Political Democracy is Finished (Marshall McLuhan)

You’ll notice that political governance has become increasingly impossible. The destruction of representative democracy became evident every since Barack Obama came into office and Mitch McConnell stated his goal for the next four years was to keep Obama from getting re-elected. Sure enough Obama was reduced to trying to govern through presidential edict.

Donald Trump demonstrates little of no passion for governing through the usual methods, has almost no interest in working with Congress. We would like to think the elected representatives in the Senate and House will have more impact under future presidents.

Marshall McLuhan’s statement below—made in a Playboy interview from 1969—argues that the electronic environment, “the new tribal society,” brings an end to “political democracy as we know it.”

By the way, did you notice newsman Bob Schieffer’s book “Overload”? He discusses the overwhelming impact of the new media environment on our understanding of the daily news. Haven’t read the book. I wonder if the name McLuhan ever enters into the discussion. Bob, a little late to the party, but he did pick a good subject.

Political Democracy as we know it is finished

(Marshall McLuhan in 1969 Playboy interview)

Playboy: If personal freedom will still exist—although restriced by certain consensual taboos—in this new tribal world, what about the political system most closely associated with individual freedom: democracy. Will it, too, survive the transition to your global village?

McLuhan: No, it will not. The day of presidential democracy as we know it today is finished. Let me stress again that individual freedom will not be submerged in the new tribal society but it will certainly assume different and more complex dimensions. The ballot box, for example, is the product of literate Western culture—a hot box in a cool world—and thus obsolescent. The tribal will is consensually expressed through the simultaneous interplay of all members of a community that is deeply interrelated and involved, and thus would consider the casting of a “private” ballot in a shrouded polling booth, a ludicrous anachronism. The TV networks computers by “projecting” a victor in a Presidential race while the polls are still open, have already rendered the traditional electoral process obsolescent.