March 1969-- Playboy interview with Marshall McLuhan
McLUHAN: The Gutenberg galaxy is being replaced by the constellation of Marconi.
PLAYBOY: You've discussed the constellation in general terms, but what precisely are the electric media that you contend have supplanted the mechanical technology?
McLUHAN: The electric media are the telegraph, radio, films, telephone, computer and television, all of which have not only extended a single sense of function as the old mechanical media did-- i.e. the wheel as an extension of the foot, clothing a an extension of the skin, the phonetic alphabet as an extension of the eye-- but have enhanced and externalized out entire central nervous systems, thus transforming all aspects of our social and psychic existences. The use of the electronic media constitutes a break boundary between fragmented Gutenberg man and integral man, just as phonetic literacy was a break between oral-tribal man and visual man.
Donald Trump's disinterest in print-era structures, including the Constitution, a print document at the heart of the American Republic, makes him an iconoclast and president at the same time. But for how long? He passes up the hallowed document for the latest breaking news from Breitbart or Fox News. Donald's media-dominated worldview announces it's a new world out there baby-- and only the fast survive. Reality changes, new cycles shrink by the day. Today's story disappears before tomorrow, evaporates faster than a Snapchat posting. Somehow we cannot see this world. The electronic world is all around us. We cannot perceive the electronic world, McLuhan states, much like a fish cannot detect the water all around.
Trump as an integral, electronic man-- confident in his own judgement, has shown little respect for the state apparatus-- the bureaucracies with initials like CIA, FBI, NSA-- that are carryovers from the print era. Trump has soundly rejected the expertise of the experts. Those geniuses got us into a mess in Iraq. I don't need no friggin alphabets to tell me what to think... said Trump. He declared war on his opponents-- Low Energy Jeb, Lyin' Ted, Little Marco and Crooked Hillary-- and won. Nobody came up with a single nickname for Donald Trump. Maybe we should call him Electron Don--
Guglielmo Marconi invented the telegraph around 1890 and started us down the electronic path. McLuhan explains, "The age of print, which held sway from approximately 1500 to 1900, had its obituary tapped out by the telegraph, the first of the new electric media."
Donald Trump tapping out his tweets is very reminiscent of Marconi tapping on his telegraph. Trump may be the best marketer, the best brander and the best Madison Ave marketing man to come down the chute. His mastery of the universe of instantaneous, global communication separates him from the competitors but creates a great sense of anxiety. His name is on everybody's lips. Trump is so ubiquitous that he has become the medium, more important than any message. His mere existence dwarfs the policies, malleable beliefs, and ever-changing, tweeted-out opinions.
Trump has Mafia Don tendencies. He placed Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner around the table with Angela Merkel, like his kids like were equals to a world leader. Family above everything. La Cosa Nostra...Angela Merkel, sitting on those White House stuffed chairs for a photo op, asked him, "Should we shake hands?" Donald ignored her question. Kind of boorish to ignore a lady. The photographers kept firing away with their cameras. Maybe he was right? Maybe the two leaders shaking hands would make for an awkward pose...
Donald Trump is the master of imagery. He, more than all the rest, understands that politics is no longer policy, but political imagery. The electronic world is a fast-moving game; brings us all closer together while pushing us into our separate tribal communities-- creating "a crisis of identity," the likes we have not seen since Gutenberg in 1450.
Hang on to your hats, and your cellphones.
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