The Medium Is the Message
reaction.
Failure in this respect has for centuries been typical and total for mankind. Subliminal and
docile acceptance of media impact has made them prisons without walls for their human
users. As A. J. Liebling remarked in his book The Press, a man is not free if he cannot see
where he is going, even if he has a gun to help him get there. For each of the media is also a
powerful weapon with which to clobber other media and other groups. The result is that the
present age has been one of multiple civil wars that are not limited to the world of art and
entertainment. In War and Human Progress, Professor J. U. Nef declared: "The total wars of
our time have been the result of a series of intellectual mistakes . . ."
If the formative power in the media are the media themselves, that raises a host of large
matters that can only be mentioned here, although they deserve volumes. Namely, that
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