Shwa

But you know it is a message right, you just don't know the contents. The medium IS the message after all. So you unfold and, voila! What is the first thing you see?

McLuhan & Frye should be compulsory reads in high schools. They are that important.

It's an interesting little book that is worth the read in order to gain a better etic perspective of some of the idealist views on the form of capitalism in operation in the mid-18th century. Naturally you'll want to read 'Das Kapital' which is also in the public domain I believe.

Well at least Lowes is standing up for all those persecuted Christians in America. The ones who suffer under the "the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values." Lowe’s pulls ads from TV show about U.S. Muslims Florida Family Association - persecuted to the teeth

As this passage indicates. Willingness is just a barrier though, always has been. But note that I have edited the product of your consciousness to suite my purpose and this required no willingness at all on your part. All of which can make for a dumbed down society on the first EMP.

Our system of democracy is based on choice. That is, I have the franchise, but there is no compelling reason - like a law - for me to exercise it; and, if I do, to exercise it as I see fit. This is the element of design that over rides all other assumptions. So I can choose not to choose and this fact has been indicated in every single election held in Canada. Ethics is all about choice. Pretty much, but I am not sure "happy" is the correct term. Perhaps satisfied that the choice they make is as effective as it will ever be and thus, for some of those that choose not to participate, a sense of acceptance of the status quo. No, it is always relative. Sure we do, but we also have much better ways of accessing or addressing the government which reveals so much more than was possible before. There is more specificity, which can lead to the appearance of complexity, but appearances aren't always everything. If I hand you a folded telegram, it is clearly a message from another. But what does it say? In 'The Gutenberg Galaxy' written two years before 'Understanding Media' McLuhan makes a clear and convincing comparative analogy between the periods in which the print and electronic ages arose. The effects of each had similar outcomes on the societies of their days and are worth noting. Like disturbances on the status quo. Then I shudder when the day comes when a corporation can immerse me in the goose-bump experience of a warm sunbeam coming through a window on a cold winter's day. It will be one hellva way to sell a Coke. Don't we already though? Our individual ability to correspond with another, with governments and institutions, are already over-loading the latter's ability to respond according to their own rules. It is amazing to see how much the simple email has replaced such correspondence or the ability to create and message those others compared to 30 years ago. And not just for urbanites either, this phenomenon is extended to rural and remote areas. A prospector can communicate real time from the remotest places on earth. "And now I will finalize my input by clicking the 'post' button." Me too! Except I'll click the "Add Reply" button since my medium is more accurate than yours.

It has nothing to do with Stoicism, where one tries to free themselves from one's own emotions. And I am not apathetic, far from it. This is much different from me being responsible for how other's feel, which is one of the most insidious and persistent delusions in society usually expressed as 'made me feel.' I can't make anyone feel anything and I am not responsible for what they do feel.

This is one the aspects I am getting at, i.e.the smartphone, that now allows TV, video, text, pictures and direct communications, in a small, mobile device and hints at an immersive, participatory experience. We often think of 'virtual reality' in terms of fiction, but we are seeing devices that allow us to construct virtual realities in a very realistic way, of almost being there.

It is. This is one of the reasons that MLW is attractive despite the distractions of the loons on the fringe.

Well, I don't believe I can make anyone feel anything and, that being said, I am not responsible for how they feel when they do feel something. Alas, we have discovered that even olpfan1 feels joy so no harm, no foul.

Perhaps it is more a matter of not having the same sort of character perceptive abilities that you do, according to, "you can easily tell when he was lying during the election." I presume you are speaking only for yourself and are not ascribing your abilities upon the entire population. That being said, then it is possible that quite a few of them "fell for his lies" in the sense that they believed what he was saying at the time and voted for it. Now I don't believe that "most" people in Toronto are ideological, selfish, ignorant of gullible, but I do believe that with his track record over the past year, Mayor Ford would have a very tough time being re-elected if an election were held today.

BWAAAAA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!! :lol: :lol:

Tsk, tsk, tsk, cybercoma, you are ignoring what you had said in another thread about that poster being a troll. Don't feed the trolls! Public service growth far outstrips population rise, notes show The Harper Government ballooned the public service so they could slash it and look heroic. The sort of cartoon politics that appeals to the low-grade intellect of the Canadian fringe right who only have the capacity to understand politics in terms of slogans.

I think this is the sort of 'creepy reality' that Caplan is referring to, except on a much smaller scale of course, and that is the construction of the straw man and subsequent embodiment of fear and hatred of the alternatives, whatever their form. It is pretty flimsy construct and could indicate a lack of intellectual capacity on behalf of the poster to conceptualize and rationally discuss abstract ideas. Instead of abstraction, all we have is the familiar distraction. How dishonest of you TimG, it makes you out to look like an ineffectual fool. Gerald Caplan and David Frum, two individuals who routinely put their intellectual and experiencial credentials on the line practically everyday, but are now reduced "vacuous analysis emanating from the left wing" by an anonymous poster on an Internet message board. This is more of the flimsy straw man building of course. The problem here TimG is that I doubt your credentials stack up against theirs in any sort of relative capacity and the reason I say this is because: No where in the OP or linked article is there any hint that this is "a trait unique to conservatives." In fact, Caplan writes, "Of course the Republicans have no monopoly on inventing imaginary new worlds" Note Caplan's use of the phrase, 'of course' generally used to denote an obvious and well known notion. So, TimG, you either didn't read the article and assumed it's content, which makes you out to appear like an ineffectual fool, or you willfully ignored Caplan's 'of course' whichs makes you out to appear like an ineffectual fool. Or it may have been any number of reasons in between, with the ultimate result being you look like... etc. Of course, any rational person can pick up on your limp effort at creating distracting strawmen, which is one of those problems with extreme right wing conservatism hinted at by Caplan. It's creepy. And self-professed-libertarian or not, you fit right in.