McLuhan's Message

Letter published in the Toronto Star, July 22, 2011

Re The fall and rise of Marshall McLuhan, Opinion, July 20:

Philip Marchand neatly encapsulates Marshall McLuhan's message: "With understanding, there is no such thing as inevitability."

Visual symbols are media techniques designed to paralyse the mind, McLuhan warned. In his first book, The Mechanical Bride, he instructs us how to read, study and understand 60 advertisements. It is a source of strength if we are aware of, and understand how, media attempt to manipulate us.

From this, we can each develop personal strategies for dealing with the messages that constantly bombard us. My former professor's reaction to all this was amusement.