Eser Torun's comment!

Extracted from the essay of Eser Torun's Wake!

Global village:

......

Violence is being enhanced and transformed through the global village. The Internet is becoming a very violent place. The technology is driven by thrill-kill games of ever greater sophistication, and the pornography is becoming readily available and the crucial element of advertisements. As a person who strongly opposed to the unholy unity of advertising and sexual desire, McLuhan would certainly be very upset to see the facts of current information society that is being shaped by his own theories. Probably he would feel even worse, if he had known that some international MBA’s are using pornography web pages to explain his theories.

A retort:

To come to Daniel Hall's defence (as I largely agree with what he was saying):

I'm sure it would make McLuhan feel very bad, not least because it illustrates to some extent why McLuhan's theories don't seem rational. Your irrational response does not greatly defend the theory.

Perhaps if you prefer, we can look at McLuhan's theories in this way:

The internet, TV, etc.

Enhance: Our basic nature, rational and primal alike.
Obsolete: Prudish moralism and fundamentalist viewpoints.
Retrieve: Our long surpressed desires.
Reverse: Into angry self-righteous reactions, George W. Bush, Al Queda, pushes for censorship and your response.

Something to consider.

Defence:

First of all I have not used pornography to explain McLuhan's theories. I have used it to reject his thery. I have specifically used the subject matter of pornography (assuming the web-site is of pornographic nature as I have never actually visited it) as an extreme example of how CONTENT is more important than the form of media. It is no coincidnce that pornography on the internet is by far the most popular subject. Whether this fact disagrees with your moral values is irrelevant. It is relevant to a discussion of McLuhan's theories as I argue that the reason why pornographic websites are popular is due solely to their content, as opposed to the form of media as McLuhan would argue. To compare pornography explicitly to gardening is done to re-enforce the point. The motive is not to broadcast my personal tastes.

I also disagree that McLuhan would "feel even worse, if he had known that internatiobal MBA's are using pornography web pages to explain his theorires". I would have thought that he would encourage such free, liberal and unconstrained thinking - which he often practiced himslef - as oppposed to tight, rigid and narrow visioned religious/moral/ethical views. To think otherwise is to misunderstand the very basis of McLuhan and his visionary way of thinking. I don't think this is the subject matter or course to be making moral or value judgements - perhaps leave that one for the ethics elective.

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For more info: Eser Torun's Wake!

Return to: McLuhan Essay - Daniel Hall