Like Disembodied Angels: McLuhan Turns 100
Today, July 21st marks the 100 year birthday of Marshall McLuhan, a man who pioneered the study of culture and technology, and who is no doubt celebrating today in a spiritual way, literally. It seems an apt thought for a man who once qualified the phenomenon of human communications through the currents and frequencies of electric media as ‘disembodied angels’ floating through the air. Once dubbed the high priest of the electric age, Marshall McLuhan found fame coining truth in our time: “The global village” and “The medium is the message” were both products of his prophetic mind.
In honour of his life I’m posting two clips from my 2005 film “McLuhan Way: In Search of Truth”, which explored the frequently hidden but fundamental role of faith in McLuhan’s life. As I noted in my film back in 2005, in our age with its great explosion of electric media, we can often waver between obsessive desires for connection and perhaps, even greater loneliness. McLuhan offered us reflections of our time and pictures of the new human landscape. At its heart it was a hopeful vision that said: “We might be able to control the enormous change that was happening to us”.
Faith and Perception
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