A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

Why must Western man push into his ever-increasing unconscious all the effects of all his own artefacts and technologies? Speed-up of information as the new form of transactions has stretched the unconscious all the way into present consciousness… Conscious and unconscious reverse roles. We are now conscious and are compelled to use the unconscious as a new kind of consciousness. We call this new form by various names: “breakthrough,” “intuition,” “insight,” “pattern recognition.”
“Medium Meaning Message” (1974), p 29
Year: 1974
Chapter: Consciousness
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan