38.640 --> 00:04:44.760 corporately the quest for identity can 00:04:44.760 --> 00:04:49.620 only be satisfied by violence doesn't 00:04:49.620 --> 00:04:54.410 have to be punch in the face it can be 00:04:54.410 --> 00:04:57.750 violence violence one does to one's own 00:04:57.750 --> 00:05:03.330 nature self-discipline asceticism and so 00:05:03.330 --> 00:05:08.250 on it also forms a violent button the 00:05:08.250 --> 00:05:12.840 twenties having them become alienated 00:05:12.840 --> 00:05:16.640 from the visual world of goals and 00:05:16.640 --> 00:05:20.250 simple directions began to live it up 00:05:20.250 --> 00:05:22.350 they got turned on they began to live it 00:05:22.350 --> 00:05:28.080 up in the Jazz Age that turned the negro 00:05:28.080 --> 00:05:32.360 zone it was one of their great moments 00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:35.070 not as great as their TV moment by any 00:05:35.070 --> 00:05:38.630 means I'm glad to 00:05:38.630 --> 00:05:43.410 the coming of this new tribal mentality 00:05:43.410 --> 00:05:47.520 to the 1920s inspired Gertrude Stein to 00:05:47.520 --> 00:05:51.840 point out to her group her age group you 00:05:51.840 --> 00:05:56.190 were all a lost generation this is the 00:05:56.190 --> 00:05:57.780 condition of the twenty ones and over 00:05:57.780 --> 00:06:03.990 right now lost generation because - they 00:06:03.990 --> 00:06:08.940 were too old to tribal eyes to get the 00:06:08.940 --> 00:06:13.650 jazz baby message of involvement in 00:06:13.650 --> 00:06:18.780 tribal form the twenty ones and over 00:06:18.780 --> 00:06:21.450 today are much too old to get the TV 00:06:21.450 --> 00:06:26.070 tribal message of involvement and they 00:06:26.070 --> 00:06:28.740 are we are a lost generation in that 00:06:28.740 --> 00:06:33.390 sense expendable but to come back for a 00:06:33.390 --> 00:06:35.850 moment in the 1920s when those jazz 00:06:35.850 --> 00:06:40.370 babies reached the job plateau and 00:06:40.370 --> 00:06:44.010 fifteen years later they arrived with 00:06:44.010 --> 00:06:49.410 this total involved habit without any 00:06:49.410 --> 00:06:51.780 specialized directions or preferences 00:06:51.780 --> 00:06:54.900 off the old fashioned say John Wayne 00:06:54.900 --> 00:06:57.930 variety and then knew exactly what he 00:06:57.930 --> 00:07:03.780 wanted and when you put the tribal man 00:07:03.780 --> 00:07:09.470 in a decision-making area and he quickly 00:07:09.470 --> 00:07:12.300 reveals his loss of direction and and 00:07:12.300 --> 00:07:17.160 you get a slump literally when the man 00:07:17.160 --> 00:07:19.680 of visual direction and specialism is 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:25.729 pushed aside by the electronic all round 00:07:25.729 --> 00:07:32.760 turned on swinging prison I got plenty 00:07:32.760 --> 00:07:35.970 of nothing and nothing is plenty for me 00:07:35.970 --> 00:07:38.280 remember porgy and bess that was the 00:07:38.280 --> 00:07:40.830 great message of the twenties when those 00:07:40.830 --> 00:07:43.260 people reached the job plateau we had a 00:07:43.260 --> 00:07:47.970 slump but it's nothing compared to the 00:07:47.970 --> 00:07:50.249 slump that we're just about at my 00:07:50.249 --> 00:07:52.919 five years the slump that's coming from 00:07:52.919 --> 00:07:57.419 the TV generation will be on a much 00:07:57.419 --> 00:08:00.169 greater scale unless we decide to 00:08:00.169 --> 00:08:09.799 operate but the the German world 00:08:09.799 --> 00:08:12.989 recovered direction and and identity by 00:08:12.989 --> 00:08:19.429 violence by war and got into action 00:08:19.429 --> 00:08:21.779 recovered itself and I suppose the same 00:08:21.779 --> 00:08:23.789 war helped us to recover our sense of 00:08:23.789 --> 00:08:29.989 direction in spite of the jazz babies 00:08:31.219 --> 00:08:37.948 but this kind of use of the Airways or 00:08:37.948 --> 00:08:40.019 the total human environment as a 00:08:40.019 --> 00:08:43.229 teaching machine a programmed aging 00:08:43.229 --> 00:08:48.240 machine is what it has become this 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:50.279 extension of our own nervous system as a 00:08:50.279 --> 00:08:53.389 total infant environment of information 00:08:53.389 --> 00:08:57.809 is in a sense an extension of the 00:08:57.809 --> 00:09:01.949 evolutionary process and instead of it's 00:09:01.949 --> 00:09:06.889 taking place biologically over many 00:09:06.889 --> 00:09:10.649 thousands of years it is now possible in 00:09:10.649 --> 00:09:12.269 fact it has happened to us in the last 00:09:12.269 --> 00:09:14.850 few decades it is not possible to 00:09:14.850 --> 00:09:18.209 traverse many millions of years in 00:09:18.209 --> 00:09:22.019 seconds by putting evolutionary 00:09:22.019 --> 00:09:23.910 extensions of ourselves outside as 00:09:23.910 --> 00:09:26.639 environments as teaching machines the 00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:28.350 man-made environments that are now 00:09:28.350 --> 00:09:31.529 Planetary are in terms of evolutionary 00:09:31.529 --> 00:09:38.370 development a greater step than anything 00:09:38.370 --> 00:09:39.870 that ever happened to our biological 00:09:39.870 --> 00:09:45.300 lives in the whole biological past just 00:09:45.300 --> 00:09:46.829 because they are environments they're 00:09:46.829 --> 00:09:48.720 invisible and this is a peculiarity 00:09:48.720 --> 00:09:50.399 that's one answer the meaning of that 00:09:50.399 --> 00:09:52.559 message to the fish or the we don't know 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:53.910 who discovered water but we're sure it 00:09:53.910 --> 00:09:56.100 wasn't efficient one thing that is 00:09:56.100 --> 00:10:00.059 always invisible to occupants is the 00:10:00.059 --> 00:10:03.059 environment what stands out loud and 00:10:03.059 --> 00:10:03.580 clear is the 00:10:03.580 --> 00:10:07.930 old environment where view mirror so 00:10:07.930 --> 00:10:10.630 that to the TV operator is the movie 00:10:10.630 --> 00:10:16.320 world is very visible TV is invisible 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:22.600 the TV TV world is an x-ray world TV is 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:26.530 an x-ray device the viewer of TV is 00:10:26.530 --> 00:10:30.850 being x-rayed at all times the radiation 00:10:30.850 --> 00:10:33.850 goes right through them the children get 00:10:33.850 --> 00:10:35.530 this message at once and they carry the 00:10:35.530 --> 00:10:37.000 message out into the schoolroom where 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:41.430 they find no resemblance to TV x-ray 00:10:41.430 --> 00:10:44.410 where subjects are laid out in little 00:10:44.410 --> 00:10:47.350 classified forms algebra and history and 00:10:47.350 --> 00:10:52.690 such no depth no involvement so our 00:10:52.690 --> 00:10:57.310 children are teeny boppers and the 00:10:57.310 --> 00:11:00.940 under-20 ones utterly confused by the 00:11:00.940 --> 00:11:04.900 discrepancy between the environment they 00:11:04.900 --> 00:11:06.400 encounter is entertainment and the 00:11:06.400 --> 00:11:11.320 environment of the schoolroom this 00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:15.520 confusion is on a bigger scale if you 00:11:15.520 --> 00:11:21.750 like repeated in the Vietnam business 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:26.010 Vietnam is getting a Western treatment 00:11:26.010 --> 00:11:29.560 it's getting a thoroughly massive 00:11:29.560 --> 00:11:32.820 educational program we put our whole 00:11:32.820 --> 00:11:36.130 mechanical industrial environment around 00:11:36.130 --> 00:11:41.380 them as an educational machine this is 00:11:41.380 --> 00:11:43.770 what Julius Caesar did with the Huns 00:11:43.770 --> 00:11:48.250 Alexander the Great did war as an 00:11:48.250 --> 00:11:50.140 educational institution is the most 00:11:50.140 --> 00:11:52.870 powerful because it bill deals with the 00:11:52.870 --> 00:11:54.880 whole environment in action as an 00:11:54.880 --> 00:11:59.040 educational teaching machine and 00:11:59.790 --> 00:12:03.700 somebody or other gets the message but 00:12:03.700 --> 00:12:05.860 what we are doing in Vietnam is using 00:12:05.860 --> 00:12:08.080 the old 19th century machine program for 00:12:08.080 --> 00:12:10.360 the Orient what we're doing to ourselves 00:12:10.360 --> 00:12:13.660 is orientalizing ourselves by our own 00:12:13.660 --> 00:12:16.570 latest technology instead of the Eldar 00:12:16.570 --> 00:12:17.170 trip 00:12:17.170 --> 00:12:22.319 the integer instead of individual 00:12:22.319 --> 00:12:29.369 specialism integral organic involvement 00:12:29.369 --> 00:12:32.379 the TV world and the lake world of 00:12:32.379 --> 00:12:35.529 electric circuitry automatically ensures 00:12:35.529 --> 00:12:38.160 that the orientalizing off the whole of 00:12:38.160 --> 00:12:43.049 the human population exposed to it no 00:12:43.049 --> 00:12:45.699 when the Negro experiences our new 00:12:45.699 --> 00:12:49.629 electric environment he is turned on as 00:12:49.629 --> 00:12:54.220 never before black power just surges up 00:12:54.220 --> 00:12:56.910 as he feels this involvement and 00:12:56.910 --> 00:13:00.699 congenial hospitality of the electronic 00:13:00.699 --> 00:13:04.149 environment and he looks around and he 00:13:04.149 --> 00:13:07.929 sees the old literate mechanical 00:13:07.929 --> 00:13:10.540 environment which had always rejected 00:13:10.540 --> 00:13:17.049 him degraded him alienated him and this 00:13:17.049 --> 00:13:22.660 naturally enrages him he destroys it if 00:13:22.660 --> 00:13:28.959 possible the enemy India and China and 00:13:28.959 --> 00:13:32.169 Africa will do this on a much bigger 00:13:32.169 --> 00:13:34.509 scale as soon as they encounter an 00:13:34.509 --> 00:13:37.509 electronic environment up til now 00:13:37.509 --> 00:13:39.129 they're getting the 19th century not the 00:13:39.129 --> 00:13:42.879 20th the 19th century was the old 00:13:42.879 --> 00:13:45.279 machine age of fragmentation literacy 00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:50.199 and specialism the one that the liberal 00:13:50.199 --> 00:13:56.470 mind has never got beyond it's never 00:13:56.470 --> 00:14:00.249 studied the layered environment its 00:14:00.249 --> 00:14:04.449 literate visual detached non-involved 00:14:04.449 --> 00:14:07.119 the visual man is the only detached 00:14:07.119 --> 00:14:08.829 human being that ever lived on this 00:14:08.829 --> 00:14:13.109 planet all the other senses except sight 00:14:13.109 --> 00:14:18.279 smell hearing touch movement these are 00:14:18.279 --> 00:14:22.499 involving and they are discontinuous and 00:14:22.499 --> 00:14:25.499 unconnected 00:14:26.310 --> 00:14:30.870 only the electronic permits a total 00:14:30.870 --> 00:14:34.630 encounter with the discontinuous the 00:14:34.630 --> 00:14:38.920 disconnected the world of the 00:14:38.920 --> 00:14:41.620 discontinuity came in most vividly with 00:14:41.620 --> 00:14:44.829 the Telegraph in the newspaper the 00:14:44.829 --> 00:14:46.779 stories in the newspaper are completely 00:14:46.779 --> 00:14:48.100 discontinuous because they're 00:14:48.100 --> 00:14:50.079 simultaneous they're all under one 00:14:50.079 --> 00:14:51.940 Dateline but there's no storyline to 00:14:51.940 --> 00:14:57.399 connect them TV is like that of course 00:14:57.399 --> 00:15:00.540 it's a it's a an x-ray mosaic screen 00:15:00.540 --> 00:15:03.850 with the light charging through the 00:15:03.850 --> 00:15:06.699 screen at the viewer Joyce called it the 00:15:06.699 --> 00:15:12.910 charge of the Light barricade in fact 00:15:12.910 --> 00:15:15.040 Finnegan's Wake is the greatest guide to 00:15:15.040 --> 00:15:18.070 the media ever devised on this planet 00:15:18.070 --> 00:15:24.820 and is a tremendous study of the action 00:15:24.820 --> 00:15:28.589 of all media upon the human psyche and 00:15:28.589 --> 00:15:34.209 sensorium but it's difficult to read but 00:15:34.209 --> 00:15:39.550 it's worth it now as we move our 00:15:39.550 --> 00:15:41.529 evolutionary process out into the 00:15:41.529 --> 00:15:44.260 environment itself and instead of 00:15:44.260 --> 00:15:46.269 putting something inside the Darwin 00:15:46.269 --> 00:15:48.550 thought of man as inside an environment 00:15:48.550 --> 00:15:50.410 it never occurred to Darwin that it 00:15:50.410 --> 00:15:51.760 would be possible to program the 00:15:51.760 --> 00:15:55.709 environment itself as evolutionary 00:15:55.709 --> 00:15:58.779 Darwin is a literate 19th century man 00:15:58.779 --> 00:16:01.060 and never he had no information of the 00:16:01.060 --> 00:16:04.240 electronic information circuit or in 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:07.680 total human environment of information 00:16:07.680 --> 00:16:13.230 so where I are dejardines a little more 00:16:13.230 --> 00:16:16.120 aware of the meaning of the electronic 00:16:16.120 --> 00:16:20.139 then Darwin could possibly have been but 00:16:20.139 --> 00:16:21.880 that's a perfect example of the rear 00:16:21.880 --> 00:16:24.069 view mirror this Darwinian obsession 00:16:24.069 --> 00:16:28.480 with men's thumbs fingers and appendages 00:16:28.480 --> 00:16:33.990 as biological evolution 00:16:34.920 --> 00:16:38.279 this had right in the midst of the great 00:16:38.279 --> 00:16:40.290 evolutionary step into the electronic 00:16:40.290 --> 00:16:44.220 circuitry Darwin has remains obsessed 00:16:44.220 --> 00:16:47.389 with this content of this old 00:16:47.389 --> 00:16:54.420 environment what we of course saying 00:16:54.420 --> 00:16:57.600 here is that if man is now in a position 00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:00.540 to program the total human environment 00:17:00.540 --> 00:17:01.920 as a teaching machine for the first time 00:17:01.920 --> 00:17:06.510 in human history he's also in a position 00:17:06.510 --> 00:17:11.608 to exercise some reasonable choice and 00:17:11.608 --> 00:17:13.679 preference over the programming of that 00:17:13.679 --> 00:17:17.608 environment that rational man may really 00:17:17.608 --> 00:17:20.880 get his first innings out of this 00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:27.329 computerized university up till now he's 00:17:27.329 --> 00:17:29.340 been a kind of little straw blown around 00:17:29.340 --> 00:17:34.260 by the technology one of the reasons why 00:17:34.260 --> 00:17:36.530 we can now notice these environments 00:17:36.530 --> 00:17:38.669 generated by new technologies is that 00:17:38.669 --> 00:17:40.350 they yield to one another so rapidly 00:17:40.350 --> 00:17:42.540 that it's almost impossible not to 00:17:42.540 --> 00:17:45.360 notice the changing of the scene or the 00:17:45.360 --> 00:17:50.490 guard or something but no previous human 00:17:50.490 --> 00:17:53.460 age ever understood the effect of these 00:17:53.460 --> 00:17:55.890 human endeavors on the environment as 00:17:55.890 --> 00:17:59.190 they affected that age they always 00:17:59.190 --> 00:18:01.470 understood the effect on the previous 00:18:01.470 --> 00:18:05.179 age but never the effect on themselves 00:18:05.179 --> 00:18:08.660 the history of utopias is the history of 00:18:08.660 --> 00:18:14.700 rearview mirrors every utopia is a 00:18:14.700 --> 00:18:16.860 picture of the preceding age like 00:18:16.860 --> 00:18:23.040 Bonanza land there is never a utopia 00:18:23.040 --> 00:18:27.710 that copes with the present any present 00:18:28.549 --> 00:18:31.140 man seems to have this built-in device 00:18:31.140 --> 00:18:33.799 of rearview mirror ISM because he fears 00:18:33.799 --> 00:18:37.470 this confrontation with the total human 00:18:37.470 --> 00:18:40.200 environment the only person who seems to 00:18:40.200 --> 00:18:43.409 have virtually encounter and report on 00:18:43.409 --> 00:18:44.429 the new 00:18:44.429 --> 00:18:47.549 present is the artist and whenever he 00:18:47.549 --> 00:18:50.159 passes in his report he is at once 00:18:50.159 --> 00:18:54.149 branded as a cook because the present is 00:18:54.149 --> 00:18:58.230 always unrecognizable because it is not 00:18:58.230 --> 00:19:06.509 safe to look at when one understands the 00:19:06.509 --> 00:19:08.549 operation of these new environments on 00:19:08.549 --> 00:19:11.639 our human equipment it then becomes easy 00:19:11.639 --> 00:19:18.119 to predict and to forecast the changes 00:19:18.119 --> 00:19:21.799 that will take place in many levels of 00:19:21.799 --> 00:19:25.409 programming of even of entertainment the 00:19:25.409 --> 00:19:27.480 end of the star system is automatic with 00:19:27.480 --> 00:19:31.710 TV the end of baseball it's a star 00:19:31.710 --> 00:19:33.809 system you can like prizefighting won't 00:19:33.809 --> 00:19:38.850 work for TV it's cool it's involving it 00:19:38.850 --> 00:19:41.480 doesn't permit the flashy blazing-hot 00:19:41.480 --> 00:19:50.519 star cooperation the young kids today 00:19:50.519 --> 00:19:52.919 are not interested in stars less mothers 00:19:52.919 --> 00:19:54.749 brothers are not stars in the old sense 00:19:54.749 --> 00:19:57.240 at all but the kids are very interested 00:19:57.240 --> 00:20:00.119 in the techniques used by the smothered 00:20:00.119 --> 00:20:04.159 brothers they're very interested in late 00:20:04.159 --> 00:20:11.279 processes how things are done and how 00:20:11.279 --> 00:20:14.100 things happened or do happen this 00:20:14.100 --> 00:20:18.330 following of complex processes is part 00:20:18.330 --> 00:20:20.549 of the involvement need of an electric 00:20:20.549 --> 00:20:25.139 agent Expo at in Montreal is a has been 00:20:25.139 --> 00:20:27.809 a great success for the simple reason 00:20:27.809 --> 00:20:30.029 that pulled the storyline off the whole 00:20:30.029 --> 00:20:34.309 show like a Fellini movie no storyline 00:20:34.309 --> 00:20:37.200 the storyline hots it up and leaves the 00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:39.499 spectator outside looking on helplessly 00:20:39.499 --> 00:20:46.440 without involvement Expo is a mosaic 00:20:46.440 --> 00:20:49.940 without connections just like page 1 00:20:49.940 --> 00:20:53.009 total involvement results everybody 00:20:53.009 --> 00:20:55.129 wants to go back again and again to 00:20:55.129 --> 00:20:57.059 follow through 00:20:57.059 --> 00:21:02.009 that pavilions activities the New York 00:21:02.009 --> 00:21:05.009 World Fair relative plot too much 00:21:05.009 --> 00:21:10.470 storyline too many connections no room 00:21:10.470 --> 00:21:15.360 for involvement or participation you can 00:21:15.360 --> 00:21:18.539 fill in from your experience with 00:21:18.539 --> 00:21:25.049 countless examples but this happens to 00:21:25.049 --> 00:21:30.320 be the reason why the examples occurred 00:21:30.320 --> 00:21:34.919 and Expo is exactly like the TV screen 00:21:34.919 --> 00:21:37.649 it's a mosaic it's not a picture there 00:21:37.649 --> 00:21:41.369 are no pictures on TV even when you put 00:21:41.369 --> 00:21:43.289 a movie on TV those are not pictures it 00:21:43.289 --> 00:21:45.690 still comes through as a charge of the 00:21:45.690 --> 00:21:49.799 Light Brigade it's a an involving mosaic 00:21:49.799 --> 00:21:53.129 situation in which the storyline or 00:21:53.129 --> 00:21:55.919 connected spaces are not there the 00:21:55.919 --> 00:21:57.929 viewer has to supply them that's how he 00:21:57.929 --> 00:22:02.879 gets involved however I'm not trying to 00:22:02.879 --> 00:22:06.049 present any programs of action or any 00:22:06.049 --> 00:22:08.039 directions of action 00:22:08.039 --> 00:22:10.169 I'm really trying to suggest ways of 00:22:10.169 --> 00:22:13.230 perceiving the situation we have 00:22:13.230 --> 00:22:21.749 developed for ourselves I have them as I 00:22:21.749 --> 00:22:22.950 listen to Ralph 00:22:22.950 --> 00:22:25.799 I was recalled another communication 00:22:25.799 --> 00:22:29.009 starting about the two Navajo Indians 00:22:29.009 --> 00:22:30.470 who are having a little chat across a 00:22:30.470 --> 00:22:35.809 Arizona Valley by smoke signal and 00:22:36.710 --> 00:22:39.809 midway through their chat the AEC 00:22:39.809 --> 00:22:42.360 released an atomic charger and when the 00:22:42.360 --> 00:22:44.279 big mushroom cloud cleared away one of 00:22:44.279 --> 00:22:46.159 the Indians sent up little smoke signal 00:22:46.159 --> 00:22:50.990 to the effect gee I wish I'd said that 00:22:56.309 --> 00:23:00.940 the world of communication stories is 00:23:00.940 --> 00:23:04.420 very rich a sort of old-fashioned one is 00:23:04.420 --> 00:23:06.510 about the two goats at the back of 00:23:06.510 --> 00:23:09.549 Hollywood studio an old MGM studio where 00:23:09.549 --> 00:23:11.410 there are masses of old throwaway film 00:23:11.410 --> 00:23:13.990 and one of the goats kicked open a can 00:23:13.990 --> 00:23:16.630 containing picture of Gone with the Wind 00:23:16.630 --> 00:23:21.549 and having nibbled a bit eagerly signal 00:23:21.549 --> 00:23:23.890 to its companion to come on got a bite 00:23:23.890 --> 00:23:26.590 of this when the companion arrived and 00:23:26.590 --> 00:23:28.660 nibbled the other one say how about it 00:23:28.660 --> 00:23:31.270 no I don't know I I think I liked the 00:23:31.270 --> 00:23:33.450 book better 00:23:41.059 --> 00:23:44.249 Media stories can be very useful though 00:23:44.249 --> 00:23:48.690 for studying media and I heard one about 00:23:48.690 --> 00:23:52.049 the two mice in a nose cone moving 00:23:52.049 --> 00:23:54.600 around the planet one says to the other 00:23:54.600 --> 00:23:56.690 how do you like this kind of work 00:23:56.690 --> 00:23:59.909 another one says all well better than 00:23:59.909 --> 00:24:08.789 cancer research you can see the 00:24:08.789 --> 00:24:12.840 grievances sticking out a mile but good 00:24:12.840 --> 00:24:16.590 old Steve Allen and his observation if 00:24:16.590 --> 00:24:19.230 jokes arise from grievances and 00:24:19.230 --> 00:24:21.840 irritation then perhaps they serve as a 00:24:21.840 --> 00:24:26.070 release or catharsis of the same I'm 00:24:26.070 --> 00:24:28.279 rather puzzled I'm sure there's a 00:24:28.279 --> 00:24:32.639 reasonable cause I I haven't heard a 00:24:32.639 --> 00:24:35.369 story in the last a funny story since I 00:24:35.369 --> 00:24:38.450 came to New York two or three weeks ago 00:24:38.450 --> 00:24:42.779 don't hear any ah well it isn't 00:24:42.779 --> 00:24:47.610 repeatable that's like grievance for the 00:24:47.610 --> 00:24:58.889 day but I am have this uneasy feeling 00:24:58.889 --> 00:25:00.960 that I've released a number of these 00:25:00.960 --> 00:25:04.740 atomic charges and predicting the next 00:25:04.740 --> 00:25:07.350 depression is not far off once our TV 00:25:07.350 --> 00:25:12.809 kids reach the job plateau they don't 00:25:12.809 --> 00:25:15.960 want jobs the next phase is the dropout 00:25:15.960 --> 00:25:18.529 executive 00:25:21.799 --> 00:25:24.509 all the reason for that is very simple a 00:25:24.509 --> 00:25:27.210 big exact doesn't have a job he has 60 00:25:27.210 --> 00:25:31.860 jobs that's a role a mother doesn't have 00:25:31.860 --> 00:25:34.639 a job she's 40 or 50 jobs that's a role 00:25:34.639 --> 00:25:37.139 in the electronic age where everything 00:25:37.139 --> 00:25:40.610 becomes associate all activities become 00:25:40.610 --> 00:25:43.679 associated and interrelated you can't 00:25:43.679 --> 00:25:47.399 have jobs you can only have roles so the 00:25:47.399 --> 00:25:50.700 whole job structure is a storyline that 00:25:50.700 --> 00:25:52.619 just or an organization chart just has 00:25:52.619 --> 00:25:55.950 to be yanked out if business is to 00:25:55.950 --> 00:26:01.740 survive now the organization charges is 00:26:01.740 --> 00:26:04.590 as a dentist as baseball and for the 00:26:04.590 --> 00:26:07.940 same reasons one thing at a time 00:26:07.940 --> 00:26:10.529 baseball can't live in a TV age because 00:26:10.529 --> 00:26:12.480 there's one play at a time one pitch one 00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:17.129 hit one catch won't work in an all at 00:26:17.129 --> 00:26:19.590 once world one thing at a time won't 00:26:19.590 --> 00:26:21.899 work on the job front or on the sports 00:26:21.899 --> 00:26:28.970 player but them or the educational front 00:26:28.970 --> 00:26:31.350 I'm trying to be helpful here I'm not 00:26:31.350 --> 00:26:35.129 trying to just put on an act I wish 00:26:35.129 --> 00:26:36.600 somebody had told me some of these 00:26:36.600 --> 00:26:39.119 things a few years ago it's been 00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:41.429 exciting to discover them but also feel 00:26:41.429 --> 00:26:43.409 I feel is a bit of waste for example in 00:26:43.409 --> 00:26:45.509 the PV generation there ought to be 00:26:45.509 --> 00:26:47.789 studies made and heaven knows we're 00:26:47.789 --> 00:26:50.249 trying to do a few of them this year 00:26:50.249 --> 00:26:52.080 there ought to be studies made of the 00:26:52.080 --> 00:26:55.369 difference between those who saw TV 00:26:55.369 --> 00:26:58.429 after they learn to read and write and 00:26:58.429 --> 00:27:02.309 those who first began to watch TV before 00:27:02.309 --> 00:27:04.350 they learn to read and write I think 00:27:04.350 --> 00:27:07.649 you'll find is a big watershed they're 00:27:07.649 --> 00:27:09.899 two totally different kinds of human 00:27:09.899 --> 00:27:13.789 beings are coming on oncoming traffic 00:27:13.789 --> 00:27:17.279 two totally different kinds the kids who 00:27:17.279 --> 00:27:19.259 learn to read and write before they saw 00:27:19.259 --> 00:27:23.970 TV had a kind of immunity a cushion for 00:27:23.970 --> 00:27:28.470 their senses that made the TV impact 00:27:28.470 --> 00:27:32.909 very much less and I think there are 00:27:32.909 --> 00:27:33.810 those exact 00:27:33.810 --> 00:27:35.490 dates and age groups ought to be 00:27:35.490 --> 00:27:39.560 carefully ascertained and studies made 00:27:39.560 --> 00:27:42.270 because the whole future programming of 00:27:42.270 --> 00:27:45.200 work and education depends on it 00:27:45.200 --> 00:27:49.380 again Vietnam is our first TV war that's 00:27:49.380 --> 00:27:52.050 why people won't buy it it's into 00:27:52.050 --> 00:27:54.750 involving all the previous wars were 00:27:54.750 --> 00:27:58.860 fought on hot media like movies pictures 00:27:58.860 --> 00:28:04.670 are photographs and press and now people 00:28:04.670 --> 00:28:07.140 experience the war as something it 00:28:07.140 --> 00:28:12.360 involves them profoundly and they don't 00:28:12.360 --> 00:28:15.060 want to have anything to do with it it 00:28:15.060 --> 00:28:16.620 isn't a question of a trying to 00:28:16.620 --> 00:28:18.600 ascertain the pros and the cons the 00:28:18.600 --> 00:28:21.860 rights and the wrongs of the Cong or 00:28:21.860 --> 00:28:24.600 whoever that is nothing to do with it 00:28:24.600 --> 00:28:27.390 it's just this new phase of total 00:28:27.390 --> 00:28:29.840 involvement and participation that is 00:28:29.840 --> 00:28:36.300 unthinkable so the new gang coming on 00:28:36.300 --> 00:28:39.810 the kids who are really turned on will 00:28:39.810 --> 00:28:43.920 find that war much less tolerable or any 00:28:43.920 --> 00:28:46.140 other war much less tolerable than the 00:28:46.140 --> 00:28:50.850 present generation no comparison here it 00:28:50.850 --> 00:28:53.040 seems to me that we do waste an awful 00:28:53.040 --> 00:28:55.590 lot of time assigning fanciful reasons 00:28:55.590 --> 00:29:01.250 for these events and also in selecting 00:29:01.250 --> 00:29:05.040 very unfortunate and wasteful goals for 00:29:05.040 --> 00:29:09.780 our energies when we do after all have a 00:29:09.780 --> 00:29:14.060 rather deep desire to work out a livable 00:29:14.060 --> 00:29:19.200 equilibrium for the human community we 00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:20.990 do go to so much trouble to create 00:29:20.990 --> 00:29:25.590 violent upsets and disequilibrium I'm 00:29:25.590 --> 00:29:30.450 glad I know I'm not sure how successful 00:29:30.450 --> 00:29:34.380 a reprogramming could be in our say our 00:29:34.380 --> 00:29:37.580 life our lifetime 00:29:38.700 --> 00:29:40.830 I'm just going to check whether I have 00:29:40.830 --> 00:29:48.170 omitted some crucial funny stories and 00:29:48.200 --> 00:29:58.620 then probably not but the no none none 00:29:58.620 --> 00:30:06.750 of them repeatable last thing I see are 00:30:06.750 --> 00:30:11.900 one hint there Columbus went too far 00:30:14.660 --> 00:30:17.640 it's like that similar observation 00:30:17.640 --> 00:30:19.290 Plymouth Rock should have landed on the 00:30:19.290 --> 00:30:28.890 pilgrims but in our present world there 00:30:28.890 --> 00:30:35.390 cannot be a Columbus how X t-rex ternal 00:30:35.390 --> 00:30:39.600 exploration has ended and the future of 00:30:39.600 --> 00:30:44.240 exploration is necessarily internal 00:30:44.240 --> 00:30:46.860 whether in medicine or in entertainment 00:30:46.860 --> 00:30:57.210 a film since I feel you are in good 00:30:57.210 --> 00:31:02.490 humor at this moment I am I think I will 00:31:02.490 --> 00:31:06.710 hold my dents like the arts and quietly 00:31:06.710 --> 00:31:11.630 steal off thank you very much 00:31:35.299 --> 00:31:45.239 dr. McLuhan you are a seer thank you 00:31:45.239 --> 00:31:47.700 very much doctor and dr. Ralph Baldwin 00:31:47.700 --> 00:31:50.070 you've added immeasurably to our to to a 00:31:50.070 --> 00:00:00.000 seminar and we thank you